JR Motorsports

Speedco joins the No. 88 late model team and 21-year-old driver Josh Berry. Berry was recently named the 2011 recipient of the Speed51.com / AR Bodies Late Model Most Popular Driver award, a competition which encompassed multiple late model drivers across the United States and Canada. His on-track performance last year netted one win, nine top fives, and 16 top-10 finishes.

Speedco is also returning for its second season sponsoring L.W. Miller in the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour. In addition to his driving duties, Miller will serve as crew chief and team manager for the No. 88 late model team this season.

“Having Speedco join JR Motorsports in support of all our racing programs is a privilege,” Kelley Earnhardt said. “Our company is greatly appreciative of their involvement. Speedco has been a phenomenal supporter of local racing, and now we’re proud to showcase their brand at both the local and national level.”

In the NASCAR Nationwide Series, Speedco receives b-post placement on the No. 5, 7 and 88 Chevrolets. The cars will be piloted by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick and Cole Whitt, respectively. Patrick and Whitt are competing for the series championship, while Earnhardt Jr. will race sporadically throughout the season starting at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 25.

“I am thankful for the opportunity to continue working with Speedco and look forward to building a relationship with everyone at JR Motorsports and our Speedco late model driver Josh Berry,” said Darin Odle, director of motorsports for Speedco. “I especially want to thank my good friend, L.W. Miller, for helping put our program together for 2012.”

ABOUT SPEEDCO

Speedco Truck Lube and Tire is a provider of on-highway truck lubrication and routine tire services to commercial truck owner-operators and fleets. Speedco is owned by Bridgestone Bandag, LLC, which has an 87.5 percent interest in Speedco, Inc. Bridgestone Bandag, LLC is part of Bridgestone Bandag Tire Solutions (BBTS), an operating unit of Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, LLC. BBTS provides new Bridgestone, Firestone and Dayton brand medium and heavy duty truck tires, and Bandag brand retreading materials and equipment to more than 2,500 dealers, truck stops and franchised Bandag retreaders throughout the U.S. and Canada.

ABOUT JR MOTORSPORTS:

Based in Mooresville, N.C., JR Motorsports is the management company and racing operation for Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR’s nine-time Most Popular Driver and winner of more than 40 NASCAR-sanctioned races. JR Motorsports competes in multiple racing divisions, including the NASCAR Nationwide Series where the team owns 10 victories. To learn more about the organization and its stable of drivers which include Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick and Cole Whitt, visit www.JRMracing.com. The JR Motorsports facility also houses the JR Nation retail store, Hammerhead Entertainment and JRM Licensing.

- JR Motorsports Press Release

Stewart-Haas Racing Logo

Alliance Provides Danica Patrick and No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet Guaranteed Starting Spot in 54^th Annual Daytona 500

KANNAPOLIS, N.C., (Jan. 31, 2012) – Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) has entered into a collaborative partnership with Tommy Baldwin Racing (TBR) where TBR will field the No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet Impala for all 10 of Danica Patrick’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races in 2012.

The alliance guarantees a starting spot for Patrick in her Sprint Cup debut – the 54^th annual Daytona 500 on Feb. 26 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.

TBR’s No. 36 car, which finished the 2011 season 33^rd in points, becomes the No. 10 for 2012. For the 26 races where Patrick is not scheduled to drive, David Reutimann will pilot the No. 10 car. TBR has sponsorship inventory available for these 26 races.

“Tommy Baldwin Racing has proven to be a very strong organization and it’s a good fit with Stewart-Haas Racing,” said Matt Borland, vice president of competition, SHR. “It’s a Chevrolet team led by a racer who knows every inch of a racecar. That kind of technical expertise, along with a company mindset that is similar to ours, provides the ideal environment for Danica to learn and succeed.”

TBR was formed in 2009 and has matured from a single-car team to one that in 2012 will field two Sprint Cup entries and a NASCAR Nationwide Series entry. TBR is owned by Tommy Baldwin, who as a crew chief secured five victories, including the 2002 Daytona 500 with driver Ward Burton.

“We’re very proud of what we’ve established at Tommy Baldwin Racing, and the opportunity to partner with Stewart-Haas Racing and aid in the development of Danica Patrick is a testament to all the hard work we’ve put in over the years,” Baldwin said. “Danica will have a great teammate in Dave Blaney, who has been instrumental in getting our race team to where it is today. And with David Reutimann driving the No. 10 car in the races where Danica is not, the team will remain in a strong and competitive position throughout the year.”

The agreement means TBR will also work with GoDaddy.com, the world’s largest Web hosting provider and Patrick’s longtime sponsor.

“Go Daddy is a first-rate sponsor,” Baldwin added. “Look how they’ve supported Danica over the last six years. Go Daddy is a sponsor that knows how to get things done right.”

Baldwin will maintain a hands-on presence with the No. 10 car and will work closely with Greg Zipadelli, who serves as SHR’s director of competition. Baldwin and Zipadelli have similar backgrounds, as both grew up in the Northeast – Baldwin in Bellport, N.Y., and Zipadelli in Berlin, Conn. – and made a name for themselves as successful crew chiefs within the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour before rising up the ranks as crew chiefs in the elite Sprint Cup Series.

“Working with Tommy will be like old times,” Zipadelli said. “We both grew up together and competed against each other in Modifieds and we did the same thing when we got to Sprint Cup. To finally be able to work with each other and help Danica Patrick make a successful transition from Indy cars to stock cars is a challenge we’re both looking forward to.

“Partnering with Tommy and his team provides Danica with the foundation she needs to succeed. With a guaranteed starting spot, we can go into each weekend and simply learn. It’s all about getting her comfortable in the car, and with the variety of tracks she’s running, seat time will be incredibly valuable. A guaranteed spot in the race ensures that she’ll have the opportunity to make as many laps as possible.”

Patrick’s 10-race Sprint Cup schedule is as follows: 

• ·         Feb. 26:     Daytona 500
• ·         May 12:     Darlington (S.C.) Raceway
• ·         May 27:     Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway
• ·         Aug. 25:     Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway
• ·         Sept. 2:      Atlanta Motor Speedway
• ·         Sept. 16:    Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill.
• ·         Sept. 30:    Dover (Del.) International Speedway
• ·         Nov. 4:      Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth
• ·         Nov. 11:    Phoenix International Raceway

One more race is still to be determined, with the plan being to assess Patrick’s development as the season progresses and then choose the remaining venue based on need and competitive reasoning.

“Our goal with Danica’s schedule is to try and maximize her 10 races so that she’s as prepared as she can possibly be for a full-time Sprint Cup schedule in 2013,” said Stewart, co-owner of SHR with Gene Haas, founder of Haas Automation – the largest machine tool builder in the western world. “There are short tracks, intermediate 1.5-mile ovals, and some unique tracks like Darlington and Phoenix. The point is to expose her to as many challenges as possible so that she’ll know what to expect in 2013.”

About Stewart-Haas Racing:

Stewart-Haas Racing is the title-winning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team co-owned by three-time Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart and Gene Haas, founder of Haas Automation – the largest CNC machine tool builder in the western world. The team fields two entries in the elite Sprint Cup Series – the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet Impala for Stewart and the No. 39 U.S. Army/Quicken Loans Chevrolet Impala for 2008 Daytona 500 winner Ryan Newman. Based in Kannapolis, N.C., Stewart-Haas Racing operates out of a 140,000-square-foot facility with more than 160 employees. For more information, please visit us on the Web atwww.StewartHaasRacing.com, on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/StewartHaasRacing and on Twitter @StewartHaasRcng.

About Tommy Baldwin Racing:

Veteran NASCAR Sprint Cup Series crew chief Tommy Baldwin formed Tommy Baldwin Racing (TBR) in 2009, where he saw opportunity amid a declining economy. With a stringent budget and a small, but talented, group of team members, Baldwin built a Sprint Cup team from humble beginnings to one that now competes fulltime and is a top-35 mainstay in the series’ owner point standings. The Mooresville, N.C.-based team will field two Sprint Cup entries in 2012 – the No. 10 Chevrolet Impala for Danica Patrick and David Reutimann, and the No. 36 Chevrolet Impala for Dave Blaney – along with one NASCAR Nationwide Series entry for Ryan Blaney via the No. 36 SealWrap Repair Chevrolet Impala. For more information, please visit us on the Web atwww.TommyBaldwinRacing.com, on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/TBR.HBR and on Twitter @TBR_Racing.

About Go Daddy:
Go Daddy is the world’s largest domain name provider, Web hosting provider and new SSL provider, focused on helping small businesses grow larger. Go Daddy provides dozens of cloud-based services and is the largest worldwide mass-market hosting provider by annual revenue according to Tier1 Research (Mass-Market Hosting Report-Winter 2011) and is the No. 1 provider of net-new SSL certificates for 2011, according to the Netcraft, LTD Secure Server Survey. To learn more about the company, visit www.GoDaddy.com/PR.

Source: True Speed Communication for Stewart-Haas Racing, Press Release

A general view of the Stewart-Haas Racing media day during the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Media Tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway on Jan. 23 in Concord, N.C. - Photo Credit: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images for NASCAR

“From Columbus, Indiana, the three-time and reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, the co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, entering his 14th year on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, driver of the No. 14 Office Depot / Mobil 1 Chevrolet Impala, Tony Stewart.

“From South Bend, Indiana, a winner of 15 races and 49 poles in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, entering his 11th full year of Sprint Cup racing, driver of the No. 39 U.S. Army / Quicken Loans Chevrolet Impala, Ryan Newman.

“From Roscoe, Illinois, the first woman to win a Major League open wheel race in a North American series with her win in the IZOD IndyCar Series, Indy Japan 300 at the twin ring oval in Japan, entering her first year in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with a ten race schedule, driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy.Com Chevrolet Impala, Danica Patrick.

“Now their crew chiefs.  From Spartanburg, South Carolina, the crew chief for Tony Stewart, the No. 14 Office Depot, / Mobil 1 team, Steve Addington.

“From Daytona Beach, Florida, the crew chief for Ryan Newman, and the No. 39 U.S. Army / Quicken Loans team, Tony Gibson.

“And from Berlin, Connecticut, the director of competition for Stewart-Haas Racing, and the crew chief for the No. 10 GoDaddy.Com team, Greg Zipadelli.

“The glue that keeps all of this together, from Haslett, Michigan, the vice president of competition for Stewart-Haas Racing, Matt Borland.

“Excellent.  Thank you, everyone.

“Tony Stewart, driver/owner of Stewart-Haas Racing.  We’ve said it once, we’ll say it a lot.  You’re now the three-time and reigning Sprint Cup champion.  First off, how’s the view from the top of the mountain, and more importantly from behind the wheel of that Office Depot / Mobil 1 Chevrolet?”

TONY STEWART:

“I’m scared of heights, so I don’t try to get up too high.  But, no, it’s felt good this winter.  It’s definitely been a short off season, but had a lot of changes, obviously, having Steve Addington on board and having my great friend, Greg Zipadelli back on board. We’re very excited about it.

“It’s been a short off season, but we’re having fun watching the changes of Stewart-Haas Racing and how it’s going to help us be better this year.”

MODERATOR:

“Ryan, you came off another strong chase performance, and a pretty historic day where you led Stewart-Haas Racing to a one-two qualifying effort, and a one-two finish at New Hampshire, and Quicken Loans coming on board and joining the U.S. Army, as well as a host of sponsors, as well as Aspen Dental which was secured over the weekend joining Outback Steakhouse, WIX Filters, Tornados and Haas Automation, how pumped are you for the 2012 season to begin?”

RYAN NEWMAN:

“Really excited.  It’s a great list of sponsors, and obviously to have the U.S. Army back, one of our founding partners with the team at Stewart-Haas, it’s a great feeling.  To have Quicken Loans, and like you said the whole list of them – with Outback Steakhouse, new sponsors to the sport, and then Aspen Dental, new sponsors to our team – just really look forward to having an opportunity to get each and every one of them a shot at victory lane.”

THE MODERATOR:

“Danica, the year that stock car racing takes center stage is finally upon us, and after balancing IndyCars and stock cars last year, it’s all stock cars all the time, including this Memorial Day weekend.  For the first time you’ll be in Charlotte for the Coca Cola 600 instead of Indianapolis for the Indy 500.  So what’s it going to be like for the GoDaddy girl?”

DANICA PATRICK: 

“I don’t know.  You tell me.  I’m very fortunate to be in this position with this team and these people.  I’m very fortunate.  I’ve been wanting to race stock cars full time for a little while here, and it’s happening.

“We’ve added another challenge with the Coke 600 or Coke 6,000 as I’ve been told.  It’s quite long.  So I just want to thank everyone for making it happen at Stewart-Haas, and thank GoDaddy for supporting me the whole way through.  I even have my own GoDaddy microphone.  That’s pretty clever.  So life is good.”

THE MODERATOR:

“We’ll reintroduce the folks behind these drivers, starting off with Steve Addington.  Steve, welcome to Stewart-Haas Racing.  How has the transition been as you sort of rejoin the family that you once knew at JGR?”

STEVE ADDINGTON:

“It’s been awesome.  To come in and work with a group of guys like Tony Gibson has made the transition of just asking me or telling me everything that I need to know and give me the information that I need to get started and where I need to look for stuff.. Matt Borland’s got a great group in the engineering department and those guys have been very, very welcoming in getting me started and seeing where we’re at and see what direction we need to get going.”

THE MODERATOR:

“Tony Gibson, crew chief for Ryan Newman, you’ve been at Stewart-Haas Racing since the beginning.  Can you talk a little about how Stewart-Haas Racing went from a relatively unknown that people really didn’t know what would happen to, to an organization that consistently wins races and contends for a championship and finally won a championship this past year?”

TONY GIBSON:

“I think it’s just being surrounded with good, old fashioned racing people.  You know, Stewart’s just an old redneck guy that loves to race and will drive everything.  Everybody at our place, we just love racing.  We grew together and things happened probably a little faster than most expected.

“But when you put a bunch of guys together that all they want to do is win and perform and run up front, things like that happen, partnered up with Chevrolet and they make things easy too.  They give us all the things we need to improve our race teams and our company.  We have great sponsors.

“So when you put all that in a Bowl, it’s got success written all over it.  Really fortunate to be associated with Stewart-Haas Racing from the beginning and great drivers.  Like I said before, Ryan’s one of those guys you want driving, because he’s going to give you 110% whether you’re two laps down or leading a race by half a lap.  Doesn’t matter, you get the same effort out of him.

“So it’s a privilege to be hooked up with him, and Matt Borland.  I’m looking forward to working with Steve and Greg and Danica, new people in our organization that are going to help us grow and be better.  Already we’ve seen huge gains in our company since they’ve come on board.  Looking forward to it.”

THE MODERATOR: 

“Excellent.  And Greg Zipadelli, you’re reunited with Tony, but in a different way, as the competition director here at Stewart-Haas Racing.  But still not far away from that pit box as Danica’s crew chief for this ten race schedule.”

GREG ZIPADELLI:

“Yeah, it’s a great opportunity for myself.  Next chapter in my life, maybe stepping back a little bit as a crew chief goes.  I was excited to find out I was going to have the opportunity to do ten races and kind of help put this deal together.

“We had a really good test.  I have enjoyed working with Danica.  A good group of guys.  I can’t say enough about the people at Stewart-Haas.  The heart and the passion that every individual that I’ve met that works there is truly amazing.  Very warm welcomes.  Everybody has been very good to work with.

“They have done so much to help me make the transition.  The people in the shop, Tony Gibson and his guys preparing cars for us, Matt Borland in engineering, a phenomenal place.  We’re very, very excited about the future there.”

THE MODERATOR:

“Matt Borland, the vice president of competition wore many hats in 2011, oversaw a lot of change, and also oversaw a lot of success.  How did you manage it all?

MATT BORLAND:

“I think it’s pretty easy.  You look up here and we’ve got three new people up here along with all the people that have been here, each one brings a different talent and experience level to our program.  We’ve got Steve who comes from Penske and Gibbs and a lot of new fresh ideas, things to look at, things to try.

“We’ve got Greg that’s come on board and he’s got new ideas from JGR that are all things we can try and try to make our stuff better than it’s been.

“Danica comes on board, another driver with open wheel background.  So she’s got a lot of new ideas, new thoughts and new ways of thinking about things, and that just helps everybody come up with new ideas, new thoughts, new processes and hopefully out of that we’ll get a lot of wins and a lot of poles.”

THE MODERATOR:

“Well said.  We’ll open it up to questions.”

Q.  I guess sometimes I miss things, but I don’t think I missed this, Danica.  That’s news that you’re running the Coca Cola 600?  Where does that leave the Indy 500?  I assume you won’t try a double.  Is that a difficult decision to race in that event this year?

DANICA PATRICK:

“No, you didn’t miss it.  I’m going to do the Coke 600.  I’m not going to do the Indy 500.  I hope to do it in the future, the Indy 500, that is.  Maybe it will be a double.  But at this point in time after a lot of conversations, it’s just going to be the Coke 600.  It’s going to be a big challenge, but I’m looking forward to it, and especially a hometown like Charlotte for NASCAR.”

Q.  How did you make the decision?

DANICA PATRICK:

“The decision?  Well, it was just something that didn’t work out as far as the business side of things.  It just didn’t work out.  I’m hopeful to do it in the future, but for this year, it just didn’t happen.”

Q.  With the fuel injection system, how does it affect this race strategy?  And, I think you still get your engines from Hendrick Motorsports.  Is there still space left for your own modifications and changes to get ready for the race?

TONY GIBSON:

“As far as the engines we get from Hendrick, they do a fantastic job, first of all, and they have done a great job of getting prepared for the EFI (Electronic Fuel Injection) stuff this year.  They’ve done a lot of testing.  They’ve really kept us involved in it, and we’ve done a lot of stuff with Hendrick Motorsports and Stewart-Haas.

“We get the engines from them.  When they come, we put the headers and transmissions and stuff on it.  But their engine tuners come over in our shops twice a week, three times a week.  So we don’t actually build them, but they keep us in the flow of things.  We’re hands on with it.  They’re very open about it.  They want our ideas and especially from those guys.  Borland on the engineering side making harnesses and stuff for us that go in and sink in with the Hendrick side of it.  They’re very welcome to our ideas.

“So on that side of it, it’s been a great partnership, and pretty smooth so far.”

Q.  Matt, can you talk about the whole development of Stewart-Haas Racing, and people talk about the projects you have going on back there.  Can you talk about how you’ve seen the evolution of Stewart-Haas Racing?

MATT BORLAND:

“Yeah, Gene Haas and Joe Custer started Haas back in 2002.  They put a great program together and when Tony came on board, he added a whole other level of capabilities to the program.  It’s allowed us to get a lot more people, get a lot more    what is the word I’m looking for?  We have a lot more people to do a lot more things to be more specialized at what we’re looking at and refining things.

“I think the biggest thing that’s come about with that is we’re able to dive down into the details of the program.  With the cars the way they are now, there’s not huge gains to be made.  There are small gains to be made in a lot of areas.  So it takes a group of very strong people that can go and try to find all those little things.

“To Tony Gibson’s point, to have a bunch of racers that that’s all they want to do.  They want to race.  They want to beat everybody.  They want to find those little things that gets them that much better than the next team out there.”

Q.  Ryan, your whole team comes back intact.  You have a lot of new sponsors associated with the 39 this year.  Are you in the best position in terms of your career with Stewart-Haas than you’ve ever been before in the last couple of years there?

RYAN NEWMAN:

“From a sponsorship standpoint, without a doubt.  We’re really proud to partner up with these new sponsors.  Like I said in my opening, sponsors that haven’t been a part of NASCAR at all, like Quicken Loans and Outback has a little bit of history.

“But just from our standpoint, when you have great sponsors, you’re allowed to get the great people and do the great things.  Without a doubt, the sponsorship is a big part of that.

“So, yes, from that standpoint, no doubt.  From a team standpoint, it’s great to have all our group back.  We had a great run to get into the Chase.  Our Chase was a bit of a struggle for us as a team.  But those are the things that you get through them, work on them, build them, and make yourself stronger as a team and an organization for the next years.

“Tony can attest to this too, you can win a championship one year, doesn’t mean you’re going to win it the next year.  You have to work really hard.  Other teams, when you win, you build fire and desire within them.  So you have to have that same fire and desire within yourself to go back and do what we did as an organization last year.

Q.  Tony, the spotlight’s going to be bright on your team this year.  Not only are you the defending champion, but with the addition of Danica Patrick and with Ryan, how best is the team able to deal with that?  From the very beginning, there is a lot of attention given to your team.

TONY STEWART:

“Yeah, we’re not worried about that.  It’s a good thing with our partners on board.  It helps us from the marketing side and the sponsorship sides to make sure we’re fulfilling what our partners need.

“When it comes time to being at the racetrack and doing what we do on the track, this group of people up here are really good at focusing on the task at hand.  I think we’re all up for the challenge.  It’s a good way to start the year.  We came off of a great finish to the year last year, and we got a lot of new exciting partners on board this year, and a new teammate that’s going to be fun to work with.  And a teammate that’s always fun to work with over on this side.

“We’re excited.  We’re probably as excited to start the year as I can remember being in a long time.”

Q.  This is a special championship.  What did you do personally to celebrate it?

TONY STEWART:

“Stayed at the shop until the Wednesday of Christmas.  I didn’t really do anything, to be honest.  Like I said, with the addition of Steve and Greg and Danica, we wanted to make sure that we were kind of there to make sure that everybody was getting started off in the right direction.  I wasn’t really there for anything more than moral support.

“These guys are the guys that make it all happen, for sure.  But honestly, I didn’t really do much of anything.  I went and raced a couple of times through the winter here, but for the most part, it’s been business as usual.” 

Q.  Can you assess the different dynamics in the shop with the addition of Danica, and Zippy, and Steve Addington, and then the fact that Tony won the championship last year, the mood of the team and the dynamics in the shop?

MATT BORLAND:

“I think in general, the dynamics are very positive, very excited.  Like Tony was saying, everybody’s looking forward to Daytona, looking forward to a great new season.  As well, there are so many influx of new ideas this year, that we’re able to look at so many different things and find hopefully some more gains that will elevate us even better than we were last year.

“It’s been very positive.  All the people on the team are pumped up and excited.  It’s a great deal right now.”

Q.  Tony, you won your third championship last year, five of 10 Chase races, and in a driver / crew chief relationship that you ended up changing, how much pressure does that put on the guy to your left when he walks in the front door? 

TONY STEWART:

“You’re asking the wrong guy.  You need to ask him.  I feel just fine.”

STEVE ADDINGTON:

“I do too.”

TONY STEWART:

“I think he’s thinking he’s on vacation now.  Just saying.  It’s kind of like what Tony Gibson was saying earlier.  We’re just low key, down to earth racers and hard core racer that’s want to race.  That is the attitude that Steve has coming in here.

“And as far as from my side, I’m not putting any pressure on him.  I’m looking forward to going out and racing again.  We both know there is going to be a period of getting to learn each other, and just little things that we’ll have to get sorted out to where we get into that weekly routine.

“Daytona’s not going to be… that ten day period’s not going to get it done.  It’s going to take more of that.  It’s going to take getting through Phoenix and some of those races to really get in tune with each other.  But he’s been easy to work with so far.

“We’ve been able to work with him directly at Gibbs.  So we kind of know him a little bit.  I think it’s going to be pretty laid back, and we’re going to have a lot of fun.  I don’t think it’s a big stress situation for either one of us right now.”

MODERATOR:

“Steve, do you want to chime in on that as well?”

STEVE ADDINGTON:

“No, look at what the organization did.  One guy’s not going to make the big difference.  I’ve got to keep the communication with him going as far as the race car’s concerned, and having that supporting cast, the people that are around you through the organization makes you successful.  That’s what I’m looking forward to.

“Everybody that I’ve run into or worked with in the organization, I’ve worked with them at some point or beside them at some point that they’ve welcomed me with open arms.  Asking me everything that I need to go racing with them, and that’s it.  You’ve got the supporting cast there that’s going to be successful.”

Q.  Tony, could you explain to fans how life changes and how life doesn’t change after becoming a champion for the first, second, and third time?

TONY STEWART:

“It hasn’t changed at all, honestly.  I think the first time it changes a little bit because you’ve accomplished that goal.  But after the first one, it really doesn’t change your life so much the second and third one.  Like I said, it’s kind of been business as usual.  We’ve enjoyed the whole off season with the team, and it’s been fun being at the shop to see how excited the guys are.  Guys that three years ago had never won a race, and now they’re celebrating their first championship together.

“It’s been fun to be at the shop around those guys and see how excited they are to have Danica come on board and Zippy and Steve.  It’s been fun to watch everybody have fun in the off season.  You’ve got these two guys to the right that are always keeping you on your toes and making it fun, too.

“So we’ve just got a great group of people that have made it fun, and it really hasn’t changed my life any.  Like I said, I probably took less time this off season to go enjoy myself than any other time.  But I’ve had fun doing what I’ve been doing.”

Q.  Tony Gibson, the last 30 years we’ve had two owner/drivers win the championship, Tony and Alan Kulwicki.  You worked with both of those drivers.  Can you talk about what similarities there are between them and what differences there are?

TONY GIBSON:

“I think the differences may be the engineering side of it.  Kulwicki was more like Newman on the engineering side of it.  But he loved the race.  He loved all about racing, and all about winning.  In his heart it was win, and the grass roots of racing whether it was in Wisconsin doing the late model stuff or in a Cup car.

“Stewart has that same desire.  He has in his heart all he wants to do is race.  Every time he’ll text you he’s at a racetrack somewhere racing, and that’s all he wants to do.  So the difference is probably maybe on the schooling.  I don’t know where you went to school at.”

TONY STEWART: 

“High school.”

TONY GIBSON: 

“He went to high school.

“When it comes to strapping the belts down and putting a helmet on and taking the green, it’s all with your desire to win.  Him and Alan, as far as I’m concerned, had the same desire to win and that’s why they’re both champions.

Q.  Tony, will you divide up your time now any differently between the Cup side and the short track team now that you’ve got more people?  You’ve got more people to supervise.  Are you asking more people to supervise to give you more time for your other ventures? 

TONY STEWART:

“No, it’s pretty much business as usual.  We’re adding more to the program, so you want to make sure that you’re keeping that time to make sure that everybody’s where they need to be and making sure that everybody is comfortable with what we’ve got.  So as far as the time that I divide running the short track stuff versus what we’re doing here, it’s pretty much the same balance.”

Q.  Tony, the economy has been down the last couple of years, but it seems to be doing a bit of a rebound.  You guys have been doing well signing on new sponsors.  Can you talk about your efforts signing new sponsors and the economy of your team?

TONY STEWART:

“I’ll be honest, I’m really, really proud of our marketing team.  Mike Verlander has done a great job introducing some new partners in the sport.  I think it’s one thing from day one when we brought Tornados on board with Ryan’s car, and now Quicken Loans and Aspen Dental to bring new partners like this into the sport and introduce them to NASCAR is something that I take a lot of pride in.

“Like I said, it’s our marketing stuff that’s done it.  I can’t take the credit for it, but I’m really proud of them.  It’s been a tough economy, as we know.  But to show these new companies that there is this value in NASCAR is something that we’re proud of.  I think Tornados has had a great experience .  I think it’s been the same way for Quicken so far.

“We finished up the year last year with them, and I think they enjoyed the first trip in the sport.  Looking forward to having Aspen Dental on board.

“I’m really excited about it.  It’s the best position sponsorship-wise that our company has been in, and we still have races to sell.  But it’s the best position that we’ve been in since I partnered up with Gene three years ago.  So we’re really excited about it.

“I think it’s a sign that hopefully things are starting to turn around and work their way back up now.”

Q.  For Tony, Zippy, and Danica, what is a reasonable expectation or goals for this season?  Danica, when you answer, if you could also address the Nationwide Series.

DANICA PATRICK:

“I think that first starting out with the Nationwide stuff, very much it depends on the individual weekend itself.  There are still some tracks that I haven’t raced at before, so probably a little bit different expectations for those.  But for the most part, solid top-10.  Getting into the top-five more consistently through the year would be a goal, and I’d like to get to victory lane.

“As far as the Cup stuff, I think that it would be good if they answered as well on this.  But I’d like to know what I should expect.  But I think that at Daytona, the cars are very fast as you guys can see, and as we saw already at the test.  So I feel good about that race.  I feel good about… I mean, I was lucky enough to get to run with Tony in the Nationwide race last summer, and that went pretty good.  So I feel good about Daytona.

“I think there is a real chance if luck falls our way to perhaps win.  I think that’s a real chance.  I mean, a guy like Trevor Bayne last year showed that.

“So those are the expectations for the first race, but then beyond that.  I don’t know.  Top-20 or so, I guess, would maybe be a good goal.  I feel like longer races are good.  I like long races.  I feel like I learn, I get more comfortable out there and we keep tweaking on the car and making it a little better on each pit stop, so I’m hoping that plays into my favor with the length of these races.”

GREG ZIPADELLI:

“For myself, it’s just good solid days.  Give her as much track time as we can, and support, and just trying to teach her as much as we can about this sport and this series for the following year.”

TONY STEWART:

“I’m excited about it.  From my standpoint, I crashed everything I drove from the Nationwide cars, and it – on the Cup side – it got better obviously.  But looking at it, these ten races for her this year, for me it’s just finishing the races and getting the track time.

“In the short amount of time that I’ve worked with her, she’s so good at processing information and what she learns on the racetrack.  She can explain it to you right away and very accurate.  I think her feedback is excellent.

“Just getting the time on the racetrack and, I guess are from my standpoint, I’m not worried about the finishes at the end of the day.  It’s just finishing the race, getting the laps and getting that experience in the car.  Five hundred mile races are long races, especially in the Cup series when you’re dealing with a 3,400 pound car.  It’s a learning process.

“I think the success at the end of the year won’t be judged by where the finishing position is at the end of the day as much as what she’s taken away from race weekend.  So that’s what my goal is for her.”

THE MODERATOR:

“A couple other story lines that are definitely worth asking these folks in their one –on-one sessions.  Danica Patrick in the Super Bowl.  While the New England Patriots and New York Giants are making a return to the Super Bowl in two weeks, so does Danica.  This will be the eighth straight year GoDaddy has run a Super Bowl ad campaign, and the sixth in which Danica has starred.

“So all told, Danica has appeared in ten GoDaddy Super Bowl ads dating back to 2007, giving her the title of most commercials of any celebrity in the history of the event.

“Not to be lost on television, Tony Stewart spent part of his off season doing a little acting himself.  He made a guest appearance on ABC’s ‘Last Man Standing’ with Tim Allen.  That episode is slated to air Tuesday, Feb. 14 at 8 p.m. Eastern.

“Tony is also running the season opening NASCAR Nationwide Series race.  He’ll be in the No. 33 Oreo 100th anniversary Chevrolet Impala.  He’ll be looking for his fifth straight win in that event, and his seventh in the last eight season opening NASCAR Nationwide Series races at Daytona.

“Again, from a sports business story, I know we’ve touched about it a little bit, in addition to all the sponsors that have returned to Ryan Newman in the No. 39, new to the sport, Quicken Loans, Aspen Dental, Outback Steakhouse coming back to NASCAR, all affiliated with Ryan and that No. 39 team.”

- True Speed Communication for Stewart-Haas Racing, Press Release

Danica Patrick, driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet, speaks with the media during the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Media Tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway on Jan. 23 in Concord, N.C. - Photo Credit: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images for NASCAR

Danica Skipping Indy, Will Run Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway In May

Instead, Patrick revealed during the opening stop of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Media Tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway that she will be behind the wheel of the No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet fielded by Stewart-Haas Racing during the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 27.

“I’ve wanted to race stock cars for a little while here and it’s happening,” Patrick said. “We’ve added another challenge with the Coke 600, or Coke 6,000 as I’ve been told.”

The decision, Patrick said, was mainly a business decision. Patrick has raced in the past seven Indianapolis 500s, earning a best finish of third in 2009 while driving for Andretti Green Racing.

“I hope to do it in the future, the Indy 500 that is. Maybe it’ll be a double,” Patrick said, referring to the Coca-Cola 600 and Indianapolis 500 double that her Sprint Cup team owner Tony Stewart, John Andretti and Robby Gordon have done in the past.

Patrick is scheduled to run up to 10 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events this year for Stewart-Haas Racing in addition to the full NASCAR Nationwide Series schedule with JR Motorsports.

Pressure is On Tony Stewart and Steve Addington in 2012
Members of the media got their first look at the new driver/crew chief combination of Tony Stewart and Steve Addington Monday and the pair already look like they’ve been working together for years.

But still, the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Stewart admits they have a lot to learn about each other.

“We’re just a bunch of low-key, down to Earth racers, hardcore racers that just want to race. That is the attitude Steve has,” Stewart said. “I’m not putting any pressure on him (Addington). I’m looking forward to going out and racing with him.

Steve Addington, the new crew chief of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet, speaks with the media during the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Media Tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway on Monday in Concord, N.C. - Photo Credit: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images for NASCAR

If Addington was concerned about any potential learning curve, he certainly didn’t show it.

“One guy isn’t going to make a big difference,” said Addington, who moved to Stewart-Haas Racing from Penske Racing. “I’ve gotta keep the communication with him going as far as the race car is concerned. Having that supporting cast, the people that are around you and throughout the organization, that is what makes you successful.”

Another new piece of the puzzle at Stewart-Haas Racing is Greg Zipadelli, Stewart’s former crew chief at Joe Gibbs Racing. Zipadelli joins Stewart-Haas Racing as the organizations new competition director and will also serve as Patrick’s crew chief during her 10-race venture into Sprint Cup.

Stewart Eyes Seventh Daytona Nationwide Win
Tony Stewart will attempt to win his seventh NASCAR Nationwide Series race on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 25. This year Stewart will drive the No. 33 Oreo 100th Anniversary Chevrolet fielded by Richard Childress Racing. Stewart has won the last four NASCAR Nationwide season openers at Daytona and hopes to add a fifth-straight victory next month.

Aspen-Dental to Sponsor Newman; Outback Steakhouse, Quicken Loans Join SHR 
Stewart-Haas Racing announced Monday that it reached a multi-year agreement with Aspen Dental, one of the largest networks of dental-care providers in the United States, as a new sponsor for Ryan Newman’s No. 39 Chevrolet.

The Syracuse-based dental care provider will be the primary sponsor for Newman in 2012 for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Daytona in July and New Hampshire in September and will serve an associate sponsor at other events.

Stewart-Haas Racing announced in late 2011 that it would add Outback Steakhouse and Quicken Loans to its stable of sponsors for 2012.

New Crew Chiefs Settling In At Joe Gibbs Racing

Darian Grubb, the new crew chief of Denny Hamlin's No. 11 FedEx Toyota, speaks with the media during the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Media Tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway on Monday in Concord, N.C. - Photo Credit: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images for NASCAR

Darian Grubb, who won the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship with Tony Stewart, was hired to replace Mike Ford as crew chief for Denny Hamlin on the No. 11 FedEx Toyota.

“I’m really excited to join Joe Gibbs Racing and the No. 11 FedEx team,” Grubb said Monday. “We’re having lots of fun, we’re having lots of meetings. We’re kind of setting the course for what we want to do. We want to go out there and be competitive.”

Elsewhere, crew chief Jason Ratcliff was promoted from the JGR NASCAR Nationwide Series operation to replace Greg Zipadelli as crew chief of the No. 20 Home Depot/Dollar General Toyota driven by Joey Logano.

“J.D. (Gibbs) gave me the opportunity about seven years ago to come over and work on the Nationwide program,” said Ratcliff. “It has been great for seven years and I knew it would have to be a really special deal to move beyond that.

“They’ve given me an opportunity that fits well with a great driver, with great sponsors like Home Depot and Dollar General, and a team that is eager to go out and win races,” Ratcliff added.

The one driver at Joe Gibbs Racing that didn’t get a new crew chief is Kyle Busch, who will again partner with Dave Rogers for the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

Quotes of the Day
Tony Gibson, crew chief for Ryan Newman in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, on working for the last two owner-driver champions (Tony Stewart and Alan Kulwicki) in Sprint Cup competition: “He (Kulwicki) loved to race. It was all about racing and all about winning. … Stewart has that same desire. In his heart all he wants to do is race.”

Darian Grubb, on transitioning from working at Stewart-Haas Racing to Joe Gibbs Racing: “The hardest part of the transition so far has been getting my three-year-old son to say Denny Hamlin is his favorite driver.”

Source: Charlotte Motor Speedway, Press Release

Bristol Motor Speedway Logo

Breaking a long-standing tradition of eschewing green, once a much-maligned hue in the NASCAR garage, the World’s Fastest Half-Mile is embracing the color, right along with Patrick who will be driving a special St. Patrick’s Day paint scheme in the 300-lapper that day.

Patrick pilots the shamrock covered GoDaddy.com ride for JR Motorsports and makes her second start at BMS. As part of the celebration, fans can purchase a special ticket package for the race which also gives them access to a question and answer session with Patrick at Bristol on the morning of March 17. Fans will also receive a limited edition Danica / St. Patrick’s Day event t-shirt, featuring the shamrock-themed No. 7 GoDaddy.com car. In addition, one lucky fan who purchases the package wins two hot passes and the opportunity to view the race from Patrick’s pit box.

Beginning today fans may visit a special website, www.DanicaGoesGreenAtBristol.com, which will keep them up to date with all the current news surrounding Patrick, tickets and the St. Patrick’s Day celebration at BMS.

Danica Patrick - Photo Credit: Jason Smith / Getty Images for NASCAR

Go Daddy is the world’s largest provider of Web hosting*, domain name registrations and net new SSL Certificates. “If you thought the Go Daddy No. 7 was bright green before, wait until you see our St. Patrick’s Day No. 7,” said Go Daddy Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Executive Vice President Barb Rechterman. “This is going to be a NASCAR style St. Patrick’s Day at Bristol!”

The St. Patrick’s Day celebration at BMS will be hosted by George Wendt, known for his 11-year role of the beer-drinking Norm Peterson on the television series Cheers.

A post-race pit party also is on tap in the hospitality area with live music. In addition, the creek that runs through the property at Bristol Motor Speedway will be dyed green for the race and the lights that illuminate the stadium at night all will be green.

BMS general manager Jerry Caldwell believes “Going Green with Danica” is the perfect way to celebrate not just St. Patrick’s Day, but also one of the most successful Nationwide races in the sport.

“With the holiday falling on our race weekend, it’s a no-brainer that we marry it with one of NASCAR’s most popular drivers at one of the series’ biggest races,” he said. “We have all kinds of fun things happening that day and Danica has certainly embraced it with the special paint scheme and the ticket package for fans, which is pretty cool.

“Like everyone else, we’ve been going green environmentally for a while, but now we’re taking it to another level with our St. Patrick’s Day bash. The fans will definitely see plenty of green while they’re here – and, as always, they’ll have the time of their lives while watching some spectacular racing.”

The Patrick ticket package is available for $67 and includes a limited edition t-shirt, a $10 coupon to the JR Nation retail store at JR Motorsports, admittance to the question and answer session and the opportunity to be upgraded with pit passes courtesy of Bristol Motor Speedway. Children’s ticket packages also will be available for $37.50 and will include a child’s sized t-shirt.

Included in the price of a Nationwide Series race day ticket at BMS also is the K&N Pro Series 125 which will take place after the Nationwide race.

BMS season tickets, which include the Food City 500 (March 18) and IRWIN Tools Night Race (Aug. 25) Sprint Cup races, as well as the Nationwide events and the K&N race, also are on sale. Pricing for all four races begins at just $175 in the Wallace Tower.

A March race weekend package also is available starting at $99 that includes the Food City 500 and the Nationwide/K&N Pro Series East events. A package in the Wallace Tower for both Sprint Cup races also is now available for $99, while packages for fans 15 and younger are available for the March races at half price. Lower row seating for the Food City 500 is available, with tickets starting at $65.

Tickets may be purchased by calling toll free at 1-866-415-4158, 423-BRISTOL or by visiting www.bristoltix.com.

- Bristol Motor Speedway Press Release

Danica Patrick unveils her No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet for the 2012 season with team owner Tony Stewart - Photo Credit: NASCARMedia

An Interview With:

TONY STEWART and DANICA PATRICK

KERRY THARP: Joining us now is Danica Patrick. She drives the No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing. Danica, it’s great to see you back here at Daytona. You’re going to be making your Sprint Cup Series debut in the biggest race of the season. Talk about that, being able to come to the biggest platform and the biggest venue that we race, and it’s a place where you actually got your NASCAR start a while back. Talk about being here racing at Daytona.

DANICA PATRICK: Well, it’s good to be back. It’s not been too long of an off-season, that’s for sure. But I made the most of the weeks that I had, so it’s good to be back, and the car seems pretty good so far, pretty fast. Not too different yet as we’re just running out there by ourselves at this point in time. But it’s going to be really exciting. Obviously it’s the biggest race of the year. I’d really like to run well, and I don’t just want to be here, I want to run well.

I think at a place like Daytona there’s that opportunity. I think I’ll probably have slightly more realistic expectations for some of the other ones, but for this one at Daytona I think there’s a real opportunity.

Audio: 2012 NSCS Preseason Thunder Press Conference with Drivers Tony Stewart & Danica Patrick

Q. What is on your to-do list today with Zipadelli? What do you guys want to accomplish short-term?

DANICA PATRICK: Well, today is just run on our own and seeing how fast we can get the car to go. And then I think tomorrow we’ll work on bump drafting. And I heard Tony say he’s going to let someone else go do it first with the new rear spoiler and spring. So that’s fine with me. I said I think I want to be the one getting pushed so that I don’t want to be the one that takes out my boss. That would be bad. I said you can push me first.

KERRY THARP: Speaking of Tony Stewart, he joins us now. Tony is our three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion. He, of course, won the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship in fine fashion with a walk-off victory at Homestead Miami Speedway.

Tony, talk about winning the championship. You’ve had, I guess, I don’t know how many days to maybe decompress, if you do such a thing.

TONY STEWART: Two.

KERRY THARP: Two days. But now you’re at Daytona, and certainly it’s a race that you would love to win, the Daytona 500 here in about 45 days. Talk a little bit about coming in as the defending series champion and then trying to win at Daytona.

TONY STEWART: Well, obviously the end of the year last year was — still almost like a fairy-tale for us, storybook ending obviously. But this is our biggest race of the year. It starts today. Well, it started the day after Homestead actually for the crew guys, and today is the first day that we get to get an idea of the rewards for their hard work and see these cars on the racetrack and see what kind of speed they have. It’s an exciting time for the crew chiefs, the car chiefs, all the engineers, all the people that build these cars. Today is a really big day for all of them and what they’ve done during the off-season to get ready for the 500.

Our sport is unique obviously having our biggest race the first race of the year. But it’s very fitting at the same time because this race, we have more time during the off-season to prepare for this race than we do the others. You bring cars here that you have the extra time to just make them that little bit nicer than you normally have time to do.
It’s exciting to be back, and looking forward to it. It’s been fun to get back in the car today and get running around. Normally I’m hiding from the racetrack in testing, but it was fun to come back this morning and get back in the car and get rolling around again.

Q. Danica, in the last month, I guess, it was decided that you’ll be paired with Zippy at least for the time being. How long will it take for you to get a good relationship with him, and what sort of differences, if you’ve even had a chance to see, are between he and Tony, Jr.? And then for Mr. Stewart, why did you think that Zippy would be a good fit with Danica?

DANICA PATRICK: His accent is not as thick as Tony, Jr. I understand every word he says. We get along great. I feel really comfortable with him so far. I feel respected, and I feel like he’s been very patient. Even the little things, getting here this morning and just kind of adjusting a belt a little bit and adjusting a throttle a little bit, he doesn’t look at me like I’m inexperienced and I should be comfortable right away or it should be right or the throttle doesn’t feel right or I should get used to it and be used to it. He investigates and says no problem, let’s get it right, and makes me comfortable with that kind of stuff.

Obviously we haven’t worked together with the whole how the car feels and how we’re going to change it and that kind of stuff, and especially here at Daytona, that’s probably — we’re probably not going to get a lot of that. It’s not that kind of a track. But I can say so far I feel very comfortable and I feel very fortunate to have him to work with to have that experience. So thank you, Tony.

TONY STEWART: You know, I think for us it was a scenario where we were trying to get Zippy hired as a competition director, but it really was a perfect opportunity for us because it’s hard to get a really good crew chief hired to only run ten races a year in the first year. So to have somebody like Greg that has been working with Joey and has been a crew chief for the last 13 straight years, he can come into this scenario, and he’s brought — the last two guys he had both were rookies when they came in. So he’s familiar with this and the process of getting a rookie adapted to the car and knowing what to do to make them comfortable.

So for us from a company standpoint it made sense to have him since we had him in house anyway to be able to apply him over there in a crew chief role and at the same time the practicality of it, of him having that experience of working with new drivers, makes it a smart decision for us to have somebody like him that can work with Danica and know what those — know how to go through those learning processes and how to help with that. So it really is a — we get the best of both worlds with it.

Q. Danica, for you, some drivers talk about working with a new team like being the first day at school, butterflies that go with that, nerves that go with that even though you’ve been in the car a lot. And Tony, it’s somewhat reminiscent of 12 years ago, you coming to test with Zippy the way you did in 1999. Talk about that, and what’s it like to see Zippy on your side again in your team colors working for you?

DANICA PATRICK: It is a little like first day. I think that with racing you do have an opportunity to meet some of the people just at the track in general, and then of course making a seat and getting comfortable and fitting everything, you get a chance to meet everybody. I can’t say I remember everybody’s name yet. Somebody said hello to me last night, and they’re like, Hey, don’t just walk by. There’s so many people, I don’t know who everyone is yet. I’ve got a lot of people to learn.

But I do — just like probably like going to the first day of school, you want to make a good impression, you want to do a good job. And probably missing pit in on pit road and having to back up is probably not what you want to do at school. I didn’t want to trip like that. But it’s probably not that big of a deal. It’s finding your way around, finding my locker literally. There’s no combination for it, of course, but it is a locker that I needed to find, getting in sync with that.
They said they were going to Olive Garden to get some lunch and would that be okay, and I was like, well, I guess I usually have a sandwich. So anyway, just getting familiar with all the little things and getting comfortable and setting everything up so when I hop in throughout the year it’s simple and straightforward.

TONY STEWART: You know, it’s nice having Zippy back. I got to work with him for ten years, so seeing him at the track here today was the first big reminder of kind of going back to what it was like to start with him in ’99. I know we’re excited to have him back, and it’s — we’re not working in the same capacity together that we did for ten years, but he’s right there next door, and it feels like home again. So I’m pretty excited about it.

Q. (No microphone.)

TONY STEWART: It’s odd, I got a sandwich for lunch.

DANICA PATRICK: What kind of sandwich did you get?

TONY STEWART: I just got a ham sandwich.

DANICA PATRICK: I like a turkey sandwich. They’re going to get some slick meat for me to put in the fridge. I learned what slick meat was. I don’t know, I called it sliced deli meat, right, some deli meat and some cheese and some bread and mustard.

Q. Danica, when you were here in ’09 for that ARCA test, I know you said you had trouble figuring out how to get your hair into your uniform and get in the car and little things like that. Did the day feel more natural, like business as usual for you? And after that I wanted to talk about your infatuation with the honey badger.

DANICA PATRICK: It did feel a little bit more comfortable, yeah. I’m really kind of glad that the first time that I’m in a Cup car is here at Daytona where I can get the fit right and get all the little things right so that when we go to a track that’s a little bit more challenging from a driver’s perspective that stuff is all good to go and there’s no concern or no distraction with those things. So it’s nice to be here to run for the first time and feel comfortable in having been here before. But like I said, it’s a pretty straightforward track for a driver.

And the honey badger, it was last year, I think, somebody showed me this video of the honey badger, and the commentator on it was very, very funny. Anyway, the honey badger, he doesn’t give a crap, he takes what he wants. And that’s how I’m going to be this year, like a honey badger. But I feel like it’s a little diluted with the football player that has the honey badger nickname, too. He’s No. 7, as well.

Q. LSU, Tyrann Mathieu.

DANICA PATRICK: I bet he’s not feeling like a honey badger. I bet — anyway, the video is great. He eats a poisonous snake and he falls asleep and wakes right back up. The video is funny, so I encourage you all to watch that. I think Randall something is the commentator or the name on the YouTube video.

I don’t know, it’s a mindset. I even have a honey badger picture on my screen saver on my phone to inspire me. It takes what it wants.

Q. Have you been able to kind of wrap your arms around the emotion of entering this series full-time, and does it compare to anything else that you’ve done in terms of just starting out? Again, if you can just kind of tell us emotionally kind of where you’re at in terms of how you feel about entering the big stage.

DANICA PATRICK: I’m really excited and I’m really happy. And that’s it. I mean, yeah, there’s nerves. There’s a lot of things that are unknown, especially with running the full-time Nationwide championship, wanting to do really well in that, and wanting to make a good impression in the Cup races that I’m doing. But overall I’m feeling comfortable, as comfortable as I could imagine myself in this situation, and just really excited and really happy and glad to be where I’m at.

Q. Tony, have you decided if you’re going to give Danica your owner points or if you’re still looking for points, or is she just going to have to qualify her way into the 500?

TONY STEWART: I think we’re still trying to figure that equation out, but the good thing is looking on the sheet today, the car seems to have good speed right off the bat. I’ve got the utmost confidence that even in the worst case scenario that we’ve got the right driver that can get this car in the race, no problem. But we’re working through that and trying to get that finalized and trying to figure out our options to make sure we give her the best opportunity to get in the Daytona 500 and get her all the experience that we can get her.

Q. With these rules changes, what kind of racing do you think we’ll see, because race fans don’t like tandem racing. What do you think will come out of this test?

TONY STEWART: We haven’t ran together yet, so it’s hard to tell until we get out there and actually do it. I don’t know if anybody is even planning on trying to do any two-car pack running today. I think you’ll see some of that tomorrow.
I don’t think we’ll honestly have an accurate answer for you until we actually get a chance to get on track and actually run together and find out what the cars are going to do and how they’re going to draft with each other.

DANICA PATRICK: Is it true that fans don’t like it at all? I know I’ve watched some of the races that I’m not in and I think it’s kind of interesting. I’m not saying it’s normal; it seems kind of weird for sure. But I don’t know, I watch it and I think it’s kind of exciting. You never know what’s going to happen. I don’t know, I was just asking.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports

Source: NASCAR, Press Release

JR Motorsports

Whitt, a 20-year-old native of Alpine, Calif., will also compete for Sunoco Rookie-of-the-Year honors. He comes to JR Motorsports from the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, where he finished ninth in last year’s championship standings with one pole, two top-five and 11 top-10 finishes. To date he is the youngest driver ever to win the USAC (United States Auto Club) National Midget championship, as his title-winning effort in 2008 put him alongside esteemed former USAC national champions such as Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne.

“Cole is the guy we wanted, and we’re lucky to get him,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “He’s got raw, untapped talent, but we are most impressed with his ambition. I sought advice and input from people I respect in the industry, and the overwhelming consensus was that Cole has the potential to do great things in this sport.”

The signing of Whitt completes the 2012 driver line-up for JR Motorsports, which will compete in Nationwide Series competition with Whitt in the No. 88 Chevrolet, Danica Patrick in the No. 7 Chevrolet, and Earnhardt Jr. in select races in the No. 5 Chevrolet. All three drivers will compete in the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 25.

“This is a big opportunity for me, and I’m happy to be a part of the JR Motorsports team,” said Whitt, who was introduced to employees Wednesday morning. “I’m grateful to Dale, Kelley and everyone at JR Motorsports for giving me this chance. It’s an honor to work with the Eurys, and I will do everything in my power to put this No. 88 team where it belongs in Victory Lane.”

Whitt got his start racing karts and saw immediate success with eight International Karting Federation championships and two World Karting Association grand national championships. He was the Hoosier Sprint Car Rookie of the Year in 2006 and earned 34 top-10 finishes in 60 USAC starts in 2007 before winning the championship in 2008. Whitt advanced to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East in 2010, promptly notching two poles and finishing fourth in points in his first year.

OTHER NEWS: JR Motorsports has hired Bruce Cook as crew chief for the No. 5 team, which will run primarily with Earnhardt Jr. in select races. Cook comes to JR Motorsports from Kevin Harvick, Inc., where he served as crew chief in 2011 in the Camping World Truck Series, predominately for the No. 2 KHI Chevrolet, which won the owner’s championship. With Cook atop the pit box, his team scored six wins, 19 top-fives and 22 top-10s. Cook was also the winning crew chief of the Nationwide Series season-opener at Daytona in 2011 with driver Tony Stewart.

ABOUT JR MOTORSPORTS:

Based in Mooresville, N.C., JR Motorsports is the management company and racing operation for Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR’s nine-time Most Popular Driver and winner of more than 40 NASCAR-sanctioned races. JR Motorsports competes in multiple racing divisions, including the NASCAR Nationwide Series where the team owns 10 victories. To learn more about the organization and its stable of drivers which include Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick and Cole Whitt, visit www.JRMracing.com. The JR Motorsports facility also houses the JR Nation retail store, Hammerhead Entertainment and JRM Licensing.

- JR Motorsports Press Release

Go Daddy Plans Divine Super Bowl Ad In "The Cloud" with NASCAR Star Danica Patrick

Go Daddy has long delivered services “in the cloud” — providing individuals and businesses more efficient and less expensive online options. Now, it’s taking its product marketing to Super Bowl viewers with fun references to Go Daddy’s innovative offerings such as 4th Generation Hosting, known as 4GH.

The 30-second ad is called The Cloud. It features Go Daddy Girl Danica Patrick and the new Pussycat Dolls, along with several core product references in a “divine” setting. The Cloud is also Go Daddy’s most ambitious production in the company’s eight-year Super Bowl history. The storyline includes a revealing moment and an extravagant set design.

“How can we produce a Super Bowl ad that’s fun, edgy, slightly inappropriate and also speak to cloud-based products?” asked Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons. “Like only Go Daddy can … trust me, it’ll be as GoDaddy-esque as ever. Danica will surpass her most revealing Go Daddy moment, from back in 2008 when she gave us the big unzip!”

Danica recently ranked the Internet’s Most Searched Athlete and she’s also a sort of Super Bowl staple. By most observers’ count, Danica has been in more Super Bowl ads than any other celebrity and with this year’s campaign, she will have 11 big game ads on her resume, all with Go Daddy Productions.

“Doing Go Daddy’s Super Bowl commercials is always interesting, but this year’s are epic,” Danica said. “The commercials are very funny — there’s physical humor and in the Cloud, there’s a big-time dance routine. Yes, I dance. And I’ll say this, the dance sequence is as GoDaddy-esque as it gets!”

Go Daddy’s other 2012 Super Bowl ad also features Danica, along with her Go Daddy Girl colleague and fitness guru Jillian Michaels. Like Danica, Jillian is a strong woman and successful entrepreneur.

“I like the way Bob and Go Daddy portray women as strong and successful,” Jillian said. “Yes, the commercials are edgy and hot … but the Go Daddy Girls always have the last laugh, they are the ones in control. A lot of people don’t realize this, but Bob’s executive staff is made up of more women than men.”

The 30-second ad featuring Jillian and Danica is designed to bring massive consumer attention to the .CO domain, the Internet’s most popular new domain name extension. While Go Daddy is working to keep the specifics of the storyline under wraps for now, it has said the ad features a stunning international supermodel whose world-class body drew this comment from Jillian on-set: “If I made a DVD about how to get a body like hers, I’d be a gazillionaire.”

.CO Internet S.A.S. CEO, Juan Diego Calle, makes a cameo appearance in the Internet-Only version of the commercial, along with Bob Parsons. “Not only was filming the Super Bowl ad a fun way to spend a work day, we know it will help take dot-CO to the next level — driving more business and boosting brand awareness,” said Calle. “Last year’s Super Bowl ad helped us to finish our first year with more than one million dot-CO domain names registered by people in more than 200 countries – and made dot-CO the hottest new Web address in the world!”

Go Daddy partnered with .CO Internet for the first time in the 2011 Super Bowl with great success. As for its cloud-based products and services, Go Daddy has been in the cloud since before the term was coined. Not surprisingly though, most people have more awareness of Go Daddy’s commercial campaigns … that may change with this year’s advertising leap into the cloud.

For the Pussycat Dolls, featured prominently in The Cloud’s outrageous dance scene, 2012 marks their first-ever Super Bowl commercial and serves as the unofficial launch of the new Pussycat Dolls.

Follow & Friend Go Daddy on Facebook & Twitter.

About Go Daddy

Go Daddy is a leading provider of services that enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. Go Daddy provides a variety of domain name registration plans, as well as website design and hosting packages. Go Daddy has a broad array of cloud-based products and services. These include products such as SSL Certificates, Domains by Proxy private registration, ecommerce website hosting, blog software, search engine optimization utilities, email marketing tools, website design services, website security software and online storage solutions. Go Daddy has more than 51 million domain names under management. Go Daddy registers, renews or transfers more than one domain name every second of every day. GoDaddy.com is the largest worldwide mass-market hosting provider by annual revenue according to Tier1 Research (Mass-Market Hosting Report-Winter 2011) and is the world’s No. 1 domain name registrar according to Name Intelligence, Inc. Go Daddy registered more than one-third of all new domain names created In 2010 for the top six generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .mobi.

- Go Daddy Press Release

JR Motorsports

EVENT – Ford 300 (200 laps / 300 miles)

TRACK – Homestead-Miami Speedway (1.5-mile oval)

DATE – Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011

TV / RADIO – ESPN2 (coverage begins at 4:30 p.m. EST) / MRN (broadcast begins at 4 p.m. EST)

Aric Almirola

No. 88 GT Vodka Chevrolet

“Homestead is a track that’s a lot of fun to race on. It has progressive banking through the corners. That’s why you see drivers go into the corner and move around a lot. Anytime you go somewhere that you can move around, it’s good. As a racecar driver, you want options on where you can run.

“I’m looking forward to a bit of a break following Homestead. But at the same time, when you’re running well and things are going your way, you can’t wait to get back to the racetrack. So at times, the few weeks we have off seem a lot longer.”

Danica Patrick

No. 7 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet

“I remember the car feeling really loose most of the time last year at Homestead. It’s a challenging track, even in IndyCar. I think we wasted a lot of good time during practice, because I was unfamiliar with how to drive the corners. Aric (Almirola, teammate) told me, ‘you’ve got to drive it in the corner, and you’ve got to get it on the right front.’ The corners are very tight compared to a lot of other mile-and-a-halfs. Toward the end of practice we got it better.

“I went into qualifying and surprised myself by qualifying fifth. I feel like I’m getting into the swing of qualifying a little bit more. More than anything, it will be nice to start off the weekend driving the track as it needs to be driven so we can work on the car, as opposed to figuring it out during the last part of practice.”

JR MOTORSPORTS NOTEBOOK –

PATRICK SEES IMPROVEMENT THROUGH SOPHOMORE CAMPAIGN – Danica Patrick will put an end to an eventful and noteworthy sophomore season this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway. In 11 starts this year, Patrick earned one top-five and three top-10 finishes. Her fourth-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway rewrote the history books, making Patrick the highest finishing female in any NASCAR national touring series race. The effort bested the 62-year-old record of Sara Christian, who finished fifth at Heidlberg, Pa. on Oct. 2, 1949 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Patrick also has led a career-high 14 laps, 13 of which came in a dramatic finish at Daytona in July when she took the lead with two laps to go. Her victory chances were ruined by a multi-car accident within sight of the checkered flag. Patrick’s average finish this year is 16.1 as compared to 28.0 in her 13-race rookie season in 2010.

PATRICK’S MEDIA AVAILABILITY – Danica Patrick will be available to members of the NASCAR media at 10:45 a.m. local time on Friday, Nov. 18 in the Homestead-Miami Speedway media center deadline room.

MILE-AND-A-HALF STRENGTH – Patrick has not finished outside the top-15 in the four 1.5-mile races she’s competed in this season (Las Vegas, Chicago, Kansas and Texas). The 29-year-old holds one top-five and two top-10s with an average finish of 10.0 at those facilities.

PATRICK AT HOMESTEAD – Patrick’s second-best qualifying effort of her short career came at Homestead last year with a fifth-place start. The mark was eclipsed only by a fourth-place starting spot at Daytona in February. She also led the first laps of her Nationwide Series career at Homestead in 2010, leading once for four laps.

NO. 7 SEASON STATS – Every driver of the No. 7 this season has scored a top-10 finish. The list includes Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ron Fellows, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Jamie McMurray, Patrick and Josh Wise. The No. 7 team holds six top-five and 12 top-10 finishes in 2011. The team occupies the 11th position in owner points.

ALMIROLA WRAPS UP FIRST FULL SEASON WITH JRM – Despite owning 72 starts in Nationwide Series competition over the span of five years, the Homestead event concludes Almirola’s first full season with JR Motorsports. His season totals feature one pole (Phoenix 11/12), seven top-five and 17 top-10 finishes, including a string of nine top-10s in a 10-week mid-summer stretch. Almirola has led 101 laps in 2011. He led 66 last week at Phoenix International Raceway. He has earned an average finish of 12.2. He enters the weekend fourth in championship points, trailing third-place Justin Allgaier by 15 points. The No. 88 Chevrolet is ninth in owner points.

ALMIROLA AT HOMESTEAD – Almirola has seven starts at Homestead across NASCAR’s top-three series, earning two top-five and two top-10 finishes. His best finish of fourth came during the Sprint Cup Series season finale last year. Almirola’s best finish in Nationwide Series competition is 18th.

QUALIFYING EFFORTS – JR Motorsports competed in its first Nationwide Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2005 with driver Mark McFarland. Statistically it is one of the organization’s best qualifying tracks. In nine starts there a JRM Chevrolet has qualified in top-10 six times.

ALMIROLA’S APPEARANCES IN HOMESTEAD – Almirola will attend the NASCAR Nationwide Series’ Championship Drive event on Thursday, Nov. 17th from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. EST located at Lummus Park, Miami Beach, Fla. Almirola, a Florida native, will be featured in a fan Q & A and then will sign autographs. On Saturday, Nov. 19 from 12 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. EST, Almirola will sign autographs at the JR Nation merchandise hauler, located in the fan concourse area.

WATCH JRM RACING.COM’s VIDEO SERIES – In a continued effort to be at the forefront of web-based content through its website www.jrmracing.com, the team has added a multitude of videos into its video gallery. Click here to view race preview videos, the “JRM 360” series and more.

- JR Motorsports Press Release

JR Motorsports

EVENT – Wypall 200 (200 laps / 200 miles)

TRACK – Phoenix International Raceway (1-mile tri-oval)

DATE – Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011

TV / RADIO – ESPN2 (coverage begins at 3:30 p.m. EST) / MRN (broadcast begins at 3 p.m. EST)

Aric Almirola

No. 88 Suave Men Chevrolet

“Phoenix is going be a challenge, but it’s going to be a challenge for everybody. We’re going to show up to a new racetrack. It’s newly repaved and reconfigured. They’ve made a lot of adjustments to the racing surface. I’m sure it’s going to be exciting for the drivers and for the fans.

“The plan for our 88 team is just to continue to improve over these final two races. It would be great to finish in the top-three in points, but right now the team’s focus is to get better. We’re not happy running where we’ve been running the past couple weeks. It’s important to this entire Suave Men team to finish the season on a strong note in preparation for 2012.”

Danica Patrick

No. 7 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet

“I’ve said all along how much fun it is to drive in NASCAR. I have the most fun racing these cars and I have high hopes heading into this race. We’ve ran well at mile-and-a-halfs this year, but short track racing is a different animal. I need to make sure that I still keep expectation levels in check, so I’m not disappointed. This isn’t a time for me to start creating false expectations for myself and feeling like I haven’t lived up to it. This is the time to continue on the path I’ve been going and to set goals for myself.

“Phoenix is a little bit different for everybody now. For me, it’s probably not the worst thing in the world that everyone will have to start relearning the track. It will be my third time there. That’s always a comforting feeling. I think the short track stuff is coming along. I feel like I’ve had the most trouble with it, and struggled with it. I think it’s gone a lot better this year.”

JR MOTORSPORTS NOTEBOOK –

SHORT TRACK MUSCLE – Almirola flexed his short track muscle this season in the form of three top-five and six top-10 finishes at the 10 short track races to date. He is averaging a finish of 9.9 in those events. In short track races from July through September this season (Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis, Iowa Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway and Richmond International Raceway), Almirola never finished worse than seventh.

ALMIROLA AT PHOENIX – In four Nationwide Series starts at the facility, Almirola’s best finish is sixth, coming last fall in the No. 88 Chevrolet. He also owns three starts in the Camping World Truck Series, securing two top-five finishes and leading 52 laps in those events.

PATRICK’S MEDIA AVAILABILITY – Danica Patrick will be available to members of the NASCAR media at 1 p.m. local time on Friday, Nov. 11 in the Phoenix International Raceway media center deadline room.

PATRICK AND SHORT TRACKS – Patrick owns two starts at Phoenix, finishing a best of 17th in this season’s spring event, marking the best short track finish of her Nationwide Series career. Her sixth-place effort at Dover International Speedway in the fall of 2010 became her top stock car finish at a short track. Additionally, she finished 15th in her only start at Phoenix in the IndyCar Series.

NO. 7 SEASON STATS – Every driver of the No. 7 this season has scored a top-10 finish. The list includes Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ron Fellows, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Jamie McMurray, Patrick and Josh Wise. The No. 7 team holds six top-five and 12 top-10 finishes in 2011. The team occupies the 11th position in owner points, sitting 36 points outside the top-10.

NO. 88 SEASON STATS - The No. 88 team’s season tally now stands at seven top-five and 17 top-10 finishes. The No. 88 Chevrolet is tied for eighth in owner points. Almirola is currently tied for third in championship points with Justin Allgaier. The pair sits 82 points behind second place, Elliott Sadler.

ALMIROLA AUTOGRAPH SIGNINGS – Fans will have three opportunities to meet JR Motorsports driver Aric Almirola this weekend at Phoenix.

· Wed. Nov. 9 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. local time, Almirola will sign autographs at the Bashas’ grocery store #120 located 7586 W. Thunderbird Road in Peoria, Ariz.

· Sat. Nov. 12 from 9:15 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. local time he’ll sign autographs at the Bashas’ grocery store at Phoenix International Raceway (located in the Cotton 2 RV section right outside Gate 4 and Gate 3).

· Sat. Nov. 12 from 11:30 a.m. to 11:50 a.m. local time, Almirola will sign autograph at the JR Nation merchandise hauler located the fan concourse area.

WATCH JRM RACING.COM’s VIDEO SERIES – In a continued effort to be at the forefront of web-based content through its website www.jrmracing.com, the team has added a multitude of videos into its video gallery. Click here to view race preview videos, the “JRM 360” series and more.

- JR Motorsports Press Release

Tony Stewart - Photo: Harold Hinson Photography

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Texas Motor Speedway and discussed today’s announcement of Danica Patrick’s schedule and car number, his mindset for the last three races of the season, battling for the championship and other topics.

ON TODAY’S ANNOUNCMENT WITH DANICA PATRICK. “Yeah, it’s definitely nice. Everybody wanted to know where she was going to be racing, what the number was on the car and that’s what today was all about. Just being able to give everybody in the media and the fans an idea of where they are going to see her next year, that was a pretty big step.”

YOU TWO SEEM TO GET ALONG REALLY WELL AND THE CHEMISTRY IS OBVIOUS, THAT HELPS A LOT I’M SURE. “Yeah, she’s a lot of fun. She’s got a great personality and she’s very dedicated to being good so she’s the kind of person that you want as a teammate. She works hard at it and she has fun doing it. I think she’s a perfect fit for us.”

EDDIE (GOSSAGE) HAS THIS LITTLE FIGHT MOTIF GOING ON WITH YOU AND CARL (EDWARDS), CARL WASN’T EXACTLY ENAMERED WITH THE IDEA, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS? “I think that’s why Eddie Gossage is one of the best promoters in the United States and probably will be before it’s all said and done. I thought it was funny personally. I was just glad I was the guy that got to wear the black hat.”

DO YOU THINK THAT IDEA CAME FROM SOME OF YOUR COMMENTS? “There’s no doubt it did. It shows you how good of a promoter Eddie is. I guarantee by Monday morning he already had that idea done.”

SUNDAY NIGHT, HE DIDN’T WAIT UNTIL MONDAY MORNING. “That’s what I’m saying, by Monday morning he was done already. He already knew what he was going to do.”

WERE YOU THROWING DOWN A GAUNTLET WITH THOSE COMMENTS? “No, I just stated a fact that we’re ready for this. We’re ready for these three weeks. After a race like we had last Sunday, I’m ready to go for these weeks. If anybody counts us out they’re making a mistake.”

HOW HAS YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT THE CHASE CHANGED IN THE LAST FEW WEEKS WITH THE SUCCESS YOU’VE HAD? “Obviously going into Martinsville being fourth in the points we felt good that we were still in the hunt like we were. I think after the way we ran last Sunday and the way that we were more so not so much how we ran but how we rebounded from a really slow start of the day and were able to overcome it and have a dramatic finish like that at the end. I mean that’s the stuff that puts you in that position at the end and you have that with three weeks to go you’ve got something going on.”

HOW MUCH OF A FACTOR DOES THE PIT CREW, AND CREW CHIEF MAKING CHANGES THROUGH THE RACE HAVE, YOU TALKED ABOUT HOW THAT’S CHAMPIONSHIPS ARE WON? “Exactly, it’s easy to get flustered and kind of get frayed on the ends and Darian (Grubb, crew chief) did an awesome job. The big thing was just saying hey what we’re doing isn’t working, the direction we’re going with our changes isn’t working, we’ve got to make a big swing at it. He didn’t go crazy with it but he made educated decisions and that’s what got us there at the end. He had two really good pit calls that got us the track position to once we got up there to do something with what he had changed.”

HOW DID YOU KEEP YOUR TEMPER LAST WEEK? “I made a mistake and put the No. 43 in a bad spot but the thing I did was when I made that mistake I didn’t pick the gas up and go ahead and take the spot. I kind of let him get the back in any spot that he had. He didn’t deserve to lose it because I made a mistake and pushed him out of the way. I think we raced everybody with respect.”

EVEN WITH DENNY HAMLIN, YOU WERE ON THE RADIO TELLING HIM YOU’RE JUST GONNA HAVE TO…. “I wouldn’t normally race him that way. I would have more respect for the leader than that if I was getting lapped and if that were the spring race I probably would have let him go like you should but Denny also knew why we were doing what we were doing and I think it just shows the respect that we have for each other. If you don’t put guys in bad positions they don’t put you back in it the other way.”

HAS EVERYTHING THAT’S HAPPENED WITH THE NO. 10 CAR AND THE ANNOUNCEMENTS THAT YOU’VE MADE THIS WEEK, DOES THAT TAKE SOME OF THE PRESSURE OFF GOING INTO THE FINAL THREE RACES? “I think a little bit. It’s been a busy week make no mistakes about it. I guess I still think in the bigger picture than just what I’m doing. It’s an exciting day for Danica. It’s an exciting day for GoDaddy and this is something we’ve been looking forward to this day. We’ve been looking forward to the day we can pull the cover off of this car and we can sit there together in a press conference and talk about how excited we are doing this together. I’ve looked forward to this. It’s not a distraction, but it is nice to get it done here and do it at Texas where we like anyway. Get it behind us and now we can go back to work.”

IT’S VERY DIFFICULT TO GO GET MONEY IN THIS SPORT RIGHT NOW, ESPECIALLY NEW MONEY LIKE YOU GUYS DID, HOW MUCH ARE YOU HAVING TO GIVE OF YOURSELF IN ORDER TO LAND THESE SPONSORSHIPS? “We’ve got a great staff at SHR and we’ve got a great marketing department and I feel like they are the reason we’ve been able to be successful on this side. I think they’ve thought of ways thinking outside the box of how to make these partnerships with these sponsors work and work for them in a way they haven’t had these opportunities in the past with these other teams in the series. To bring somebody new into the sport, that’s a really, really big feather in our cap from an organization standpoint. I take a lot of pride in that.”

ITS EASY TO LOOK AT VICTORY LANE LAST WEEK AND SAY HE WAS FIRED UP, HE SAID SOMETHING BECAUSE HE WAS SO FIRED UP, BUT YOU MEANT IT SO WOULD YOU SAY IT SITTING RIGHT HERE LIKE A CALM SITUATION TOO? “Absolutely. The feeling hasn’t changed. It wasn’t the adrenaline that was saying that. I’ve been racing 31 years and we’ve been a part of a lot of championship battles and I know what that feeling is when you feel that stuff is going right and that you’ve got that shot again. Like I said he’s making a mistake if he’s counting us out and if he thinks it’s just a mind game deal I really don’t care what he does. I’m going to control my destiny and my car, I don’t care what he does with his car. I’m going to take care of business with ours.”

THERE SEEMS TO BE SO MUCH FOCUS ON YOU AND CARL FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP, JIMMIE JOHNSON SAID TODAY HE HOPED THAT SOMETHING WOULD HAPPEN AND HE COULD GET BACK IN IT SO YOU CAN’T COUNT HIM OUT EITHER. “No, you never do. I guess I’m looking at it from the standpoint of looking up. I’m not looking behind and I’m not worried about anybody else. I’m not worried about Carl I’m not worried about anybody, I’m worried about what we’re doing with our car. I think practice this morning showed that.”

SHOULD YOU LOOK AT IT DIFFERENT WITH ONLY THREE RACES LEFT? “Why would you?”

I DON’T KNOW I’M WONDERING. “No, you don’t change what gets you there.”

MAYBE MORE WILLING TO GAMBLE OR SOEMTHING LIKE THAT. “Listen, I’m going to tell you this just like I told everybody else and make sure everybody still understands it, we still do this one day at a time. We’re not looking to Sunday, I’m looking to qualifying here in a minute. Once that’s over I’m going to get ready for race practice tomorrow. We still carry the same approach we’ve told everybody for weeks and months now. It’s not changing and there is a reason I do it that way and it works. So we won’t change it until 50 laps to go, you might have to do something different at Homestead late in the race but you don’t change that formula. If you are doing something that gets you to the front of this deal you darn sure don’t change that until it’s over so we’re not going to change anything.”

HOW WAS PRACTICE OUT THERE AND WHAT WERE YOU WORKING ON? “Like I said, we kinda of feel like we’re in the Matt Kenseth mode. I’m kind of happy. If we qualify like we practiced there and get an upfront starting spot, that’s normally a good sign for us. I’m not a good qualifier so if we qualify well we normally race well behind it. I’m excited about it. I thought we were decent in race trim. I think we learned some stuff going from race trim to qualifying trim that was a parallel as far as the balance was concerned. I think we found what might fix that so I’m pretty excited about it right now.”

DANICA SAID FOR A LONG TIME THAT YOU WERE THE PERSON SHE WOULD ASK HER NASCAR QUESTIONS TO THAT SHE HAD, DID YOU FEEL LIKE SORT OF THE LEADER IN THE CLUBHOUSE IN LEADING HER OVER HERE? “Not necessarily. Trust me there are a lot of people that have a lot of respect for her and what she’s doing and knowing how hard it is with all the attention she gets to be able to focus and do what she’s doing. Like we mentioned, I’ve been where she is, I know what those cars feel like so for her to ask a question about something that’s going on or a feel it’s easier for me to understand why she’s asking that question verses just the question itself. I don’t know that it made us feel like we were in the lead in that category but I think that’s what’s going to make it fun and make it a natural fit for us because we do have that comparison and that parallel with each other.”

HOW MUCH HARDER IS THE CHANGE SHE’S GOING TO HAVE TO MAKE COMPARED TO WHEN YOU MADE BECAUSE OF TESTING? “Yeah, but Juan (Pablo Montoya) didn’t get to do them either and Juan made it work. Just some people make it and some people don’t. Like Sam (Hornish), Sam’s a great open-wheel racer and for some reason and he’s getting better in the stock car the longer he goes but it’s an easier transition for some than it is for others. You’ve seen guys like Dario Franchitti and Jacques Villeneuve that never figured it out and these are guys that have won the Indy 500, won championships and are accomplished race car drivers. There’s no blue print, there’s nothing that says you’re going to figure it out but we feel like with our group we’re giving her the best opportunity we can for her to figure everything out. What we’ve seen so far from her in a stock car, she’s already starting to pick things up. She’s a sponge when it comes to information. She gathers everything in and then figures out how to separate it, cipher it and go on. I think she has the mindset that some of those guys that tried to make it didn’t have.”

IS THERE A COMMON THREAD THAT CONNECTS THE ONES THAT GET IT FAST AND THE ONES THAT DON’T? “I wish because then it would be easy to know right off the bat which guys are capable of doing it and which ones aren’t but unfortunately it’s not that easy.”

YOU’VE GOT THREE CHASE WINS, YOU’RE ONLY EIGHT POINTS DOWN, YOU’VE GOT MOMENTUM BUT CARL IS LEADING THE POINTS, IT’S HIS CHAMPIONSHIP TO LOSE? “How many points do you get if you win the race verses second?

SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT SOMETHING LIKE THAT. “How many points are we behind?”

WELL YOU’VE GOT TO BEAT HIM OBVIOUSLY. “Okay, so.”

SO IF HE LOSES THE CHAMPIONSHIP HAVING THE LEAD RIGHT NOW I’D SAY IT’S HIS TO LOSE. “No.”

YOU DON’T THINK? “How many points is it from first place to second place in the race?”

ABOUT SEVEN. “I think its three. So he’s eight points ahead so if we win all three races and he runs second we’ve taken it from him. He didn’t lose it. We took it from him. Now if it was a bigger gap than that and all he had to do was finish right behind us then I would agree with you that it was his to lose but we still have the opportunity to take it from him.”

HE’S HAD TWO BAD RACES, TWO LUCKY FINISHES … “I feel like I got him back in the corners.” YOU DO? “Yeah, I do. Like I said these are three tracks that I like. I feel like we run really well here, Texas is one I really look forward to coming back to. Phoenix we were really good at the test and Homestead is a track that I like. We haven’t won there since they redid it but I like the style that we have to race there and I like where we have to run on the race track. So its three tracks that I like and I feel like we can control our destiny. If we were more points out and we couldn’t gain them by winning the race and him running second then I would feel like it’s his to lose but we can still go up there and take it from him. We don’t have to worry about what he does all we have to do is control our destiny and we can still win this thing.”

CAN YOU WIN ALL THREE? “I didn’t think I could win three of them in the Chase let alone the rest of them. I would love to be able to say yeah, I can win all three of them but there’s no give me’s in this deal and there’s no guarantees and there’s a lot of variables that are out of our control but we’re going to control the ones that we have control of and let the rest of it fall in place.”

DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU CAN GET IN CARL’S HEAD A LITTLE BIT, IT APPEARS THIS WEEK YOU KIND OF HAVE? “I don’t know. He’s growing facial hair we’ve never seen him have and he’s saying stuff I’ve never heard him say so I don’t know what’s going on with him this week.”

Danica Patrick unveils her No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet for the 2012 season with team owner Tony Stewart following practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on Nov. 4 in Fort Worth, Texas. - Photo Credit: NASCARMedia

HE KNOWS HOW TO LOSE CHAMPIONSHIPS, HE LOST TWO, IN FACT HE LOST 2005 TO YOU, DO YOU REMEMBER THE LAST FEW RACES OF 2005 BECAUSE HE REMEMBERS THEM? “I can’t remember what I did two days ago let alone back to 2005. I honestly don’t. You’ve got to lose some to win them and we’ve lost our share of them in the past too but I think that’s what also makes it easier to win them when you know what you’ve got to do to overcome those.”

WHAT KIND OF RACING ARE YOU EXPECTING AT PHOENIX NEXT WEEK WITH THE NEW TRACK? “Nobody knows. Your guess is going to be as good as mine is right now. I think we’ll have a little better idea hopefully on Friday in practice we’ll get some cars around each other and see what we’ve got.”

THIS CAR (NO. 10) IS RUNNING 10 RACES, WOULD THERE BE THE OPTION OF PUTTING ANTOHER DRIVER IN THERE TO KEEP THE POINTS UP? “Yes, we would definitely like to run the car the whole season. If we can get another sponsor to take care of the rest of the races I would love to run this car full-time next year and have that opportunity to work with that crew and the crew chief and get them ready for the whole season in 2013 also.”

I CAN’T IMAGINE A BASEBALL GENERAL MANAGER DOING ALL THE DEALS, TRADES, AND THEN GOING DOWN AND PITCHING THE GAME WHICH IS ESSENTIALLY WHAT YOU ARE DOING. “Piece of cake.”

DOES IT EVER GET GRINDING? “Not for me. I’m a single guy, I don’t have a wife and children to go home to. I don’t have to delegate my time to a family. These race teams and my race tracks and everything we are doing kind of is that family. I like staying busy in that capacity. I wouldn’t know what else to do. This is the only way I’ve done it for a long time now and I don’t know if I could change it now.”

DO YOU SLEEP? “Not very well. I don’t need to sleep though.”

BEFORE THE CHASE YOU SAID WE DON’T EVEN DESERVE TO BE IN THE CHASE, THEN ALL OF THE SUDDEN YOU GET IN AND WIN THREE RACES AND ARE ON FIRE KNOCKING ON THE DOOR OF ANOTHER CHAMPIONSHIP, WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE THAT TO? “I wish I knew. I’d love to know because I would make sure we didn’t get ourselves in that position again. A lot of it is when you look at our season the first half to two-thirds of it we just had weird things happen that we’ve never had happen before that would get us behind and get us backed in a corner and we couldn’t get our way worked out of it by the end of the race. Maybe it’s just something simple as getting all that bad luck out of the way early in the year and it seems like the last seven weeks have kind of been back to normal scenarios and not having these weird things happen that cost us races early in the year.”

NEXT YEAR YOU ARE GOING TO A THREE-CAR TEAM, YOU’VE SEEN RCR GO TO FOUR CARS THEN BACK TO THREE, ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT STRUGGLING AT ALL WITH A THREE-CAR TEAM? “No, I’m not really. When we sat down originally Gene Hass’ vision was to build us to a four-car team and I sat down and we hired Ryan Newman and Tony Gibson and Darian Grubb and Bobby Hutchens and said listen we’re going to get these two cars up where they need to be before we add a third car. Having six opportunities to get these two cars in the Chase and accomplishing that five to six times now and having the opportunity to run for a championship this year is proof that we’ve got our program where it needs to be where we can accommodate that third team. We won’t expand it to a fourth team until we make sure these three cars go really well first. Timing is everything but its making sure that when you make that commitment to go to that next step that you have all your ducks in a row and I feel like we’re in that scenario now.”

WHEN YOU STARTED STEWART-HASS RACING I IMAGINE YOU SET GOALS FOR YOURSELF, ARE YOU AHEAD OF THOSE GOALS? “I think you just be realistic and have to evaluate it as you go. I would call it goals as much as it would be a wish list. You set where you would like to be. I don’t think any of us really knew what to expect. It’s hard to. It’s hard when you go into a new venture that you’ve never been a part of before you don’t know exactly what’s going to happen. Just like Danica next year, she may have in her head that a top-15 is the only way she’s going to feel happy or a top-20 is going to be a good day. My opinion of it is different. I want her to get the laps and get the experience. You sit down at the end of the day and you evaluate what’s going on and I feel like we’ve done a lot of things that people didn’t feel like we could do in three years and we’re pretty proud of that.”

DANICA WAS TALKING ABOUT HOW YOU GUYS HAVE THIS REPORT, WAS IT ALWAYS LIKE THAT WAY? “Oddly enough it’s been like that from day one that we met. Like I said you can see by watching her, she’s very relaxed, she’s got a great personality and a good sense of humor. I think that’s what will make her, Ryan and I a good combination together. We’re going to have a lot of fun next year. Ryan and I have fun like that already but it’s nice to have another teammate that fits that mold and has that personality that matches ours.”

CAN SHE GIVE AS GOOD AS SHE GETS? “She’s pretty good at it, yeah. She’s gets her good share of shots in so you can’t turn your back on her because she’s going to get you if you do.”

TALK ABOUT TEXAS, A LOT OF PEOPLE SAY THIS TRACK IS GOING TO SHOW WHO THE REALLY GOOD TEAMS ARE, WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS TRACK IS ALL ABOUT THIS WEEKEND AS WE HEAD INTO THIS FUN.? “It’s always been about showcasing teams. You don’t run well here with a poor organization. You’re not going to back into a good finish here. Even when there’s been late-race pit strategies that have played out it’s always been strong teams that have come to the top, this is a place that is going to showcase what these organizations are all about.”

THAT’S WHY YOU FEEL SO CONFIDENT RIGHT NOW? “Like I said this is a track that we’ve always ran well at. If I’m in the top-three on the speed chart at the end of qualifying practice that’s normally a pretty good sign.”

WITH YOUR CONFIDENCE LEVEL NOW, OBVIOUSLY YOU CAN’T TAKE A REALLY BAD RACE AND TRY TO MAKE SOMETHING OUT OF IT, DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU CAN MAKE UP SOMETHING HERE NO MATTER WHAT? “I don’t think I’m looking at it from that standpoint as much as it’s I feel like we’ve got the two or three tracks I was worried about in the Chase behind us now. We’ve got Dover out of the way, we’ve got Talladega that we didn’t know what could happen and Martinsville was one I was concerned about too.

We’ve got those three tracks out of the way and these three tracks we have left are places that I feel confident that we’ve had really good race cars in the past so it makes you a little more relaxed about it. You don’t feel like you’ve got to make something happen. You feel like you should be in decent shape going into it.

ON DANICA’S SCHEDULE.

“Part of it is timing when it comes up in the season. This is in my opinion our fastest 1.5-mile track that we go to. She’s going to go to places that tires are going to give up, she’s going to go to tracks that you have to move around the race track a lot and then you’re going to come here and you’re going to rip around here all day so we picked a variety of tracks that we knew would be a challenge from different standpoints. But those are the things that you’re going to run through the whole season that lead up to a championship. It was strategic in the standpoint of the timing of the schedule and where it was at.”

About Chevrolet

Founded in Detroit in 1911, Chevrolet celebrates its centennial as a global automotive brand with annual sales of about 4.25 million vehicles in more than 120 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. The Chevrolet portfolio includes iconic performance cars such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long-lasting pickups and SUVs such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers such as Spark, Cruze, Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including Cruze Eco and Volt. Cruze Eco offers 42 mpg highway while Volt offers 35 miles of electric, gasoline-free driving and an additional 344 miles of extended range. Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com .

- Team Chevy, Press Release

Danica Patrick - Photo Credit: Christian Petersen/Getty Images

DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET met with media following the announcement by Stewart Haas Racing co-owner Tony Stewart on a limited number of NASCAR Sprint Cup races slated for her in 2012. It was announced that Patrick will race in 10 events (as below), with two yet to be determined.

Feb. 26: Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway

May 12: Darlington (S.C.) Raceway

Aug. 25: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway

Sept. 2: Atlanta Motor Speedway

Sept. 16: Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill.

Sept. 30: Dover (Del.) International Speedway

Nov. 4: Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth

Nov. 11: Phoenix International Raceway

ON RACING AT DARLINGTON RACEWAY
“I’ve got to earn my stripes, right? Which means brushing the wall a few times probably? I just think it’s one of those tracks I look forward to figuring out and doing well at because I think it really shows who can handle their car. The racing looks fun there. But it’s going to be challenging and it’s definitely different. Tony (Eury, crew chief) and (Dale Earnhardt) Junior have talked about it, but it’s all part of the process. The more times I can learn how to adapt to a car on a track and to a track, the better off I am.”

HOW MUCH INPUT DID YOU ACTUALLY HAVE IN SELECTING THE TRACKS WHERE YOU WILL RUN IN 2012?

“Well, my input first off, was that I’ll do what Tony (Stewart) wants me to do because I’m not the professional and I’m not the experienced one. He is. And the other part that I probably had a little bit of a say on was that I wanted to start at Daytona. Like I said, I just really didn’t want my first Cup race to be at Darlington. So, it’s nice that we can go somewhere that we have a real chance of doing well and so yeah.”

THAT BEING SAID, IT IS NASCAR’S BIG KICKOFF; THE BIGGEST RACE. DOES THAT ADD MORE PRESSURE?

“Yeah, but I feel like it’s easier to get up to speed there than some other tracks; somewhere that it’s flat-out racing; you’re flat-out. In some ways that’s easier than learning how to go to somewhere like Phoenix or Loudon or somewhere like that when you’re having to stop the car and turn and you have to do a lot more things. It’s really down to keeping your nose clean and picking the right lanes and being smooth for the car in front of you or behind you and just getting a little lucky.”

ARE THERE TRACKS MORE DIFFICULT FOR YOU PERSONALLY?

“Short tracks have been challenging for me. I think I’ve gotten a little bit better this year, but short tracks are definitely something that my first year I was not so great at. So, short tracks and I think the 1.5-mile tracks are something I think I’ve caught onto a little quicker. I’d say that’s probably an area that I need the most help. But it’ll be interesting because the Nationwide car doesn’t have as much horsepower and in a Cup car you need to use the brakes and a lot of power to get you out of the corners. So I don’t know. It’s interesting. Sometimes drivers do better in Cup than in Nationwide just because of the characteristics of the car.”

WHAT ABOUT ROAD COURSES?

“Oddly enough, they’re not so bad. And it probably has to do with (the fact that) there are so many good drivers in Indy and especially road racers; and over in NASCAR, there are less of those races run so I almost feel like I am more of a veteran of road courses than they are although I’ve got obviously almost next to no experience other than one race on a road course now. But I don’t think that I will be quite as worried about them.”

WHAT ABOUT GOING TO CHICAGOLAND? HAVE YOU CIRCLED THAT RACE A LITTLE BIT?

“I think that all the 1.5-miles are places where I feel like I have a chance to run with the pack. But like Tony Junior has pointed out, because he has a lot of Cup experience obviously, that there are certain things that I need to work on to make sure that I’m up to speed for Cup level and those guys. So from now until the end, those are the things I’m going to work on and they’re only going to help me in Nationwide.”

ARE YOU ABLE TO FILTER OUT ALL THE ATTENTION YOU’RE GETTING WITH THIS CHANGE FROM INDYCAR TO NASCAR?

“Well, I feel badly for my PR person because she’s going to probably have to say no to a few people. But luckily that’s not my area. And it’s not my responsibility. Whatever I’m told to do, I do; and I try and do the best job possible, but it’s going to be about managing time and I’m sure theirs is going to be a lot of time spent on the Daytona area at the beginning of the year, but that’s okay. I always thought it was interesting that the first race of the year was the biggest race of the year; but then again, it drives so much attention and so much interest and gets everybody so excited for the year that everybody is paying attention and then you just hit the ground running. So that’s actually pretty cool. And it’s going to be about time management, about expectation levels and about making friends. I want to race with these guys good and I need to earn their respect and I’ll take any advice along the way that I can get.”

HOW READY ARE YOU TO FOCUS JUST ON NASCAR?: “It is nice and I’m excited at the thought of just being able to continue with the learning process every weekend instead of at the end of the second practice I feel like I’m kind of figuring things out. I feel like I’ll be able to do that hopefully by the third race instead for the rest of the season, which is really good to have these last few races at the end of this year because I feel like we’ve already started to kind of think of things to get ready for next year and implement them and see how they go. That’s always exciting for a driver to be prepared for the next season before this one is over with and it makes me feel like hopefully we’re going to have a good year. Tony has told me that the first 10 races are the important ones so here we go.”

HOW DO YOU FEEL ENTERING A RACE LIKE DAYTONA WITH TWO-CAR DRAFTING?: “I even felt comfortable at the February race this year at the beginning of the race. I was top-10 most of the time and that was really before any but the first couple were bump drafting. I feel comfortable in that environment. It reminds me of Indy Car, it reminds me of mile-and-a-half racing because you’re flat out and it’s about taking care of the car, it’s about putting it in the right spot and it’s about following the run so I feel more comfortable in those environments. Whether it’s bump drafting or not, I feel like the bigger tracks are the high speed chess match that I’m familiar with.”

WILL YOU HAVE A SECONDARY RESIDENCE IN NORTH CAROLINA?: “I don’t know. I don’t think so. I have a pretty busy schedule outside of the race car anyway that I tended to have about one or two days off each week, which I know everybody gets Saturdays and Sundays off — other than us, we all work at the race track on the weekends. For somebody reading something at home, but when we’re on the road, you all know, you’re on the road. You don’t go home at night to your bed. You don’t go have dinner at home. You are in a hotel and it’s exhausting. I spend five, almost six days a week traveling and doing appearances and photo shoots and races anyway. We’ll have to see, but a couple years ago when I was in Indy Car I would stay at my parent’s house in Roscoe in between races and that was pretty functional. I’m sure we’ll figure something out, but if I’m needed in Charlotte — I’ll be there.”

ARE THERE ANY SIMILARITIES BETWEEN TONY STEWART AND MICHAEL ANDRETTI?: “I don’t know. I don’t think I know him well enough yet, but as a friend, Tony (Stewart) is a very kind of funny, outgoing, vocal guy and Michael (Andretti) can be a little quiet sometimes. We do have a good rapport. We’ve done a few appearances together and I can remember one that was about two years ago and I was doing something for Peak and he was doing something maybe for Armor All and we did a little Q&A session on stage together. There got to be moments where I couldn’t say what I was thinking. It was pretty funny. I almost said it and then I decided I couldn’t say that out loud. We have a good time, but I do think we have good rapport and I think that’s what’s going to make this really fun. Everybody in my organization that’s worked with them had nothing but praise for everything from my experience with Tony to the marketing side to the media side to everybody in the company has been outstanding and everybody at Danica Racing is looking forward to working with them.”

IS THIS THE WAY YOU NORMALLY INTERACT WITH TONY?: “Yeah, that’s pretty much it. That’s pretty much normal conversation. We have to make sure there’s no mics on when we’re ‘BS’ing.”

IS TEXAS A NO BRAINER TRACK FOR YOU?: “No, anytime there’s lifting involved it means that the car is at its limit so I think that it’s just about getting more and more comfortable with that limit is what I need to do. You know the faster and the more grip the track has, it tends to be the more comfortable I am. Any time you’re taking the car to the limit, which is when you have to lift is still my experience coming out to play or my lack of it.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT RACING AT BRISTOL OR DOVER?: “I enjoyed Bristol — I really did. I think and I’ve also sort of found this too that not only tracks that have grip, but also one way things translate to grip is banking and anytime there’s more banking then it holds the car in better. Bristol has a lot of it — a lot of it. I remember when I got there and I walked out on the back straight and I was like, ‘How can this not be the corner?’ I think tracks with more banking I do well at. I found that places like Loudon I struggle at the flat, short tracks. Those are the tracks that I struggle with the most. When we raced at St. Louis last year that was a bit of a struggle so the flatter the track and the less grip there is — is where I need to find the most in me and learn the most about the car and what I need. That’s the most challenging, that’s where you’re finding the car at its furthest limit. It’s funny because in Indy Car it was the opposite. I liked the flatter, shorter tracks like Milwaukee were the best. Then Loudon this year we went to was really fun, but it’s just a different handling car.”

IS TODAY AN EXCITING DAY?: “It started out with seeing my car with Dan’s (Wheldon) tribute on it and seeing the helmet in person for the first time and that and talking about that earlier today and being really excited to not only see my car because I hadn’t seen it yet, but to talk about it being the No. 10 car and how just cool I think that is. I know it sounds silly, but I’ve never been able to choose my number in racing other than go-karts. Actually even in go-karts when I got to the A level, they gave you different numbers so it was really the last time I got to pick this number I was probably about 15 or 14. Pretty cool.”

DOES IT FEEL GOOD TO GET THIS ANNOUNCEMENT DONE?: “It’s nice to get these things going. It’s good to tell you what’s happening before everyone finds out. As I said, when the news happens, I want it to be our news and I don’t want someone else to find out through the grapevine when something’s happened so it’s nice to give you something that you don’t know and haven’t heard yet and something that is real news. It’s nice for me to not get questions about these things. Although Tony and I kind of share this — we might act like we care a little bit, but we don’t mind when you harp on us and it gives us the chance to let you know that you’re asking the same questions or it gives us the opportunity to get a little quick and witty with you. Ultimately, the focus needs to be on running the car, getting ready for the next season and getting up to speed and hitting the ground running next year so I can come out of the box strong for the first 10. It’s not all finalized, but it’s not finalized and that’s the thing that it’s smart to leave the dates open to see where I need the most practice at and where I need the most preparation for hopeful 2013. There’s enough for you guys to still have questions about.”

IS THERE INTREPIDATION WHEN YOU RETURN TO VEGAS?: “Actually I was in Vegas on Tuesday — I was there for an appearance for my sponsor Peak and we did do quite a bit of shuffling, I was meant to be there another day and I was meant to do something else the week before, but I have great partners and they helped rearrange the schedules. They made sacrifices so that we could do the best job possible to honor Dan and to be tasteful with what we’ve done and think it though and do smart things. I’m sure they have and we’ll get back to racing and the best thing that can happen from a really awful tragedy is that positive things come from it and strides in the safety and awareness and knowledge for what happens in those situations grows and we’re all better for it.”

About Chevrolet

Founded in Detroit in 1911, Chevrolet celebrates its centennial as a global automotive brand with annual sales of about 4.25 million vehicles in more than 120 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. The Chevrolet portfolio includes iconic performance cars such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long-lasting pickups and SUVs such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers such as Spark, Cruze, Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including Cruze Eco and Volt. Cruze Eco offers 42 mpg highway while Volt offers 35 miles of electric, gasoline-free driving and an additional 344 miles of extended range. Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com .

- Team Chevy, Press Release

Danica Patrick - Photo Credit: Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR

DARLINGTON, S.C. (Nov. 4, 2011)

Patrick will make her first career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start in the season-opening Daytona 500 followed by a the Southern 500 at Darlington. The challenge of racing on arguably the toughest track on the NASCAR circuit is not lost on Patrick.

“Darlington’s going to be an awful lot of fun,” said Patrick. “The expectation levels will be low, which is probably a good thing.”

“To be honest, from my perspective, I did not want to start my year in a Cup car – for the races I was going to do – at someplace like Darlington,” continued Patrick. “Everybody’s going to be watching, especially at my first Cup race. And there’s going to be more news about it, so I didn’t want Darlington to be my first one.”

“We are excited to be part of Danica’s limited NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule in 2012,” said Darlington Raceway President, Chris Browning. “She is a very talented driver and having her in both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series races at Darlington will make for a very exciting weekend for our fans.”

Patrick is not the first female competitor to take to the famed 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval. Janet Guthrie was the first female to compete at Darlington Raceway logging a 16th-place finish in the 1977 Southern 500. More recently, Shawna Robinson competed in the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 in March of 1992 finishing 42nd.

In 115 starts in the IZOD IndyCar Series Patrick has recorded one win and seven podium-finishes. Patrick made her NASCAR Nationwide Series debut in 2010 and has posted three top-10, and one top-five finish in 22 starts.

You can keep up with all of the latest news from Darlington Raceway at DarlingtonRaceway.com, on Facebook at Facebook.com/DarlingtonRaceway and on Twitter at Twitter.com/TooToughToTame.

Darlington Raceway, or the track Too Tough To Tame as it is known to many, is where the purest of NASCAR competition meets true southern hospitality. A NASCAR staple since 1950, Darlington Raceway has seen some of motorsports most talented drivers thunder to Gatorade Victory Lane. On Mother’s Day weekend, May 11-12, 2012, NASCAR’s biggest stars return to battle the track Too Tough To Tame in the Sprint Cup Series Southern 500® and Nationwide Series Darlington 200.

Tickets for events at Darlington can be purchased by calling the Darlington Racewayticket office at 866-459-RACE or online at http://www.darlingtonraceway.com/tickets/.

- Darlington Raceway, Press Release

Danica Patrick, driver of the No. 7 GoDaddy.com/DanWheldonMemorial.com Chevrolet, looks on in the garage during practice for the NASCAR Nationwide Series O'Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway on Nov. 4 in Fort Worth, Texas. - Photo Credit: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

Patrick’s limited Sprint Cup Series schedule will kick off with ‘The Great American Race’

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Danica Patrick will make her NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut in the prestigious season-opening 54^th annual Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 26.

Patrick, who will compete full time in the NASCAR Nationwide Series with JR Motorsports in 2012, announced on Friday afternoon that her limited Sprint Cup Series schedule with Stewart-Haas Racing will kick off with “The Great American Race.”

“Each year, the Daytona 500 produces unforgettable moments that forever change the lives of fans and drivers,” Daytona International Speedway President Joie Chitwood III said. “As Danica embarks on her first start in ‘The Great American Race,’ she may want to talk with 2011 champion Trevor Bayne, who might be able to share some pointers for first timers. We wish her well and are excited about her participation in the NASCAR’s biggest and most prestigious event – the Daytona 500.”

Patrick will become just the third woman to compete in the Daytona 500 when she takes the green flag in February. Janet Guthrie made two Daytona 500 starts in 1977 and 1980, finishing 12^th and 11^th respectively. Shawna Robinson finished 24^th in her lone Daytona 500 start in 2002.

Patrick made her stock car and NASCAR debuts on the storied 31-degree high banks at Daytona International Speedway during Speedweeks 2010. She finished sixth in the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 ARCA race and 35^th in her first Nationwide Series race.

Most recently at the “World Center of Racing,” Patrick led five times for 13 laps in the Subway Jalapeno 250 Powered By Coca-Cola Nationwide Series race in July before getting caught up in an incident in the tri-oval coming to the checkered flag and finishing 10th.

Tickets for the 54^th annual Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 26 as well as other Speedweeks 2012 events can be purchased online at www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com or by calling 1-800-PITSHOP

New for the 2012 Daytona 500 is special youth pricing. Children 12 and under will receive 50 percent off all Superstretch grandstand seats for the Daytona 500 with the purchase of an adult ticket. The special offer expires Feb. 1.

Fans can stay connected with Daytona International Speedway’s social media channels on Twitter (www.twitter.com/disupdates) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/DaytonaInternationalSpeedway).

Danica Patrick at Daytona International Speedway

Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 (ARCA)
2010 Started 12^th and finished sixth

Daytona 300 (NASCAR Nationwide Series, February)
2010 Started 15^th and finished 35^th

2011 Started fourth and finished 14th

Subway Jalapeno 250 Powered By Coca-Cola (NASCAR Nationwide Series, July)
2011 Started seventh and finished 10th

Rolex 24 At Daytona

2006 Started 16^th and finished 50^th. Co-drove with Rusty Wallace, Allan McNish and Jan Lammers

2009 Started 18^th and finished eighth. Co-drove with Andy Wallace, Rob Finlay and Casey Mears

- Daytona International Speedway, Press Release

Andretti Autosport

Marco Andretti Leads the Way with Sixth
Spot in the 

LAS VEGAS (Oct. 14, 2011) - Marco Andretti and his No. 26 Team Dr Pepper TEN machine led the strong qualifying performance for Andretti Autosport Friday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in preparation for Sunday’s IZOD INDYCAR World Championships, the final round of the 17-race 2011 season. All four Andretti Autosport drivers qualified in the top-ten Friday.

Andretti, the Iowa winner, will make his 100th career IndyCar start Sunday when the green flag falls at 12:45 p.m. PDT.

Marco will start sixth in the 34-driver field by piloting his pretty burgundy and gray Dr Pepper TEN entry to a two-lap average of 221.129 mph at the 1.5-mile high-banked oval north of the Las Vegas Strip.

Andretti is followed in the Andretti Autosport contingent by Ryan Hunter-Reay seventh, Danica Patrick ninth and Mike Conway tenth.

Hunter-Reay, the winner at the New Hampshire oval, posted a speed of 221.040 mph as the Florida driver seeks to improve his current seventh place ranking in the season point standings in the No. 28 Team DHL/Circle K/Sun Drop Citrus Soda car. He is just 20 points out of fifth place.

Patrick, the fastest driver in Thursday practice, drove her No. 7 Team GoDaddy.com machine to ninth Friday with 220.925 mph speed, while Conway, the Long Beach champion, took the No. 27 Grime Boss car to a 220.922 mph to round out the top-ten in time trials.

In a unique situation, the IZOD IndyCar Series stars are away from the track Saturday with autograph sessions and sponsor events.

Thursday night proved to be an exciting display at the Las Vegas Strip when all 34 drivers took their IndyCars from one end to the other with tens of thousands of spectators watching the first-time event for race cars on the Strip.

MARCO ANDRETTI, #26 TEAM DR PEPPER TEN CAR

Will start Sunday’s race in sixth position
“Overall the Dr Pepper TEN car is strong and I think we’ll be a contender on Sunday. We’ll be good in traffic, but everyone is going to be good in traffic – that’s why it’s going to be a great race for the fans.”

MIKE CONWAY, #27 TEAM GRIME BOSS CAR

Starts the season finale in P10
“The track temperature was pretty much the same as in practice. Not a bad run. It is not as quick as practice but that was with a tow [draft]. I didn’t get as much as I wanted on the first lap, but my second lap seemed to be pretty good in the Grime Boss car. I was able to work with my tools better on the second one. It will be a crazy race on Sunday.”

RYAN HUNTER-REAY, #28 TEAM DHL /CIRCLE K/SUN DROP CITRUS SODA CAR

Will start the race from P7
“We got a little bit of a bad draw going early, so we didn’t know what to expect in qualifying. It [the speed] is a little slower than we thought. We thought maybe a mid-221 at least. I know that our guys have built a great race car and will be ready for the battle on Sunday. This race will be a strong showing for Andretti Autosport. I am anxious for the race. It should be a good run for the Team DHL/Circle K/Sun Drop car. This is going to be less of a handling track as Texas. Thus, that means the cars with not the best balance will be able to hang in the pack. That will mean some very intense racing. It should a wild one.”

DANICA PATRICK, #7 TEAM GoDaddy.com CAR

Starts the race in ninth position
“Overall, I think our GoDaddy.com team is pretty good. I was surprised by the speed in qualifying. I thought we would be a little faster. I wasn’t able to get up to speed as fast as I would have liked. I did what I wanted to do with my bars and weight jacker as in practice. I went a little quicker in second lap and that is good. This will be a pack race on Sunday. So while it is nice to qualify towards the front of the field, I’m not sure that will be a big factor for the race. If you have a fast car in the race, I think you will move to the front pretty quickly.”

- Andretti Autosport, Press Release