Scottsdale-based GoDaddy Inc. is pulling out of NASCAR after this year’s season, which also leaves racecar driver Danica Patrick without a prime sponsor, according to a company statement released Wednesday.
GoDaddy, the world’s largest internet domain registrar and web hosting provider, began sponsoring Patrick during the 2007 IndyCar season, and then signed on as her primary NASCAR sponsor in 2010.
Patrick’s and GoDaddy’s contracts with Stewart-Haas Racing, a NASCAR racing team, both expire this year. Company officials say leaving NASCAR will help them focus on marketing and expansion outside of the United States.
"I'm sad. I'm a little surprised and I'm sad," Patrick told the Associated Press. "But to say I didn't imagine this was not a scenario would be a lie. It's bittersweet. It's going to be really weird to think I won't drive the bright green, can't-miss-it car next year."
However, GoDaddy intends to keep Patrick, a Valley resident, as a company spokeswoman under a personal services agreement.
"We love Danica and all she does to empower and inspire people, especially women, which is why we are working to keep her in the GoDaddy family," GoDaddy’s Chief Marketing Officer Phil Bienert said in a statement.
GoDaddy’s claim to fame was its provocative marketing campaigns and Super Bowl ads that often starred Patrick, which were the brainchild of the company’s billionaire founder Bob Parson.
Parsons sold the company in 2011 to a group of private equity firms for $2.3 billion. Although he stayed on as executive board chairman through last year, the company has since been moving away from the racy advertising upon which Parsons built the well-known brand.
GoDaddy debuted on the New York Stock Exchange on April 1, when its stock price also spiked by 30 percent by the end of trading. Its stock ended trading Wednesday at $24.88 per share, down 1.07 percent from the previous day and also down from the $26.15 price-per-share it ended with on the April 1 initial trading day.
