Danica Patrick hints she could retire sooner rather than later

The driver of the No. 10 Ford admits her career has stalled out, which is something fans have been saying for a while.

With Carl Edwards as a notable exception, NASCAR drivers don’t usually retire in their mid-30s when it looks like there’s more for them to accomplish. Danica Patrick, though, just might.

While the Stewart-Haas Racing driver is only 35, she already felt comfortable at least discussing retirement in a recent interview with the Associated Press. Much of that talk was about what Patrick might do next, including her increasing efforts in the fitness and nutrition spaces.

But she also spoke about her on-track performance, or lack thereof.

"“As long as it’s fun — and it hasn’t been super fun lately,” she said before the season started. “But every year I start the year, I always have hope that it’s going to be the year that things are going to click. I understand my career hasn’t progressed.“Maybe it’s regressed? Why is that? Am I worse driver than I was a couple of years ago? Probably not,” she said. “I don’t think anybody gets worse. So it’s really a matter of all the factors around you.”"

It’s hard to say definitively that Patrick has legitimately regressed, but she definitely hasn’t taken any big leaps forward either. She doesn’t consistently lead laps or even run toward the front of the field, and she’s not shown any real skill at qualifying well outside of a handful of tracks.

As the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to Bristol this weekend, Patrick will bring with her a streak of 70-plus races without a single top-10 finish. Fittingly, her last one came at Bristol Motor Speedway during the 2015 spring race, when she finished ninth.

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She also can’t blame equipment like most mid to rear of the pack drivers since her SHR cars are more or less the same as the ones driven by Kevin Harvick, Clint Boyer and Kurt Busch, all of whom are in the top 15 in points. Even though Patrick could stay behind the wheel of a NASCAR ride for some time to come, maybe thinking about her next professional move is a wise move even at an age when most drivers are still years away from considering it.