Despite the uncertainty over whether she’ll have a ride next year, Danica Patrick is surprisingly relaxed.

As the No. 10 Ford driver told USA TODAY Sports‘ Brant James earlier this month at Watkins Glen International, she’s at peace with letting her future racing plans “organically” unfold. She is struggling to secure sponsorship for 2018 after primary sponsor Nature’s Bakery backed out of the last two years of a three-year contract. (Read more about Stewart-Haas Racing’s lawsuit and settlement at USA TODAY Sports.)

But she’s not going to settle just so she can be behind the wheel of any car.

Monday after unveiling her throwback paint scheme for the Southern 500 in a couple weeks, Patrick told NBC Sports she’s only interested in the Cup Series – not the lower tier XFINITY Series – and wants the “opportunity to do well,” rather than run 25th all the time. She obviously cares about her racing career, but she said as she’s gotten older, she’s no longer concerned about how people perceive her.

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It will be an honor to drive this @fordperformance credit car @darlingtonraceway in a couple weeks! Who knew Robert Yates was trying to get me as a driver back in my early career!!!! He I am driving one of his cars from his career as a team owner.

A post shared by Danica Patrick (@danicapatrick) on Aug 14, 2017 at 11:47am PDT

Despite having one of the best streaks of her career this summer, she finished 22nd in the last two races.

More from NBC Sports:

“When I was younger I used to get so mad all the time,” she said. “Trust me. I still get mad and throw things. I try not to do it in front of people. I still get fired up.

“But there was so much when I was younger that happened with me getting mad. I felt like if I didn’t portray a displeasure with anything but the best, but first place, then I was somehow showing people that I didn’t think that I could do it.

“I finally came to the conclusion a long time ago, and I’ve only just gotten better at it that I don’t have to look like I hate everything and hate everybody and be awfully unhappy about everything to do well on the track. In fact, sometimes it would get in the way if I was too unhappy. Me being more at peace with everything and not getting so fired up at certain points in time is just really because it’s unproductive, and I don’t need to prove to people that I care.”

Read the full story over at NBC Sports.

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