Danica Patrick to Drive in NASCAR Nationwide Series in 2010?

According to ESPN's Marty Smith, Danica Patrick is in the final phase of signing a two year contract with JR Motorsports to drive in the NASCAR Nationwide series in 2010.

Early in the 2009 NASCAR season, Patrick made it known that she was planning on moving from the Indy Racing League to NASCAR.

For the past few months she has been meeting with big faces in the NASCAR community, including former IRL driver and NASCAR champion, Tony Stewart.

Many people were privy to wild speculation as to what team would sign her and how she would be received into the NASCAR community.

However, much of the talk was silenced when Patrick signed a three year extension with her current IRL team, Andretti-Green Racing.

Now the word is, according to sources close to the negotiations, that with the departure of Brad Keselowski from JR Motorsports, Dale Jr. has taken a great deal of interest in signing Patrick to his Nationwide Series team.

Earnhardt Jr. and Patrick already have a connection which is making negotiations much easier—they are both sponsored by GoDaddy.com.

Sources say that Patrick is planning on driving the full IRL schedule along with a partial Nationwide schedule of 12-13 races. There are those, however, such as former open-wheel driver Juan Pablo Montoya, who say Patrick should focus on one series to avoid spreading herself too thin.

It's said that Patrick would drive the No. 7—Danica's IRL number—which would replace the No. 5, sponsored by none other than GoDaddy.com.