Cain: Despite GoDaddy's departure, Patrick's sponsorship should be coveted
RELATED: GoDaddy to end Patrick sponsorship
You know what they say about one door closing and another one opening.
And this door -- and hood and roof and fender -- is one of the most valuable opportunities in NASCAR.
When GoDaddy announced Wednesday that it would not be back as primary sponsor of Danica Patrick's No. 10 Chevrolet next year, the rest of corporate America should have started its engines.
Outside of Dale Earnhardt Jr. there is no NASCAR driver more marketable than Patrick. Her audience and fandom is easily the most diverse in the sport. Hollywood loves her as do hardcore fans in Martinsville, Virginia.
She's an ideal spokesperson for any company, as comfortable ringing the bell on Wall Street as speaking on behalf of COPD advocacy.
She's starred in Super Bowl commercials and appeared in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Patrick's merchandise is annually one of NASCAR's biggest sellers from young girls who look up to her, to the young girls' fathers who are impressed with her moxie.
Last year, she became the first NASCAR driver to top one million Twitter followers. Even her dog Dallas Stenhouse has nearly five thousand followers.
And best of all for Patrick, her NASCAR career has never been hotter. She's driving like an athlete in a contract year because she is. But also because that's progress and experience. And her underappreciated determination.
"Danica's very marketable as we all know, and I really have been watching her," NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Wednesday.
"She's competing more and more at a higher level, and she's very competitive."
And, France noted, "She will be fine."
Patrick's Stewart-Haas Racing team boasts three Sprint Cup champions and already has two -- reigning Sprint Cup champ Kevin Harvick and last week's Richmond winner Kurt Busch -- in the playoffs.
Patrick is ranked 16th in the point standings even after a disappointing run Sunday in Richmond and has been in the top 16 for most of the last month.
Two weeks ago, Patrick was in the historic spotlight again after earning her sixth top-10 finish in the Sprint Cup Series -- surpassing the legendary Janet Guthrie's mark for a female driver.
Her partnership with GoDaddy has worked out well for everyone. It helped her secure a job at Stewart-Haas Racing.
And GoDaddy's sponsorship investment was essentially completely returned on one day -- Sunday, February 17, 2013 -- when Patrick won the pole position for the Daytona 500 -- the first woman to do so.
As impressive as that was, the bonus came a week later when Patrick contended all day long in the Daytona 500 dicing with the veterans in the final laps and picking up a historic eighth-place finish.
Her SHR team is in full support of navigating this unchartered territory, sounding very optimistic about the future, no matter how murky it is presently.
"With Danica, we see a driver with unparalleled resolve and tenacity,'' said SHR Executive Vice President Brett Frood. "She is an individual who transcends the sport and we look forward to fostering new partnerships for her and the No. 10 team."
I know Patrick and she is glass-half-full kind of person.
As she said on Twitter Wednesday:
Combine a growing economy with Patrick's one-of-a-kind marketability and her progress on-track, the best is what's to come.