From Jayski.com on 12/18:

Daytona still possible: Her NASCAR debut is very much in doubt, but Danica Patrick and JR Motorsports made it official she will race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana and the following week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Her GoDaddy.com-sponsored Chevy will have points from a year ago, which means she will not need to qualify. Patrick's first NASCAR race could be the Nationwide race at Daytona. Team co-owners Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Rick Hendrick, however, will allow her to make that call following an ARCA race earlier on the high-banked track. "The race is basically a Cup race. Some 30-odd drivers from (Sprint) Cup running that race, and is that the right time for me to start or not? I'm really not sure," Patrick said Thursday at the JR Motorsports press conference in Mooresville, N.C. "You only get one grand opening, as I've heard. We want it to be the right opportunity. We don't want to overcommit and under-deliver."
"Daytona is just a beast," co-owner Kelley Earnhardt and general manager said. "As she alluded to, the experience of 30-some Cup drivers out there against what experience she is going to have. Is that a situation she wants to put herself into? It's a do-or-die. Do we want to put that to be her first entry point coming into NASCAR? You're always remembered by it. Dale Jr., his first Daytona race in 1998, he was upside down on his roof."(Inland Valley Inland Bulletin)(12-18-2009)