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Danica Patrick unveils NASCAR plans

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Associated Press

IndyCar driver Danica Patrick unveils her GoDaddy.com No. 7 JR Motorsports stock car during an event announcing her intention to make her stock car racing debut in an ARCA race Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2009, in Phoenix. Patrick has signed with JR Motorsports team, owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Rick Hendrick, and intends to start in her first in an ARCA Series race on Feb. 6 at Daytona International Speedway.

PHOENIX — Danica Patrick signed with JR Motorsports on Tuesday to give NASCAR a try, but her schedule in the second-tier Nationwide Series has yet to be determined.

Patrick, a native of Roscoe, Ill., will make her stock car racing debut in the Feb. 6 ARCA race at Daytona International Speedway, a day before she'll be featured in a pair of Super Bowl ads for sponsor GoDaddy.com.

The IndyCar sensation unveiled her green and orange No. 7 Chevrolet in a news conference at Chase Field with GoDaddy.com, which is sponsoring her in both series.

"We've all been working very hard for some time now to bring this all together," Patrick said at a news conference. "There's much relief there, but I'm starting to get a little bit nervous that now it's time to do my part of the deal and get out there in these cars and perform. It's no doubt going to be challenging."

Patrick will juggle her new NASCAR job with her full-time job in IndyCar, where she's the series' most marketable driver. She finalized a three-year contract extension last week with Andretti Autosport to run the full IndyCar schedule, but there's enough lag time in the schedule to do both.

She will drive for the team owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Rick Hendrick in the second-tier Nationwide Series.

"I think (NASCAR) is something we're going to try to do before and after the IndyCar season, but we will look at some options," she said.

It's not yet determined how many NASCAR races she will run in 2010. With flashbulbs popping, the black-clad Patrick posed between her NASCAR and IndyCar rides.

Patrick said she's more comfortable with the demands of a heavier schedule — something that she said she wasn't ready to do a few years ago, when speculation began to grow that she was considering racing stock cars.

"I'm finally ready," Patrick said. "I think that the schedule doesn't intimidate me as much as it used to. It's going to be a lot to learn."

Kelley Earnhardt, sister of JR Motorsports co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr., worked to bring Patrick into the fold. Asked about the team's expectations of Patrick, Earnhardt said, "I think it's reasonable for her to be in the top 15 of the series when she's running.

"Obviously, maybe the first few races, we'll see what that brings," Earnhardt said. "She's got to get in there and get used to the cars. Hopefully, everybody will remember that and won't be so quick to judge, which is easy to do."

Patrick said she could "barely remember" the last time she was in a stock car and thought it was seven or eight years ago. But she said she's willing to learn a "new craft" and hopes to challenge the top names in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series some day.

"Obviously, if ever one day it continued on and I ended up running in the Cup one day, then I need to learn how to race against those guys and earn their respect," Patrick said. "So I'm excited about that, actually. It's an opportunity to try and show what I've got."