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Patrick is ready for the Sunday's Sprint Showdown at Charlotte

Vote early, vote often (or win the Sprint Showdown)

Published: May 15, 2013, 1:20 PM

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KANNAPOLIS, N.C. (May 14, 2013) – Danica Patrick enters this weekend not quite knowing how many laps she will race on Saturday night.

She might race 40, or she might race 130 depending on what happens with the Sprint Fan Vote and the Sprint Showdown. Both are part of the non-points Sprint All-Star event Saturday night at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway.

Danica Patrick, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet

Photo by: Action Sports Photography

Twenty-two drivers are already locked in the 90-lap Sprint All-Star race by virtue of either a Sprint Cup race win in 2012 or 2013, an All-Star Race win at some point in the last 10 years, or a Sprint Cup championship in the last decade.

Patrick, who has only 21 Sprint Cup starts in her career, does not meet those requirements but has two other ways she can lock herself and the GoDaddy Cares Chevrolet team into the Sprint All-Star Race. She can finish first or second in the 40-lap Sprint Showdown, which takes place right before the Sprint All-Star Race, or win the Sprint Fan Vote. Fans can vote for Patrick until 5 p.m. EDT Saturday at NASCAR.com or on the NASCAR Mobile ’13 app, where votes count twice.

Patrick’s No. 10 GoDaddy Cares Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) will carry the logo of GoDaddy Cares for this weekend’s Sprint All-Star festivities. GoDaddy Cares is GoDaddy’s charitable branch whose unique “Round Up for Charity” program in which customers who purchase a domain name or a product at GoDaddy have an option of rounding up their purchase to the nearest dollar. Customers then select a charity of their choice from an extensive list offered by GoDaddy.

DANICA PATRICK, Driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Cares Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What do you think your chances are of getting the fan vote into the Sprint All-Star Race?

“I don’t know. I think about it from a fan’s perspective and I think you want the driver you cheer for to be out there, of course, but you want a good race. Hopefully, they think of me when they think of those two. We always have the opportunity to race in, as well. We’ve been working really hard over the last month on our mile-and-a-half car and we need to. Let’s hope it all comes together by the All-Star Race.”

You made a funny video about the All-Star voting process with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Talk about that.

“We thought that was fun. Ricky (Stenhouse) and I shot that little video. I would love to be in the race and I think, more than anything, you want to entertain your fans, of course. I hope I can be in the race to do that. Also, I want to perform well in the Coke 600 and racing in the All-Star Race would definitely help that. It was between GoDaddy and Sprint and them all making that happen. GoDaddy came up with the script and thought it was a clever little script, so we shot it in a matter of about 20 minutes and it aired. Obviously, we both want to be in the race and to try to create a little bit of buzz to get people to go vote and have some fun with it.”

TONY GIBSON, Crew chief of the No. 10 GoDaddy Cares Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing:

How important would it be for Danica to either race her way in or get voted into the All-Star Race?

“It’s pretty big for anybody just for track time and being able to work on the car. It’d be nice to get extra seat time for her. So, hopefully, the fans will vote us in if we can’t race our way in and we can get in the thing. Once you’re in it, you never know what can happen. Obviously, we’ve seen in the past someone you think is going to win doesn’t.”

How big of a thrash is it for the team if you transfer from the Showdown to the All-Star Race?

“It’s actually not too bad. It’s no different than a pit stop, really. You can do the same things, change tires, change spring rubbers, chassis adjustments – things like that. So it’s not that big of a deal. They don’t take the car to victory lane, anymore, just the driver. So we can get ready and turn it around and go. It’s not that big of a deal, anymore, because there’s a limit on what we can change for the All-Star Race. If we race our way in or get voted in, we’ll be happy to deal with that when the time comes.”

-TSC-

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