At just 28 years old, Julia Landauer is already both a successful race car driver and a motivational speaker. She has raced in the popular NASCAR K&N Pro Series West competition and was the highest finishing female ever in 2016. Outside of driving, Landauer used her outdoorsy abilities to compete in the 26th season of the popular CBS reality show, Survivor.
Like many of her female NASCAR peers, Landauer had shown a talent for racing from a very young age. At just 10 years old little Julia used to compete in go-kart competitions and would bring home the victory after victory. In 2017, the accomplished racer was named in Forbes magazine’s 30 Under 30 list under the category of sports.
Nicole Behar - A Fifth-Generation Racer
Nicole Behar, beyond being a great NASCAR driver, is also a successful Instagram influencer who posts impressive things about her NASCAR career. She drives a custom made Toyota Camry and has her own team called the "Nicole Behar Racing" team. She's quite an accomplished NASCAR driver and finished 10th in 2016, as well as 3rd at the Evergreen Speedway race the following year.
She's a fifth-generation racer and was racing full-bodied cars at age fourteen. While Behar has been racing since 2014, in 2017, she gave birth to her first child. Since then, her focus has gone primarily to one of her business enterprises, the Fueled Coffee Company, a coffeehouse in Spokane Valley, Washington.
Kim Crosby - Racing Principal
In 2004, Kim Crosby made perhaps one of the most impressive and amazing career changes, going from a full-time Louisiana school principal to a full-time NASCAR racer. She originally started out as a drag racer but found herself wanting more. She then moved to monster trucks for Monster Jam. By age 55, she's been in ten races over the past three years, and her best finish was 72nd in a 2004 race.
Kim Crosby is quite an extraordinary woman and who has a lot of hobbies such as hunting, fishing, hiking, kayaking, and camping. She's undoubtedly the coolest school principal of all time if there ever was one. Crosby is currently semi-retired, but continues to race occasionally and plans to return to NASCAR.
Tina Gordon - NASCAR All-Prof Series Contender
It seems to be a reoccurring theme with female racing drivers leaving high-paying, respectable jobs in-order to become ferocious race car drivers. Tina Gordon (who is not related to legendary NASCAR drivers Jeff Gordon and Robby Gordon), left her successful position as an insurance agency owner to pursue racing. She sold the business, made a lot of money and the rest is history.
Despite her past success, this was a completely different arena for the new racing driver, as she had to build her way up from scratch. Just one year after joining NASCAR, she managed to finish in 20th place in the NASCAR All-Prof Series. The racer has made 16 starts so far and even finished in the top ten once.
Diane Teel - NASCAR pioneer
Diane Teel began her career as a school bus driver before moving into the NASCAR racing scene. In 1977, after being the courier for another race car driver she decided to take the driver's seat. In her career, she raced eleven times in the series with two top-ten finishes. Teel is known as a female NASCAR pioneer and has helped make women feel a lot more accepted in the racing arena.
Diane Teel’s granddaughter, Macy Causey, is also an amateur female racing today. Teel's legacy is impressive, and in 2015 her racing equipment was put on display at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina. Teel retired in 1986 after racing in the Hampton 200.