Danica Patrick Dropped By GoDaddy: Primary NASCAR Sponsor Drops Patrick For 2016
Danica Patrick has been dropped by her primary NASCAR sponsor. GoDaddy dropped Patrick this week, making a move away from NASCAR in long-term plans. The company did note that it is pursuing a smaller personal services contract with Patrick, but NASCAR won’t be used as one of its primary marketing platforms any longer. GoDaddy released a statement that USA Today Sports posted on Wednesday (April 29).
“We love Danica and all she does to empower and inspire people, especially women, which is why we are working to keep her in the GoDaddy family. We have the utmost respect for Stewart-Haas Racing, and they’ve been phenomenal partners. In fact, NASCAR has been a tremendous domestic platform to help us achieve an 81 percent aided brand awareness domestically, but at this stage, we need a range of marketing assets that reach a more globally-diverse set of customers.”
While this move by GoDaddy may seem a bit surprising due to its abruptness, the NASCAR platform had been a bold advertising endeavor for an online domain registrar. Now the company can focus on smaller forms of advertising, and this might also mean that Super Bowl commercials will also be curtailed. That specific fact wasn’t addressed by GoDaddy chief marketing officer Phil Bienert in the statement that got released.
Speaking to USA Today Sports about the situation with GoDaddy, Danica Patrick was very honest about her reaction to the news.
“I think initially the first thought is ‘bad’ because it feels like it’s going away, but then I have to remember that it’s not really going away for me, it’s just going away in the way that it was. I really feel like there’s really a lot of good work to do. We’ve really grown up together.”
In the current NASCAR standings, Danica Patrick ranks No. 16 overall. She represents Stewart-Hass Racing this season, and is currently driving the No. 10 car. She was actually ranked No. 13 in the last standings, has participated in nine races this season, and has two top 10 finishes. The 230 points that Patrick has puts her 127 points behind leader Kevin Harvick, but actually pretty close to making the postseason “Chase” races.
As previously reported on the Inquisitr, Patrick recently set the mark for most top 10 finishes by a woman in the history of the sport. At just 33 years old, it is also clear that there is still a lot of racing in her future. Despite losing GoDaddy as her primary NASCAR sponsor, Danica Patrick could return in the 2016 with a new sponsor and renewed hopes of winning races.
[Image Source: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images]
