NASCAR: Was Danica Patrick’s Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500 announcement a publicity stunt?

By Asher Fair | Dec 19, 2017

HOMESTEAD, FL - NOVEMBER 17: Danica Patrick, driver of the #10 Aspen Dental Ford, stands on the grid during qualifying for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Championship Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 17, 2017 in Homestead, Florida. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images) /

With still nothing confirmed as far as Danica Patrick’s rides in the 2018 Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500 go, was this whole thing possibly just a publicity stunt?

On the Friday before the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida, Danica Patrick announced that her full-time career in the sport would no longer continue beyond the end of the season, ending a five-year run with Stewart-Haas Racing as the driver of the #10 car, which was Chevrolet-powered for the first four seasons and Ford-powered in 2017.

However, the 35-year-old also announced that she would be driving in two more races, not including the 2017 season finale, before actually officially making her retirement from racing official.

Patrick announced that she would be driving in the 2018 Daytona 500 in the NASCAR Cup Series in addition to the 2018 Indianapolis 500 in IndyCar, which would mark her first start in IndyCar since her seven-year full-time career in the sport ended back in 2011.

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However, what Patrick failed to mention is which team or teams she would be driving for in those two races. She failed to mention those details because there were no details; nothing was lined up with any team for either race yet at that point.

Here we are over one month after she made that announcement, and there has still not yet been anything confirmed as far as which teams she will be driving for in those races.

In fact, talks with Chip Ganassi Racing, which was the team that was initially seen as her most likely option for both of those races since they are one of two teams with teams in both the Cup Series and IndyCar, have halted.

With 15-time reigning Most Popular Driver Award winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. retiring in addition to Patrick and possibly Matt Kenseth, there is no doubt that NASCAR’s popularity is dropping, especially since other drivers such as Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle have also recently retired. There is also no doubt that racing in general is not as popular as it once was.

So is there a chance that Patrick’s announcement was a publicity stunt that was made to boost ticket sales and her landing a ride was supposed to be a likely but far from guaranteed result of her announcement? There’s always a chance.

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I personally do not think that her announcement was meant as a publicity stunt. I think there has always been something in the works for her. However, if Danica Patrick ends up not driving in the 2018 Daytona 500 or the Indianapolis 500, this will definitely raise some eyebrows, because whether it was meant as one or it wasn’t, it will have essentially served as one.