Danica Patrick Losing GoDaddy Sponsorship in 2016

Web hosting company won't continue its primary sponsorship with NASCAR driver after 2015 season, but they're negotiating a personal services agreement

By Rebecca Macatee Apr 29, 2015 6:16 PMTags
Danica PatrickCourtesy: Stewart-Haas Racing

It's been a long ride for GoDaddy and Danica Patrick, but all good things must come to an end.

The web hosting company announced Wednesday that at the end of NASCAR's 2015 season, it would be dropping its racing sponsorships. This is a big change, especially when you consider the fact that GoDaddy has been affiliated with Patrick since 2007 and served as her primary sponsor since 2010.

But this might not be the end of Patrick's relationship with the online domain registrar! GoDaddy is not renewing its primary sponsorship of the 33-year-old athlete's team, but per their press release, "the company is negotiating to keep Patrick as a GoDaddy spokeswoman under a personal services agreement."

As GoDaddy Chief Marketing Officer Phil Bienert said, "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...The fact Danica is having a record-setting season makes it tough to leave this motorsports sponsorship, without a doubt."

As for Patrick? She praised GoDaddy as having been "an incredible partner for a very long time, almost nine years, and as I've said before, our brands have really grown up together."

"It's pretty cool, from a marketing perspective, that we helped GoDaddy build such strong brand awareness here in the U.S," she added. "I'm excited to work with GoDaddy on a personal level moving forward, but will miss having their bright green color on my racecar next year."

That said, 2015's not over yet! Patrick is well aware of this, too, as evidenced by her recent tweet:

So what's next? This Sunday, Patrick will be being the wheel of that bright green #10 GoDaddy Chevrolet at the GEICO 500 on the Talladega Superspeedway.