When Ricky Stenhouse Jr. showed up for NASCAR’s media day at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Tuesday, he probably wanted to talk about anything but his breakup with Danica Patrick. But unfortunately for him, that’s arguably the thing people wanted to ask him about most.
Stenhouse didn’t shy away from the questions about Patrick, however, telling reporters that he thinks the “Danica Double” is an awesome way for his ex-girlfriend to end her career, according to Motorsport.com.
“I think it’s a cool way to go out if you’re going to retire for someone that’s done the Daytona 500 running NASCAR,” Stenhouse said. “Running IndyCar, her passion has always been the Indy 500. So I think it’s cool for that to be her last race and to hit the two biggest races of the year, really, in the same year will be pretty cool.”
Patrick in November announced her intention to run the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500, though her plan has only recently begun to come to fruition. GoDaddy reunited with Patrick on Jan. 18, agreeing to sponsor her in both 500-mile events ahead of her signing with Premium Motorsports to race at Daytona International Speedway.
Although Stenhouse and Patrick have ended their off-track relationship, Stenhouse insisted there won’t be any difference in the way they interact with each other on track.
“Heck, when we first started racing together, we got in crashes anyway,” Stenhouse told reporters. “It is what it is. I’ll just go out and race as hard as I can. I plan on putting myself in a position to win the race. If it helps me, I’ll help just like the way I do everybody else out there.”
Since her breakup with the Roush Fenway Racing driver, Patrick has started dating Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers.
