Natalie sather nascar driver
Natalie Sather, part of NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program, is competing this season in Monroe Mark Mulligan / The Herald Natalie Sather smiles as she signs her autograph for fans flocking to her car at the Evergreen Speedway recently. Sather, of Fargo, N. D., is racing at the speedway as one of 12 drivers nationwide in NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program. Mark Mulligan / The Herald Natalie Sather sits in her car in the final moments before her first race of the night, a qualifying heat, at the Evergreen Speedway. Mark Mulligan / The Herald Natalie Sather sits in her car in the final moments before her first race of the night, a qualifying heat, at the Evergreen Speedway. Mark Mulligan / The Herald Natalie Sather fixes her pony tail after coming off the track from a qualifying heat that saw several cars crash in minor accidents. Sather's late-model race car suffered no considerable damage, even after a bump sent her spinning. Mark Mulligan / The Herald A young fan talks to Natalie Sather after Sather lifted her into her late-model race car during autograph time at the Evergreen Speedway. Fans are invited onto the track before each evening of racing begins to talk to drivers and see their cars. Mark Mulligan / The Herald Natalie Sather checks with her crew before backing out of her spot in the pits to drive onto the track for autograph time at the Evergreen Speedway. Mark Mulligan / The Herald Natalie Sather's number 94 late-model race car speeds around the track at the Evergreen Speedway during a qualifying heat. SHARE: | PRINTER- FRIENDLY By Scott Whitmore Herald Writer Published: Friday, May 15, 2009, 12:01 a.m. Mark Mulligan / The Herald Natalie Sather smiles as she signs her autograph for fans flocking to her car at the Evergreen Speedway recently. Sather, of Fargo, N. D., is racing at the speedway as one of 12 drivers nationwide in NASCAR's Drive for Diversity.
Gritty. Tough as nails. Driven to succeed, no matter the pain in the game. Those are some of the characteristics that describe 25-year-old Natalie Sather, an upcoming NASCAR racer who cut her teeth in some of the finest dirt tracks of the Midwest as well as asphalt short-oval arenas of the Southeast. On the surface, she’s congenial, very apt to discuss racing as well as her family life that has inspired her through the years. Certainly, she values the support given to those around her, and it shows with her ambition to succeed in this competitive field of motorsports. When it comes to her mindset just as the green flag’s about to unfurl, all that’s on her mind is how she’s going to make the most out of it. Ask for 100 percent, she’ll give you 110, making her way to the front with the precision and cunning of some of sport's most clutch drivers like the Labonte brothers or Jeff Gordon, the latter who has inspired her in her career. Stumbling upon her when reading about this year’s Drive for Diversity class, I took notice of her racing record, which at first seemed to be filled with glowing highlights and statistics that couldn’t be tangibly appreciated. However, when I read how she’s triumphed in her dreams despite setbacks, it showed me the kind of hunger and willpower she has to make it in this sport. While others out there are all talk and just appear at the track for television time, Sather embodies that old Wrangler jeans motto of being “one tough customer.” In a highly competitive game that involves high risk with one’s health and psyche, it seems as if nothing can derail the young gun from realizing her goal of becoming a full-time winner on the Sprint Cup circuit. I interviewed Natalie Sather recently, getting her thoughts on her career, as well as her observations about her experiences in auto racing. You’ll see what I mean by her giving 110 percent in.