Danica Patrick Seen It All (Sort of)

With the conclusion of last weekend’s Party in the Poconos 400 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, Danica Patrick, driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), has been to all 23 tracks that host NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.

Pocono was the last facility where Patrick had yet to compete in Sprint Cup, NASCAR Nationwide Series or IZOD IndyCar Series competition at some point in her career.

While she has been to every track at least once, there are seven tracks where she has driven in either Nationwide or IndyCar competition but has yet to race in a Sprint Cup car. That list includes Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway, Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, Homestead-Miami Speedway and Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.

That list will reduce to six after the Quicken Loans 400 Sprint Cup event this Sunday at Michigan. Patrick has two Nationwide Series starts and three IZOD IndyCar Series starts at the 2-mile oval but will make her first Sprint Cup start at Michigan.

Last year, Marcos Ambrose won the pole for the June Sprint Cup race with a stock-car track-record lap of 203.241 mph. But high speeds at Michigan are nothing new to Patrick, who qualified for her final IndyCar race at Michigan in 2007 with a lap of 216.967 mph.

Michigan has always been a favorite track of drivers, as the high banks and wide surface provide opportunities to move the car around quite a bit, depending on the handling of the car. And Patrick is hoping Michigan, which is located in the Irish Hills region of the state, brings her and the GoDaddy team a little luck this weekend.

TSC PR