Patrick's overall form declined during 2010, but she still managed two-second-places at oval tracks before leaving IndyCar after the 2011 season to focus on stock car racing full-time.

To help defray travel expenses, the family sold merchandise featuring Patrick and imposed a rule that prevented her from undertaking activities that would harm her public image.

[20] Patrick received some financial backing from the Ford Motor Company;[11] she later lost Mecom's support after one season following rumors that she was living an extravagant lifestyle.

[25] In June that year, she made her sports car debut at the Grand Prix of Atlanta, part of the American Le Mans Series, partnering Jérôme Policand in the No.

[30] Patrick took her first career pole position at the season's eighth race at Kansas Speedway, becoming the second woman in IndyCar Series history to achieve the feat after Sarah Fisher in 2002.

[36] Although she qualified third for the season-opening Toyota Indy 300, her team withdrew after teammate Paul Dana was killed in a practice session accident on the day of the race.

[37] Thus, Patrick's 2006 IndyCar campaign began at the first road course round of the season, the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, where she finished sixth;[35] she came eighth at the Indy Japan 300 at Motegi.

[39] The rest of her season was modest with four top-tens, which included a season-high placing of consecutive fourth-position finishes: first at the Firestone Indy 200 at Nashville Speedway, and then the ABC Supply Company A.J.

[45] She took her then best career finish with a third at the Bombardier Learjet 550,[46] and improved on this result by clinching second at the season's penultimate race, the Detroit Indy Grand Prix at Belle Isle Street Circuit.

[47] Patrick closed off the year by coming eleventh at the season-closing Peak Antifreeze Indy 300 at Chicagoland Speedway, to place seventh in the drivers' standings with 424 points and eleven top-ten finishes.

[48] At the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi on April 20, Patrick moved to the front of the field with three laps remaining after the previous leaders were forced to make pit stops for fuel and held the first position to secure her maiden IndyCar victory.

[71] At the season-closing IndyCar World Championship at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Patrick was one of nineteen drivers who avoided a fifteen car pile-up that killed Dan Wheldon; the race was abandoned and she and the rest of the field were not scored.

[87] She became the highest-finishing woman in national NASCAR history at Las Vegas when she surpassed Sara Christian's 62-year record to place fourth in the Sam's Town 300 race (the highest in her Nationwide Series career).

Patrick's best road course finish in her NASCAR career came at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, coming ninth and led a season-high twenty laps.

[82] Team owner Tony Stewart invited Patrick to compete in the fund-raising Prelude to the Dream dirt track race at Eldora Speedway in June.

[96][97] In her fourth Cup start, the Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, she was running strong before she crashed on lap 436 from contact with Regan Smith, which became her first did not finish (DNF) in the series.

"[100] Her final race of the season at Phoenix was embroiled in controversy as her car leaked oil and NASCAR elected not to wave the caution flags, causing an accident between Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman.

[101] With no top-tens, two DNFs and an average finish of 28.3 in her ten starts; Patrick was not classified in the final standings since she did not contest the full championship, so was ineligible to score points.

[109] She was second in the Rookie of the Year standings after a season-long battle with Ricky Stenhouse Jr.[110] In the Nationwide Series, Patrick drove the season-opening DRIVE4COPD 300 and the first of two races at Talladega Superspeedway, the Aaron's 312, in the No.

[114] Patrick started twenty-seventh for the Daytona 500 and led briefly during the pit stop cycle before Aric Almirola clipped her, sending her car into a wall that lacked a SAFER barrier; she finished 40th.

[125] Patrick led two laps of the Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway during the pit stop cycle, and finished 16th,[126] and at the Quaker State 400, she became the first woman to start a hundred Cup Series races.

[127] At the Fall Martinsville race, she had twenty-five owner and drivers points deducted, was fined $50,000, and put on probation by NASCAR until the end of 2015 for an intentional retaliatory crash against David Gilliland.

[131] At the first race of the season, the Daytona 500, she retired when she made contact with Greg Biffle on the 184th lap, spun into the grass and heavily damaged her car's front end.

[141] In January 2018, it was announced that Patrick would be reunited with longtime partner GoDaddy for sponsorship of the "Danica Double" and assistance as she moved on to her life as a business woman and entrepreneur.

[167] In June 2017, she joined Fox's Cup driver-only broadcast of the Xfinity Series race at Pocono Raceway, working in the studio alongside Denny Hamlin.

[13][183] She has appeared in advertising campaigns for AirTran Airways, Secret, Nationwide Insurance, Tissot, Chevrolet, Coca-Cola, Peak Antifreeze, William Rast, Hot Wheels, GoDaddy.com, Nature's Bakery, Lyft,[184][185] and Endurance Warranty.

[188] In 2014, she joined The Players' Tribune as a featured writer, having been immediately attracted to founder and former shortstop Derek Jeter's concept of allowing athletes to write and control their own content.

[194] Henry Hutton of the Independent Tribune noted that when Patrick entered IndyCar in 2005, she rapidly became a pop culture icon largely due to her gender and modelling, but her driver profile depreciated from car problems, racetrack accidents and uncompetitiveness.

[185] Patrick has been called a trailblazer or pioneer for women in auto racing,[214] and commentators agree her achievements have broken the gender barrier in an industry that is overwhelmingly male.

[217] Prior to her 2008 Indy Japan 300 triumph, Patrick was criticized by commentators and fans who claimed her ~100 lb (45 kg) body weight constituted an unfair advantage.