This Girl Wants to be Jeff Gordon in a Skirt
(A few sneak peaks from Natalie's Chapter)
"As a young girl in kindergarten, Natalie would bring toy cars to “show and tell.” She changed high schools in order to take shop class. She loves to hunt and fish. Without a hint of self-consciousness, Natalie will show you a ten-inch scar running up her right shin, the product of a bad racing accident. She was 17 years old and running well in her fifth race in Sprint cars. She tried to pass a driver on the outside. He wasn’t about to be shown up by a pretty little girl thinking she could come in and take over the track, and he promptly steered her nose first into the wall. It was a hard hit, but Natalie was OK. She had never been wrecked before, but she got through it, or so she thought."
"Even though she’s part of NASCAR’s next generation, Natalie has an old school understanding of the importance of the sport’s fans. She deeply appreciates her followers’ support – to her and the entire sport. She reckons it’s a commitment that sometimes goes above and beyond the call of duty, like at Eagle Raceway a small dust bowl of a track in Eagle, Neb. The cars kick up so much dirty, fans closest to the track wear eye protection. “After the race, they take off their goggles and their faces are black except for these raccoon eyes,” Natalie said with a laugh. “They’re thanking me for racing, holding up a dirty beer, and I’m thanking them for sitting in the wake of the dirt my car’s kicking up. I come out of the car cleaner than the fans watching us race. I mean, who’s the crazy one?"
In The Weekend Starts on Wednesday, NASCAR insider Andrew Giangola scoured the circuit and slept in school buses to find remarkable fans and tell their hilarious, heart-warming stories. With a keen eye for detail and uncommon humor, Giangola probes the open hearts and colorful experiences of the sport’s most fervent fans. There’s a male nurse who braves death to bring the NASCAR flag to the top of Mt. Everest, and a woman who dons a nurse’s outfit when her hero Dale Earnhardt Jr. wrecks; we meet a fellow who goes naked at the track save a Goodyear tire, and a lifelong fan who’s been to all 51 Daytona 500 races. Celebrities are not immune from the lure of NASCAR racing either, and the stories of celebrities such as Kevin Costner, Tom Cruise, Brian Williams and Mario Batali are also told as well. This collection of amazing stories opens a new chapter on the extraordinary appeal of NASCAR, and shows why so many are so crazy about this great American sport. If you would like to get your copy of The Weekend Starts on Wednesday to read the rest of Natalie's Chapter please click here to get your copy. Enjoy!
