GoDaddy Drops Danica Patrick's Sponsorship

NASCAR driver Danica Patrick recently lost a major sponsor.

TMZ reported that web hosting company GoDaddy has decided to drop Patrick from their list of sponsored athletes. Her deal with the internet domain company will expire later in 2015.

GoDaddy announced Wednesday that it will no longer be renewing its contract with her. GoDaddy, which is based in Arizona, raised around $460 million by offering public stocks early in April 2015. The company said that it will let go of NASCAR at the end of the 2015 season. The company is allegedly planning to diversify its marketing investment over a broad range of regions and channels, based on a report by AFP.

According to the company, it is working on a “personal services” agreement with the 33-year-old NASCAR driver. Patrick is said to remain as a spokeswoman for the company.

Phil Bienert, chief marketing officer of GoDaddy explained the situation to USA Today, “We finally had that data, probably Friday afternoon, then wanted to talk to Danica. We've not been sitting on this. We really wanted to do our due diligence for the past couple months or two to get to the right answer. 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.”

For the first time in her career, the best known female IndyCar driver will be without a primary sponsor. Patrick has been signed by GoDaddy since 2007, AFP added.

'Sponsorship tough to come by'

Patrick admitted that she was taken aback by Go Daddy's decision. She told The Associated Press, “I'm sad. I'm a little surprised and I'm sad."

Patrick added, "But to say I didn't imagine this was not a scenario would be a lie. It's bittersweet. It's going to be really weird to think I won't drive the bright green, can't-miss-it car next year."

But she understands the situation, telling USA Today, "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. It's not accurate to say this scenario never crossed any of our minds. Sponsorship is tough to come by."