When Danica Patrick roars around the Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee later this summer, CSU fans will have an extra reason to cheer.

Her car’s paint scheme will feature Colorado State University and One Cure, a program out of the CSU Flint Animal Cancer Center.

One Cure uses a collaborative approach, called comparative oncology, to improve cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment in both animals and people.

The cars Patrick raced May 13 in Kansas and May 20 in North Carolina incorporated CSU and One Cure logos, too.

“It’s such a great program to learn about cancers not only in dogs and animals, but in humans, and how it relates and that it does,” Patrick said during a phone interview with the Coloradoan. “Cancer is cancer.”

During her race at the Kansas Speedway on May 13, Patrick was caught in a fiery, three-car crash. Her car was shuttled to North Carolina to join ranks with other crumpled cars in Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s race car graveyard. He tweeted a picture of the new addition resting on the bed of his pickup and awaiting transportation to the graveyard, and he tagged Patrick. In the photo, the CSU and One Cure logos appear intact, though dented.

“It’ll live forever in Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s graveyard,” she said with a laugh. “I guess if it’s going to die, it might as well go to a good place.”

Patrick will donate to One Cure at the end of May. She and her longtime boyfriend, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., have a fluffy, miniature Siberian Husky named Dallas who has been re-created as a stuffed animal. Patrick’s team, Stewart-Haas Racing, will donate a portion of May’s proceeds to One Cure, and Patrick has agreed to match the donation.

The partnership between Patrick and CSU came about through one of her sponsors, Code 3 Associates, a Longmont-based nonprofit that specializes in disaster response for animals. The nonprofit supports the Flint Animal Cancer Center and proposed its logo in lieu of a Code 3 logo this summer.

Code 3 Associates also worked its magic to coordinate with the Tony Stewart Foundation to place CSU and One Cure logos on the car of Jay Howard, a British race car driver, when he competes in the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday.

“I have a huge passion for animals, so this is something really special for me to have the CSU One Cure logo on the car,” Howard said. “It’s something a little more than just going racing and having partners on the car. Of course, I’m very grateful and appreciative to have the partners that we have, but having One Cure on the car is definitely a little extra special.”

A CSU contingent — including Flint Animal Cancer Center director Rodney Page and cancer survivor Emily Brown — traveled to Indianapolis to attend various prerace events. They’ll also have seats for the big day.

Brown, who is now 31 and a spokeswoman for One Cure, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma shortly before her 11th birthday. Typically, she said, the cancer forms in the arms and legs, but her tumor appeared on her spine. Her oncologist contacted Steve Withrow, a veterinary oncologist and founder of the Flint Animal Cancer Center, and Brown participated in several clinical trials that used a treatment that had been pioneered with animals there. She was also treated with surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation.

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When the cancer spread to her lungs, doctors told Brown she had three months to live, and she discontinued chemotherapy and radiation. However, when three months passed, she returned and found out that the tumors in her lungs had completely disappeared. She credits the trials with her survival.

"It's both shocking and fantastic," Brown said of Howard's and Patrick's cars. "There's such promise out there in this type of research. ... To have people that aren't oncologists or researchers see the (research) is amazing."

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