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Is Danica Patrick returning to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2016?

Nothing has been signed on the dotted line as of yet but according to SHR, all signs point to her coming back and a deal getting done soon. SHR executive vice president Brett Frood was interviewed on Wednesday by NBC Sports and he spoke positively about Patrick and the status of her re-signing with the team.

It’s a huge focus of ours on a daily basis. We have a team working on it. From a timing standpoint, we’d like to have something done by the end of the summer in unison with her and a partner and feel confident we’ll be able to get that done.

So what is happening on the new sponsor front? As we all know, GoDaddy announced earlier this season that they will be leaving Patrick and NASCAR at the end of the year. In his interview with NBC Sports, Frood mentioned that the search for sponsorship was looking good.

(We have been) engaged in several conversations with prospective sponsors. We feel very good where we are on that diligence and on that targeting. It’s a sport that will always continue to have an intrinsic link between partnership and sustainability. So I think that association is paramount to all the constituents and vital here. We’re definitlely looking for a strong corporate partner for Danica, but I don’t think that’s different from any other driver in the sport. We need to piece those together at the same time. We’re looking to do it in parallel.

Heading into 2015 there was some concern about whether or not SHR would bring Patrick back in 2016. Those concerns grew greater when it was announced that GoDaddy was leaving the sport. Now it seems as though Patrick’s fans can breath a sigh of relief moving forward. Although a deal is not in place as of right now, it would seem that one is coming in the near future to keep Patrick in the No. 10 machine and driving for SHR.