Natures Bakery

[runco]

I heard Sunday about a big announcement from Danica, thought she might be pregnant, guess not, here is the bub bub:

 

http://www.nascar.com/en_us/news-media/articles/2015/8/18/danica-patrick-2016-sponsorship-announcement-natures-bakery.html

 

Danica Patrick and Stewart-Haas Racing welcomed a brand new sponsor to NASCAR Tuesday, announcing that Nature's Bakery will be a multi year primary sponsor on Patrick's No. 10 Chevrolet beginning with a 28-race deal in 2016.

Not only is it truly a natural fit between the company and Patrick, the partnership announcement ends a very brief sponsorship search -- by NASCAR standards -- for one of the sport's most famous drivers.

Patrick, 33, unveiled the No. 10 Chevy's unique bright blue livery Tuesday at the team's North Carolina headquarters, saying that the car color would stand out on track and joking it "is going to look great against my skin tone."

Equally as significant, team co-owner Tony Stewart confirmed a multi year contract extension for Patrick, who has driven for SHR in all three of her full-time Sprint Cup Series seasons. Sitting alongside Patrick and Nature's Bakery executives, Stewart referred to Tuesday's dual announcements as "a great time in our sport."
 

"I feel like our brands align so perfectly, it's kind of amazing," Patrick said. "I think that journey is going to be really fun. I think there's going to be lots of exciting things that we can do together in the future.

"Of course, on top of that, being able to re‑sign with Tony and here at Stewart‑Haas is very important to me. I really, really do feel like family here. I feel like there's nowhere else I want to be. I'm just fortunate enough that I didn't have to look anywhere else, that I get to stay, and that I have a great new sponsor."

The Nature's Bakery slogan, "Energy for life's great journeys" couldn't be more apropos with its sponsorship of one of NASCAR's biggest stars. The entrance into NASCAR comes as a great new journey for the family-owned company, which makes a healthy assortment of "on the go snacks" including gluten-free, dairy free and kosher baked goods.

RELATED: See Danica's paint scheme for Darlington
 

Patrick said she had already been a fan of the product, which has sales in 22 countries with plans to nearly double that in the next two years.

"This is a dream come true,'" said Nature's Bakery founder Dave Marson. "We've been NASCAR fans for 20 years. To be able to take what we do, make better‑for‑you foods, combine that with a love of NASCAR, I mean, this is special. I'm really enjoying this."

Marson also acknowledged the company's health-conscious philosophy seems like a genuinely "authentic" partnership with Patrick, who has long been a proponent of a healthy lifestyle from her cooking to her love of yoga, which is well documented through her social media channels.

"I've always used that as a way to get to know me off the track," Patrick said.

RELATED: GoDaddy to end primary sponsorship after this season

"I think all you have to do is look at that and that is what lines up perfectly with Nature's Bakery. It's energy for your journey. It's going out on a hike with (her dog) Dallas, doing Yoga at home, doing CrossFit and needing energy for that.

"It's traveling. I mean, I'm always on the road. I always need things that are quick and handy. You guys all know that, too. Spending time on the road, you need snacks. Between that and their open‑mindedness to exploring all different kinds of ways we can work together, they have big dreams and they want to align them with me and make them work with me."

It will be the start of a new era for Patrick who has six top-10s and has led 27 laps in 105 Sprint Cup Series starts dating back to a 10-race 2012 season. She most famously won the pole position for the 2013 Daytona 500, becoming the first woman to do so. Her eighth-place finish in that event is also the best ever for a female competitor in the "Great American Race."

This season, Patrick has two top-10s, with a best finish of seventh at Martinsville Speedway in March and is ranked 21st in the standings with three races remaining to set the 16-driver Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoff field.

Her goals going forward with Nature's Bakery aren't any different than they were with GoDaddy.

"It's to continue to improve," Patrick said. "There's not a marker for that necessarily. I mean, the results just have to keep getting better and better.

"For instance, there was emphasis after Indianapolis to get better at race starts. That's just what I've done. It's always evolving. You make something else better, something else shows up. But it's a work in progress. I think that for most of your career as a driver, you continue to get better and learn.

"But it's always working in that direction. Sometimes it's moving faster than other times, sometimes moving a little bit slow for what I want. But I think that it is going in the right direction, and that's all I can ask for.

WATCH: Danica, Nature's Bakery align 'perfectly'

Off the track, Patrick's nine-year relationship with GoDaddy has been mutually beneficial -- helping make the company a household name while helping propel Patrick to crossover fame, thanks to starring roles in the company's national commercials. Patrick has appeared in 13 Super Bowl commercials -- the most of any celebrity.

And it's reasonable for Nature's Bakery -- which has 420 employees and manufacturing facilities in two states -- to expect similar big things in its new relationship with one of the most marketable professional athletes in the world in the country's most popular form of motorsport.

"You can look at the size of our company and say we're either the up‑and‑coming guy who is going to be the next Fortune 500 company, and that's what we plan on being," Marson said. "We're taking and leveraging this opportunity with NASCAR, the NASCAR fan base, to look at our products and to grow and become one of those Fortune 500 companies.

"We thank Stewart‑Haas Racing and Danica for believing us. We came to them with an idea and a dream. We said, 'We are the new up‑and‑coming company. Look at us and we'll show you what we can do.' They believed in us.

"We really look forward to the opportunity."

[NextExit]

I thought the big announcement was she lost her ride. <_<  The only reason Tony kept her on is so that he doesn't look so bad.  Kevin & Kurt are having a great year. May as well keep her around so he doesn't look like the dead weight of the organization. :2cents:

[GKar]

The reason Tony kept her around is cubic dollars - if she hadn't been able to land a significant amount of money, she would hit the door.  Ability means little in "racertainment" circles these days - its all about the checkbook you can bring to the deal.  Ability-wise, she can barely drive a nail thru a board when it comes to being competitive at that level of stock-car racing - but she has the media twisted around her little finger, which buys the exposure companies are looking for.  That's the ROI - not race finishes.

[Motasyco]

NASCAR?  Are they still around?  There's better racing at the local dirt tracks.