Danica Patrick explains what retirement looks like for her

To hear Danica Patrick tell it, retirement actually sounds like a lot of fun.

If you’ll excuse the mangling of an old cliche, the only constant in the life of Danica Patrick right now is change. She’s broken up with Ricky Stenhouse and has only two races left in her driving career, assuming she can find teams who want to run her in the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500.

After that, she’ll be retired. In her mid-30s.

Of course, Patrick’s retirement isn’t going to look like the stereotypical one. Even as her NASCAR career has been winding down, she’s been working hard to build her own personal brand, one that could be both fulfilling and lucrative once the roar of the engines has faded away.

In an interview with ESPNW to promote her brand new cooking/fitness/wellness book, Pretty Intense, Patrick laid out exactly what she sees for herself in the next few years.

"Retirement looks bright! I think many people retire and don’t know what they’re going to do next and have to figure it out, but I know what I’m going to do. I don’t doubt that [retirement] will change and shift my life in ways I would never expect, so I’ve got to be ready for that.But at this point in time, it’s about spending more time with Somnium — my wine brand — doing more events there, promoting, making sure that I’m on top of the quality control. I’ll do the same for [my] clothing line, Warrior. Expanding and growing that, and being more hands-on with everything from fit and fabrics, to the branding and the shoots and just generally the aesthetic feel of the brand.I’d like to expand in the book world as well. I don’t even know what that might lead to, exactly. Maybe it leads to public speaking engagements — generally that arena of educating people. That could take any shape."

Patrick also mentioned her desire to have a cooking show, and while there have been numerous shows on Cooking Channel and Food Network with healthy meals as a theme, it would be hard to imagine those networks not jumping at the chance to add a name from the sports world to their rosters if that’s something she’d seriously pursue.

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Despite the uncertainty, there’s no question that life after NASCAR for Patrick will still be busy. It’s not going to be a stereotypical retirement, and we have a feeling she’s just fine with that.