Danica Patrick is set to race against her beau Ricky Stenhouse Jr. at the Daytona 500 on Sunday. (Reuters)
TORONTO - When Ricky Stenhouse Jr. first met Danica Patrick in 2010, he was a 22-year-old rookie in the NASCAR Nationwide Series hoping against hope he could show team owner Jack Roush he had the right stuff to make it into the multi-million dollar world of Sprint Cup racing.
Patrick, on the other hand, was a 27-year-old part-time stock car driver who was dipping her toes into the NASCAR pool for the first time after a near-decade-long career on the IZOD IndyCar circuit.
Oh yeah, and she was married.
Stenhouse and Patrick sat together in rookie meetings before races and talked about racing and sponsorships, the lifeblood of the sport.
Patrick was already a star and had a lucrative deal with GoDaddy.com that she brought with her from IndyCar, but Stenhouse often raced the No. 6 Roush Fenway Ford without any primary sponsor.
