The Danica Patrick Brand Can Survive GoDaddy Parting, but Wins Need to Come Soon

When GoDaddy.com announced Wednesday that the web-hosting company would not return as the predominant NASCAR Sprint Cup sponsor of Danica Patrick, it may have done the sport’s leading female competitor a favor.

The expiration of the longtime relationship between the two at season’s end was common knowledge, so much so that it had become one of the season’s subplots. Stewart-Haas Racing’s management has time to revise and redraw its plans. Patrick is an appealing “brand,” as evidenced by a relationship with GoDaddy.com that dated back to 2007. GoDaddy was her main backer, first in IndyCars and then, starting in 2010, in NASCAR.

Todd Warshaw/Getty Images

Patrick, 33, burned no bridges when the ax fell—she called GoDaddy “an incredible partner”—and her classy mien could stand her in good stead as she and her team pursue new sponsorship.

GoDaddy chief marketing officer Phil Bienert and Patrick told USA Today that they hoped to negotiate a personal services contract to continue the nine-year relationship.

“I think initially the first thought is ‘bad’ because it feels like it’s going away,” she told USA Today’s Brant James. “It’s just going away in the way that it was. I feel like there’s a lot of good work to do. We’ve really grown up together.”

According to both parties, the ending of the NASCAR sponsorship isn’t personal—or based on her performance driving SHR’s No. 10 Chevrolet—but solely on a shift in GoDaddy’s business model.

Bienert told USA Today the company was dropping the sponsorship because “we recognize in the United States, we are not really in a brand-building phase anymore.”

Patrick, who had voiced optimism throughout the year to date, wasn’t caught unawares.

“It’s not accurate to say this scenario never crossed any of our minds,” she said. “Sponsorship is tough to come by.”

Seasons	2012	2013	2014	2015
Poles	0	1	0	0
Top 10s	0	1	3	2
Avg. Finish	28.3	26.1	23.7	18.4
Pts. Rank	62	27	28	16

Personal dynamism and charisma aside, it’s hard not to consider Patrick’s NASCAR career to date a disappointment. Before she began racing occasionally in the (now) Xfinity Series in 2010, ran a full schedule in 2012 and moved full-time into Cup in 2012, Patrick had won an IndyCar race at Motegi, Japan, in 2008, and finished third in one Indianapolis 500 (2009) and fourth in another (2005).

Her NASCAR career highlight to date wasn’t in a race. She qualified first for the 2013 Daytona 500. She has finished in the top 10 at six Cup races, two of them this year, but has never finished in the top five in 91 tries.

Patrick’s improvement has been measurable but slow. On one hand, her average starting and finishing positions have improved each year. On the other, those numbers in the first nine races of the current season are only 20.9 (start) and 18.4 (finish). She ranks 16th in the point standings.

Tom Pennington/Getty Images

Prior to the announcement, SHR co-owner Tony Stewart told FoxSports.com’s Tom Jensen just last weekend that the team recognized the uncertainty.

“It’s too early right now,” Stewart said. “I think we’re all worrying about week to week right now, but obviously, we know what’s coming up at the end of the year. It’s on our minds, but the thing is, if we do our jobs week to week, I think it answers those questions a lot easier.”

An SHR media release quoted the team’s executive vice president, Brett Frood, as saying, “We look forward to fostering a new partnership for her and the No. 10 team.”

“Maybe there’s something out there that will be new and fresh, maybe reach a new demographic that both markets me and builds my brand,” Patrick told the Associated Press (h/t FoxSports.com). “I’ve always encouraged my partners to use my platform to build their brand, and this is maybe an opportunity for something new.”

But all the marketing jargon, full of “brands” and “platforms,” might not appeal to a sponsor craving checkered flags, and SHR is ill-equipped to put Patrick on the track without sufficient sponsorship, estimated at over $20 million a year, especially since co-owner Gene Haas is already funding Kurt Busch’s No. 41 out of his own pockets.

The team has intentions of keeping her, but sponsorship dollars are more important than intentions. If Patrick has any other options, they haven’t received notable attention.

Patrick said to USA Today:

"

I would love to be back at Stewart-Haas. Stewart-Haas has said they would love to have me, and obviously, we would have to go and do some work and try to find a primary [sponsor] that’s either willing to step up or come in. So we’re working through that and all that has to happen first. We need to find sponsorship and then we can move forward with the rest of it. From everything I have heard and everything I feel, I absolutely want to move forward with Stewart-Haas.

"

GoDaddy founder Bob Parsons once said his company would sponsor Patrick even if she decided to become a professional figure skater, but that was before the company was sold to private equity firms in 2011 and went public this month as a global brand with different objectives and approaches, according to USA Today.

“…It’s definitely a little bit of a new concept to wrap my head around and it will be sad not to drive that green GoDaddy car,” she told the newspaper. “But it will make me look at all the pictures now with a little bit of fondness and memories of how much we’ve done and how far we’ve come.”

Soon, however, the time for nostalgia will be past. Few in the sport know the value of money better than Danica Patrick.

What would most likely solve the predicament? Victory might fill in the blanks necessary to keep the great NASCAR experiment alive.

All quotes are taken from NASCAR media, team and manufacturer sources unless otherwise noted.