Danica Patrick scheduled for 12 NASCAR races, Daytona still a maybe

Danica is doing the dozen – NASCAR races, that is. The only question now is which dozen she’ll be doing. While she’s slated to run a pre-season ARCA race on February 6, it isn’t clear whether she’ll do the season opener at Daytona the following week. The concern is that she might not be ready for one of the most challenging races in the series for her first outing, and the decision will be made after the ARCA race.

Automobile says Danica will be focused on IndyCar from February to June and is expected to sit out most of the 15 races that follow Daytona, through June 26. With 35 races in total this year, Danica will have room to fit those 12 in among the 19 remaining, beginning with Daytona again on July 2.

However, according to an Associated Press report Danica’s 12 races have already been selected, and they’ll include marquee tracks like Dover, Charlotte, New Hampshire, and Homestead-Miami. Danica said she wants "quality seat time at a variety of facilities," which could be a way of saying she wants to properly prep herself for campaigning in 2011.