NASCAR: Five possible replacement candidates for Danica Patrick in 2018

Asher Fair

DARLINGTON, SC - SEPTEMBER 01: Danica Patrick, driver of the #10 Ford Credit Ford, practices for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Bojangles' Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on September 1, 2017 in Darlington, South Carolina. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images)

DARLINGTON, SC – SEPTEMBER 01: Danica Patrick, driver of the #10 Ford Credit Ford (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images)

Danica Patrick announced that she will be leaving Stewart-Haas Racing following the conclusion of the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series season. Here are five possible replacements to drive her car in 2018.

When Danica Patrick’s NASCAR Cup Series career as a full-time driver with Stewart-Haas Racing began back in 2013, she had lots of potential. She showed it right away by taking the pole for the Daytona 500, and she went on to finish in 8th place.

However, since then, things have been all downhill. In the 169 races since then, she has no poles and has only bettered that 8th place finish three times, with her career-high finish being only a 6th place finish at Atlanta in 2014. Over the past 90 races, she has only one top 10 finish, that being just a 10th place effort at Dover earlier this season.

She is driving for Stewart-Haas Racing, one of the sport’s top teams, and failing to deliver decent results. Given the fact that she has simply not delivered as well as the fact that she has had recent sponsorship issues, she announced that she is leaving Stewart-Haas Racing after the end of the 2017 season.

With her leaving being a sure thing and no longer just pure speculation, here are the five drivers with the best chance to replace her in the #10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford in 2018.

Aric Almirola

Aric Almirola, 33, began his NASCAR Cup Series career began back in 2007. In 234 career races, Almirola has racked up one win at Daytona in 2014, 10 top 5 finishes and 29 top 10 finishes. So far this season, he has finished as high as 4th place twice at the Daytona 500 and at Talladega.

Also, Almirola still sits in 30th place in the championship standings despite the fact that he missed seven races with a back injury he suffered in a crash at Kansas, which actually involved Danica Patrick. His one other top 10 finish this season was a 9th place finish at Richmond.

Those statistics may not exactly warrant him getting a ride with a top-tier team such as Stewart-Haas Racing when there are plenty of other viable candidates to take the seat of Danica Patrick’s #10 Ford. However, Almirola has never had the chance to drive for a great team, so of course he doesn’t have Jimmie Johnson-like career numbers.

While Almirola has never had the opportunity to drive full-time for a top-tier team like Stewart-Haas Racing, now is as perfect a time as any for him to get that chance with Smithfield, the current primary sponsor on his #43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford, leaving Richard Petty Motorsports for Stewart-Haas Racing next season.

With Almirola leaving Richard Petty Motorsports after this season as well, he is definitely a viable candidate to replace Patrick in the #10 Ford.

Kyle Larson

Kyle Larson, 25, went from being NASCAR’s “next big thing” to being a legitimate championship contender, and he is driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, which is just a two-car team. While he has said that he wants to stay with the team, there are no guarantees, and certainly coming to the four-car Stewart-Haas Racing team could potentially play to his advantage in the long run.

As the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Larson has certainly had a great 2017 season, with only Martin Truex Jr. winning as many races as he did in the regular season (four), which would lead one to think that “it ain’t broke.” But it hasn’t all been great for him throughout his career. In his first two seasons with the team, he didn’t even make the playoffs, and it took until his third season for him to finally win a race.

This season, he has finally starting to show flashes of the talent that could make him NASCAR’s next superstar, and moving to a larger team could be the best move for him to continue to exploit that talent. When Tony Stewart, co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, was asked a few months ago about why Kyle Larson was not driving for him, here was his reply.

I would love to have him. You need to ask him that question
— Tony Stewart (@TonyStewart) June 19, 2017

While not likely, if Larson does end up leaving Chip Ganassi Racing at the end of the season, you can bet that Tony Stewart will do whatever he can to get him to fill a vacant seat for Stewart-Haas Racing, with the #10 car being the only guaranteed seat available.

Kasey Kahne

Kasey Kahne, 37, is like Danica Patrick in that he is driving for one of the top teams in the sport in Hendrick Motorsports, but he has not performed on a high level as of late, as he has just one top 10 finish in the championship standings since he finished in 10th way back in 2009. However, he did win this year’s Brickyard 400 to secure himself a spot in the playoffs for the first time since 2014.

The thing is, Kahne, unlike Patrick, has actually performed well over the course of his career, and he has 18 career Cup Series wins to show for it. At 37 years old, a change of scenery to another top-tier team like Stewart-Haas Racing may be the only option to see if he can, in fact, get his career back on the right track.

GreatClips, Kahne’s primary sponsor, announced that they would end their partnership with the team following this season, and one of his other sponsors, Farmer’s Insurance, also announced that they would not renew their deal with the team.

So while Kahne was under contract with Hendrick Motorsports through 2018, the team announced that they were letting him go at the end of the season, and they ended up signing William Byron to take his seat, leaving Kahne without a full-time ride in 2018.

Perhaps the four-car Stewart-Haas Racing team would give Kahne a chance to get his career back on the right track, especially with a seat now officially open. After all, when he first came to the four-car Hendrick Motorsports team in 2012 in his ninth career season, he had his best career season by far, finishing in a career-high 4th place in the standings. Maybe he can replicate that success by coming to Stewart-Haas Racing to drive the #10 Ford.

Matt Kenseth

Over the course of his 18-year full-time NASCAR Cup Series career, Matt Kenseth has been about as consistent as they come. To go along with his championship in 2003, he also has six other finishes in the top 5 in the championship standings and four more in the top 10.

However, after 2017, his fifth season with Joe Gibbs Racing, Kenseth will not be returning to the team. 21-year-old Furniture Row Racing rookie Erik Jones will be taking his seat in the #20 Toyota next season.

At 45 years of age, retirement is definitely on the table for Kenseth, but he may not be interested in calling it a career just yet.

"“I’m not really worried about it but as of today, I do not have a job for next year. Hope to still be racing.”"

However, he may have to, as there has been no news of him securing a full-time ride for next season yet. But the opening of Danica Patrick’s seat in the #10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford may make getting signed a much better possibility for Kenseth.

While he did not win a single race in the 2017 regular season, Kenseth hasn’t really declined in production; after all, he just qualified for the playoffs for the eighth consecutive season and has missed the playoffs just once since they began back in 2004.

Consider this. Danica Patrick currently drives the #10 car, and she has raced in 180 races and has still never finished in the top 5. Meanwhile, Matt Kenseth has finished in the top 5 in 178 races, a total that is nearly equal to the total of career races Patrick has driven.

Sure, Kenseth may be the oldest full-time driver in the field, but he still wants to race, and he can certainly still drive a race car. And the skillset he would bring to Stewart-Haas Racing would certainly improve the quality of driving coming from the #10 car, even as a 45-year-old.

Cole Custer

Cole Custer, 19, certainly has to be on Stewart-Haas Racing’s radar when it comes to replacing Danica Patrick in the #10 Ford. The teenaged Xfinity Series rookie has gotten better over the past two seasons driving in both the Truck and Xfinity Series, and he may just have what it takes to be a future star in the Cup Series.

Last season in his first full-time season in either of NASCAR’s two lower series, Custer drove the #00 Chevrolet in the Truck Series for JR Motorsports. He racked up 14 top 10 finishes, of which five were top 5 finishes, en route to a 10th place finish in the final championship standings.