Danica Patrick: Irish Heartbeat

If you’re Irish and celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, you may head to Boston, Chicago or New York City or, perhaps, listen to the music of The Wolfe Tones and Paddy Reilly.

If you’re Irish and involved in NASCAR, you’ll head to the Irish hotbed of Bristol, Tenn., for Sunday’s Food City 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway. And rather than the sound of Irish music, you’ll hear pretty much nothing as it’s pretty darn loud at Bristol when 43 stock cars roar to life.

But in the spirit of the occasion, Danica Patrick’s No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) will sport a special St. Patrick’s Day paint scheme. The look of the car will be unveiled Thursday on GoDaddy’s Twitter feed (@GoDaddy).

Patrick will make her second Sprint Cup start at Bristol and hopes to build on her successful run last August at the .533-mile high-banked, concrete oval when she surprised some veteran NASCAR observers by running a solid race for much of the night. After starting 43rd due to qualifying being rained out, Patrick calmly moved her way through the field and was in the top-20 and on the lead lap with 66 laps remaining when her car was hit by another and contacted the SAFER Barrier on the inside retaining wall of the frontstretch. She finished a disappointing 29th.

Her solid run in her Bristol debut in the Sprint Cup Series, came one night after a ninth-place finish in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race.

The Food City 500 will also mark the first short-track race that she and crew chief Tony Gibson will work together. They’ve worked two races at the 1-mile Phoenix International Raceway, but have never competed together at a short-track such as Bristol. In addition, it will be their first race together at a concrete racetrack.

It’s not the traditional Irish celebration, but a good run at Bristol will have Irish eyes smiling on the GoDaddy.com team.

TSC PR