February 10, 2011 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – Two of NASCAR's favorites are geared up and ready to go for the 2011 NASCAR season. NASCAR legend Mark Martin will drive the No. 5
Go Daddy.com Chevrolet in pursuit of this season's Sprint Cup championship. Danica Patrick, the woman who single-handedly attracted new fans and pumped energy into the NASCAR racing circuit last season, will drive the No. 7 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet again this year in the Nationwide Series.
The Go Daddy Girl, fresh off her Super Bowl commercial appearances, will enter 12 NASCAR Nationwide Series races this season - eleven of which will be for the world's largest Web hosting provider and top domain name registrar, GoDaddy.com. Similar to last year, the majority of Danica's stock car races will be scheduled at the beginning and end of the NASCAR season so she can maintain her IZOD IndyCar schedule.
"Danica is smart, she's beautiful and she's successfully competing in a male-dominated sport," said Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons. "To jump into a stock car and take on veteran NASCAR drivers is a testament to Danica's grit - our Go Daddy Girl is an undeniable inspiration for anyone who dreams big!
Danica is scheduled to race in the first four Nationwide Series races of the year at Daytona, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Bristol. Toward the end of the season, Danica will drive the tracks at Kansas, Texas, Phoenix and Homestead-Miami. Danica is also set to make mid-season stops in Daytona and Richmond and will compete at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve road course in Montreal for the first time in her career.
"This is going to be an exciting year in the No. 7 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet," said Danica. "I have a much different perspective heading into this season. I know a little more of what to expect and I'm not as out of my element. I've had a year to work with my Go Daddy team and there is a comfort level that comes with returning to some of these tracks. It is obvious that experience goes a long way in this sport. Everyone at Go Daddy and JR Motorsports has been incredibly supportive throughout this process."
Mark, a NASCAR legend in his own right, is ready to begin his quest for his first career Sprint Cup championship. Twenty of Mark's 36 scheduled Sprint Cup races this season are in the No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet for his band of loyal fans, starting with a pre-season appearance in Saturday's Budweiser Shootout at Daytona and the Daytona 500 season kick-off on Feb. 20. In last season's Daytona 500, Mark took the pole in the No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet - his first race sponsored by the Internet powerhouse.
"Mark drives hard, wows fans and gives our bright green Go Daddy No. 5 Chevy that extra edge on the track," said Parsons. "He's a class act all the way and as nice a guy as you'll ever meet. Mark's one heck of a competitor and a true NASCAR legend."
Mark will have a special, fan-oriented paint scheme on the No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet when it arrives in Go Daddy's hometown on Feb. 27. The No. 5 will be wrapped with approximately 1,400 messages that were submitted by fans for the Phoenix race.
Mark, who narrowly missed the 2010 Chase for the Sprint Cup, has logged 40 checkered-flag wins and more than 425 Top-10 finishes in his career.
"Just like every year before, we're going for it all in 2011," said Mark. "We want wins. We want to make the Chase. We want to win the championship. But we also want to have fun. That's a big goal for us this year. Bob and everyone at GoDaddy.com make that possible for us. They're a fun company to be involved with and they've been great partners for us at Hendrick Motorsports and on this 5 team."
New for 2011, Go Daddy has partnered with VeriSign in a co-branding initiative with the No. 5 and No. 7 GoDaddy.com Chevrolets to promote the .NET domain name extension. .NET branding will be added to the deck lid of the two GoDaddy.com cars for a total of 10 races. Danica will promote the .NET extension during races at Las Vegas, Daytona, Richmond, Kansas and Texas, while Mark will sport the .NET branding at Phoenix, Dover, Michigan, Loudon and Charlotte.
In addition to sponsoring these two dynamic drivers, Go Daddy is stepping up as the official broadcast sponsor of Danica's season debut in the Feb. 19 DRIVE4COPD 300 Nationwide Series race at Daytona on ESPN2. Go Daddy will also be the network broadcast sponsor of the March 20 Food City 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol on FOX and the Aug. 14 Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at the Glen Sprint Cup Series road course race at Watkins Glen on ESPN2.
To see Danica and Mark's complete 2011 NASCAR racing schedules or find out more about the upcoming season, check out GoDaddy.com/Danica and GoDaddy.com/Mark.
About The Go Daddy Group, Inc.
Go Daddy is a leading provider of services that enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. Go Daddy provides a variety of domain name registration plans and website design and hosting packages, as well as a broad array of on-demand services. These include products such as SSL Certificates, Domains by Proxy private registration, ecommerce website hosting, blog templates and blog software, podcast packages and online photo hosting. The Go Daddy Group has more than 46 million domain names under management. Go Daddy registers, renews or transfers a domain name every second.
GoDaddy.com is the world's largest Web hosting provider and is the world's No. 1 domain name registrar according to Name Intelligence, Inc. During the first half of 2010, The Go Daddy Group registered more than one-third of all new domain names created in the top six generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .mobi.
