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Danica Patrick to host 2018 ESPY Awards

By Asher Fair

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 22: American Racing Driver Danica Patrick (L) is interviewed by host Jimmy Fallon during her visit to "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" at Rockefeller Center on May 22, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for NBC)
NEW YORK, NY - MAY 22: American Racing Driver Danica Patrick (L) is interviewed by host Jimmy Fallon during her visit to "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" at Rockefeller Center on May 22, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for NBC) /
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Former NASCAR driver and IndyCar driver Danica Patrick is set to host the ESPY Awards, ESPN’s big annual awards event, this summer.

Former NASCAR driver and IndyCar driver Danica Patrick, 36, is set to host the ESPY (Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly) Awards, which is ESPN’s big annual award show that recognizes several of the best teams, athletes and moments in sports from the previous year.

This year’s ESPY Awards is the 26th annual edition of the show, and it is set to take place on Wednesday, July 18, 2018 at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California. It is set to be broadcast live at 8:00 p.m. ET on that date.

Here is the announcement from the official ESPYS Twitter page regarding Patrick being this year’s host of the show.

The nominations for this year’s ESPY Awards will likely be revealed in June. A total of 33 competitive awards were awarded to nominees last year, and six honorary awards were given out.

There has, however, been one announcement already made pertaining to the 2018 ESPY Awards. The survivors of the Larry Nassar sexual assault scandal, the largest sexual assault scandal in sports history, are set to receive the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.

These survivors, of which there are more than 260, include five of the gymnasts who have represented the United States of America in one or both of the most recent two Summer Olympics in London, England in 2012 and in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2016. These five gymnasts are McKayla Maroney (2012), Jordyn Wieber (2012), Simone Biles (2016), Gabby Douglas (2012 and 2016) and Aly Raisman (2012 and 2016).

Patrick, who is set to become the first ever female host of the ESPY Awards, drove full-time in IndyCar from the 2005 to the 2011 season. She won one race in Japan in 2008, and she finished as high as fifth place in the championship and third in the Indianapolis 500 before leaving the sport for NASCAR after the 2011 season came to an end.

More from Danica Patrick

Patrick drove full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in the 2012 season before driving full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series from the 2013 season to the 2017 season. She finished as high as sixth place in an individual race in Atlanta in 2014, 24th in the championship in the 2015 season and the 2016 season, and eighth in the Daytona 500 in 2013 before leaving the sport.

She made her final NASCAR Cup Series start in this year’s Daytona 500, and she is set to return to IndyCar this Sunday for her final IndyCar race and her final race as a professional race car driver in the Indy 500.

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Tune in to Danica Patrick’s final race as a professional driver this Sunday, May 27. That race, the Indianapolis 500, is set to be broadcast live from Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana starting at 11:00 a.m. ET on that date. Also be sure to tune in to ABC for the ESPY Awards on Wednesday, July 18 at 8:00 p.m. ET.

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