DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Across the early months of 2015 Danica Patrick couldn't avoid wondering if much of what she knew in NASCAR might be slipping away.

GoDaddy, her chief sponsor for the past nine years, was transitioning as a company right as their sponsorship deal for her car needed to be negotiated. And the process, Patrick said, was frustrating.

"Well, we definitely got strung along for a really long time last year about re-upping," Patrick told Yahoo Sports Friday as she prepared for Sunday's Daytona 500. "It was excuse after excuse about, 'We're working on this; we're working on that; we're going public; we've got a lot going on.' Once that goes on long enough, you start to realize you're getting strung along.

"So I had a bad feeling about it."

Her concerns were about more than just a potential split with GoDaddy, which she'd become almost synonymous with over the years. She's appeared in more Super Bowl commercials than any person ever, all of them for the company. If the sponsorship evaporated, then so too could her roster spot on the elite Stewart-Haas Racing team.

That's how the business of motorsports works: no money, no guarantees. Patrick still believed she was growing as a driver, as she'd only driven stock cars full time since 2011. Changing teams might stunt that development.

"Sure I was worried," Patrick said. "My contract was up with GoDaddy and my contract was up with the team. It's a business. It makes sense. So I was definitely a little bit worried … it was definitely a concern. I mean, they can tell you all they want you on the team, but I heard all the rumors about Clint [Bowyer] coming to the team and all the different things that made me nervous."

One worry begat the other.

A delay with GoDaddy made a delay with Stewart-Haas seem even more troubling then it actually may have been. Patrick is a big enough star and a good enough driver that she was going to get a ride somewhere, but for someone so focused on making this work, for making everything work, anything other than staying the course was unsettling.

Then GoDaddy, no longer under the control of founder and Danica fan Bob Parsons, confirmed Patrick's suspicions.

In late April a call was scheduled and new management announced the days of sponsoring her car were over, although they held out the promise of a personal promotional deal. That deal has yet to materialize, however.

"I think it was like a half-ass break-up," Patrick said. "It's disappointing. … They called and said they are not going to sponsor the car anymore but they want to stay with me and they want to keep going and there is a lot of value in that relationship. But there is no personal deal [signed yet] so I'm beginning to think that they were just lying about that too, and they just wanted to soften the blow and that they really don't want to do a personal deal. That's what it seems like.

"It's a little frustrating. It's a little disappointing. I guess it would be easier for me to understand if they were just moving on then it would be to accept they strung me along and then strung me along on a personal side sponsorship, too."

With GoDaddy gone, everything was in flux. A new major, primary car sponsor requiring upward of $20 million annually was needed. It presented a bit of a Catch-22. Without a sponsor lined up, would Stewart-Haas keep her? Yet without the top-line equipment and crew of Stewart-Haas, would a major sponsor want to commit to her?

____________________

Patrick, 33, is small in stature but undeniably tough – physically, mentally and emotionally. You don't climb to this level of the alpha-male dominated world of motorsports any other way.

Critics of her inability to compete for championships ignore not just her development as a driver, but the sheer fearlessness required to attempt this pursuit, bumper to bumper along a concrete wall at 200 miles per hour. This is the real deal.

At the time of the GoDaddy announcement, she was in the top 16 of the standings, holding two top-10 finishes during the early part of the season. And while no one expects her to win a Sprint Cup championship this season, no one would deny she has the potential to contend for a spot in the Chase, the playoff series for the top 16 cars.

View photos Bob Parsons said in 2011 GoDaddy would sponsor Danica Patrick wherever she goes. (Getty Images) More

Story continues