Danica Patrick looking for home field advantage

Back in February, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series headed to Phoenix International Raceway for race number two of 36. This weekend, it will return to Phoenix of the second-to-last race of the year – the Phoenix 500k.

For Danica Patrick, driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), her return to Phoenix is extra important as GoDaddy is headquartered in Scottsdale and has a new GoDaddy Global Technology Center in Tempe.

The GoDaddy Global Technology Center opened in early October and the new facility supports more than 1,100 colleagues, including engineers, developers and corporate staff, along with small-business consultants.

The stunning 150,000-square-foot facility is a specially designed two-story facility located in the sprawling ASU Research Park in Tempe.

Employee-friendly amenities there include a fitness area, locker rooms, yoga room, game center, indoor climbing wall, a go-kart track, relaxation stations, a putting green. It also includes GoDaddy bicycles, outdoor basketball and sand volleyball courts, as well as a soccer field, eco-friendly features and a giant slide from the second-floor office area into a full-service kitchen with on-site chefs.

GoDaddy’s mission is to radically shift the global economy toward small business by empowering people to easily start, confidently grow and successfully run their own ventures. GoDaddy employs more than 4,000 people. The company is headquartered in Scottsdale, but it has opened other collaborative offices over the past 18 months near Seattle, in Sunnyvale, California, and in Cambridge, Massachusetts near the MIT campus.

GoDaddy now serves more than 12 million customers around the world and offers products and support in 42 markets, 44 currencies and 17 languages.

A lot of sponsor employees

For Patrick and her GoDaddy crew, that means meeting a lot of executives and employees this week, as well as a special focus on running well in Sunday’s race.

Patrick finished 10th in the NASCAR Nationwide Series event at Phoenix in November 2012 and backed that up with a 17th-place result the next day in the Sprint Cup race.

She is hoping that she and new crew chief Daniel Knost can capture some magic and have yet another good run at the mile oval west of Phoenix.

DANICA PATRICK, Driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing:

How special is it for you to go to Phoenix with GoDaddy headquarters nearby?

“It’s always fun to go to Phoenix because of GoDaddy. We’ll go out on Wednesday and Thursday and see a lot of the executives and employees. I’m excited to see the latest office in Tempe. It’s really fun to talk to everyone because I always want to know what the latest and greatest is with GoDaddy and new things they’re doing, and they want to ask me about racing and what we’re doing. I’m fortunate that we get to race in GoDaddy’s hometown twice a year so we get to visit them and have them at the track. I think it’s really important and it’s nice knowing I’ve got a lot of fans pulling for me at the racetrack.”

Overall thoughts on racing at Phoenix this weekend?

 “We ran well there in the November 2012 but, unfortunately, we haven’t left there since without a torn-up racecar. We got caught up in accidents in November 2012 and then again in November 2013. It happened again this spring. It’d be nice to have a good, clean run with the GoDaddy car. I like Phoenix and, hopefully, our luck will turn around and we can have a good smooth run and do well. I do like Phoenix, though, and it’s a great track.”

Do you have a lot of friends coming out for this race?

“I do, actually. GoDaddy has a lot of people, and then I have a lot of friends coming out, as well. It’s a nice race for everyone to see and, hopefully, everyone has a good time.”

Are you ready to see the GoDaddy Global Technology Center?

“I’ve heard a lot about it, so I’m ready to see it. I’ve heard they did a really good job with it and I’m ready to see it and meet the employees. I’ve heard it’s an amazing place.”

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