HICKORY, N.C. — When thinking of former NASCAR and Indy car driver Danica Patrick and the word “iconic,” one usually thinks of GoDaddy!
For much of her racing career, including her final two starts in the 2018 Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500, it was the bright green colors of GoDaddy! that graced her race cars.
But for this weekend’s Throwback 276 CARS Tour event at Hickory Motor Speedway, Isabella Robusto is going a different route.
Instead of her late model stock car having the No. 55 on its doors, Robusto will race around the historic North Carolina short track in the No. 10.
Combined with her sponsor Mobil 1, it’s part of a tribute to a somewhat obscure Patrick paint scheme: the Mobil 1 car that Patrick raced at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in 2017.
In that race, Patrick started 29th and finished 36th after being involved in a wreck.
“So my main sponsor’s Mobil 1 with Toyota, we had to find a Mobil 1 paint scheme and kind of looking through them all, Danica just seemed like a really cool car, but also person, to throwback to just because everything that she’s done for females in NASCAR,” Robusto told SPEED SPORT.
“Being able to represent a throwback to her, because with all the throwback races like Hickory’s throwback, Darlington … I’ve never really seen anybody go back to a Danica car. So it seems pretty cool to be able to do that and also have my Mobil 1 (sponsor) with it.”
Robusto, 18, said she’s crossed paths with Patrick.
“I have met her a couple of times at the go-kart track,” Robusto said. “Her parents had a go-kart team when I was growing up and racing and I raced against their team multiple times. So I got to meet her a couple times and talk with their parents and all that. But she seemed pretty like a pretty cool person.
“And it was pretty great to talk with her parents kind of about all the struggles she had to overcome and what kind of helped her with her career.”
Robusto will try to give the Patrick paint scheme a better result than it originally had.
“I’ve run there a couple times already this year and we’ve done pretty well,” Robusto said. “I did the Jack Ingram race and qualified second and ran first, second, third most of the race.”
The Throwback 276 can be seen live on SPEED SPORT affiliate, CarsTour.tv.