Danica might someday pose nude
It’s not because she can’t, and not because she won’t. She’s just not ready yet.
With ESPN’s “body issue" out this week, Patrick was asked during her weekly press conference Friday whether she would ever appear in that issue, which this year features NHRA drag racer Courtney Force among its nude athletes in artistic poses. Patrick said she gets asked every year about posing for the issue, but so far has declined. She also has declined to pose for the body paint section of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue.
She has worn skimpy bathing suits for Sports Illustrated and appeared in provocative clothing in Go Daddy commercials.
“I just never felt like that (ESPN issue) was something that I needed (or) wanted to do," Patrick said Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. “Any scantily clad has all been swimsuit stuff.
“… Would I feel comfortable? Yeah, I’m sure it would be a little bit borderline. There’s a difference to me between going to the beach and wearing a swimming suit and going to a beach and wearing nothing or paint."
But the Stewart-Haas Racing driver won’t rule it out.
“Artistically, I think it would be really fun," the 31-year-old Patrick said. “But it’s not things that I need to do to push the issue with my brand. There’s already enough stuff that I do that pushes that, so I’d rather stay in my full comfort zone than go that far.
“I’m not saying there never will be a day. When I speak to them and they ask me each time, I say, ‘Don’t stop asking. I don’t know. I might change my mind one year and it might be something that parallels something else I’m doing or where I’m at.’"
Patrick said sponsors have never encouraged her or forbidden her from posing for the annual ESPN issue. She said that primary sponsor Go Daddy has always told her to do whatever she wants.
She just doesn’t know if she wants to pose nude, even in an artistic sense.
“I still have to do things that I feel completely comfortable with and I feel like wouldn’t take away from the other things that I do, the good things that I do," Patrick said.
“Because those things can turn negative quick and be louder than the good, and that’s not what I want to happen." Sporting News