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Female racing icon Danica Patrick has confirmed her intention to race at the 2018 Indy 500 and Daytona 500 before calling time on her high profile racing career.
A clearly upset Danica Patrick has today confirmed she will be stepping away from full time racing competition after 2018's Indy and Daytona 500 events, marking the end of what has been a spectacular period of time in the spotlight for Americas most famous female racing driver.
"Nothing that was being presented excited me, then about three weeks ago, I just blurted out, 'What about Indy? Let's end it with the Indy 500,'" she said. "This ignites something in me. But I am done after May. Everyone needs to put their mind there. My plan is to be at Indy, and then I'm done."
Although in receipt of plenty of the motorsport headlines over in the USA, Patrick has had anything but a successful career on track in first the IndyCar Series and recent years driving in the high profile NASCAR series, securing a lone pole position in her 189 NASCAR Cup starts.
With her NASCAR full time career effectively over at the end of the year, Patrick will be taking one final tilt at the big Daytona 500 round as well as ending her career for good where it all started, over in the IndyCar series at the world famous Indy 500, a race the controversial driver promised she would never return to when leaving to form a career in NASCAR back in 2011..
"I know I always said I'd never go back to Indy, and I was always being honest," she said. "Well, things change. I know now you can never say never. I'd been going through this in my head and kept asking myself, 'How am I going to get the words out and say it's over?' And trust me, I lost my (stuff) a few times over that.
"But this seems right, and this seems good."
Patrick has yet to confirm which team(s) she will be competing in at Daytona and Indy next year, although it is certain the American will be keen to secure drives in machinery capable of taking the fight to the front running drivers, something that looks increasingly difficult considering many of the top outfits already have firm driver plans in place for the coming season and Patrick appears to be struggling to secure the necessary sponsorship required to fund a top team drive in either American series, one of the contributory factors to her decision to walk away from the sport at the end of the 500 in May:
"I didn't want to be pushed into anything, and everyone can relate, sometimes things just shift and change around you," she told AP. "Especially with me and the sponsor situation. I've never been there before. I've always had a sponsor. It forces you into thinking about things and nothing was lining up easily. If I don't feel like I can run better than where I am, then I don't want to do it. And, there have been times that I could not have been more miserable.
"That's not why I come, and I feel like it takes away from everything else I accomplished. I don't want to be remembered for the things that didn't go as well. I want to be remembered for the things that went well."
Danica Patrick has made 189 career starts in the NASCAR Cup Series, securing seven top-10 finishes and a sole pole position at the 2013 running of the Daytona 500. According to Motorsport.com Patrick has raced in 53,321 laps of competition and has led for 64 of those laps... not exactly a world beater on track, but without doubt a trend setter for other women looking to make the break into top level professional motorsports.
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Do you think Patrick can have one more turn in the spotlight before retirement next year? Can she achieve success at Indy after so long away from the series? Let us know in the comments section below!