IndyCar: Danica Patrick Indianapolis 500 deal is set

By Asher Fair | Feb 12, 2018

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - MAY 29: Danica Patrick, driver of the #7 Team GoDaddy Dallara Honda, races during the IZOD IndyCar Series Indianapolis 500 Mile Race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 29, 2011 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images) /

Danica Patrick’s Indianapolis 500 deal is set, but the IndyCar team she will be driving for in the race has not yet been publicly named.

Danica Patrick, 35, is set to make her final NASCAR Cup Series start this Sunday, February 18th in the 60th annual Daytona 500 driving the #7 Chevrolet for Premium Motorsports. After that, she has one more race left in her professional racing career.

That one race is set to be the 102nd running of the Indianapolis 500 at the end of May. Patrick, who drove full-time in IndyCar for seven seasons, has not driven in this race or in any IndyCar race since back in the 2011 season.

While there was speculation that she may not end up driving in this year’s “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” to wrap up her professional racing career since she had announced her intent to drive in the race two days before the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway in mid-November and no deal had come together even months after this announcement, GoDaddy coming on board as her sponsor made it likely that she would indeed end up driving in the race.

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Now, she has announced that she does have a deal set up to drive in this year’s Indianapolis 500. However, details about this deal have not yet been released to the public, so the team for which she is set to drive in the race is still unknown. Releasing this information to the public is not a priority for her at this point.

The three teams that emerged as Patrick’s three most likely potential options to drive for in the Indianapolis 500 are Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, Ed Carpenter Racing and Harding Racing. There were reports over the weekend that Patrick and Ed Carpenter Racing could be close to reaching a deal, but nothing was confirmed.

Here is what Patrick had to say about the matter, according to IndyCar.com.

"“I just needed to make sure it (the deal) was done. The rest I don’t really care about…Obviously, the start of this (NASCAR) season didn’t happen any different than last season did, where I showed up and I hadn’t been in the car since Homestead (the 2017 season finale). It’s no different than that.But Indy is obviously totally different. We’ll do something a little more substantial for the announcement and the unveil.”"

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Which team will Danica Patrick drive for in the Indianapolis 500 this May? That announcement should be made in the very near future. Be sure to watch the race on Sunday, May 27th. It is set to be broadcast live on ABC starting at 11:00 am ET.