If NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin has all the right moves on the racetrack, his girlfriend Jordan Fish has them on the sidelines. The Lady Cats cheerleader dances at Charlotte Bobcats games, and cheers him on every now and then (to the crowd’s delight) during her boyfriend’s races. In May, Hamlin finished seventh for his NASCAR team FedEx Express Toyota in the All Star Race.
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The proud wife of last year’s Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti is none other than actress Ashley Judd. She met the Scottish race-car driver at a wedding reception in 1999 and the couple married two years later. The Hollywood starlet, active philanthropist, and daughter of country music star Naomi Judd tries to avoid the limelight when she can. She found her match in Franchitti, the NASCAR title-winning son of an ice cream maker, who also prefers the simple life to the celebrity fast lane. They split their time between country homes in Tennessee and Scotland.
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Widely considered one of the hottest NASCAR wives, Crystal Hornish has made almost every top 10 WAGS list since she married Sam Hornish Jr in 2004, a week after that year’s Indianapolis 500. Though he’s not racing this Saturday, Hornish Jr., took home the championship title in 2006, and is also a three-time IRL winner. Crystal and Sam met in high school in their small town of Archbold, Ohio, and have been revving each other’s engines ever since.
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Ingrid Vandebosch, the leggy wife of four-time Sprint Cup champion Jeff Gordon, grew up in the Netherlands until moving to Paris to pursue a modeling career (she won the Elite Model Look of the Year Award in 1990). Vandebosch and Gordon met through a common friend in 2002 and married four years later in Mexico. In 2008, Vandebosch was featured in Sports Illustrated with other wives of famous athletes.
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In 2006, NASCAR driver Burney Lamar and supermodel Niki Taylor tied the knot, joining a sports star and a woman who once graced the cover of Sports Illustrated. Taylor had a distinguished career long before her marriage. Now 36, Taylor had the rare honor of appearing on the cover of six magazines in one month: in May 1996, she graced Allure, Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, Self, and Shape. Lamar and Taylor met in January 2006, and it was love at first sight: He proposed after just three dates. The parents of daughter, Ciel, 2, and Taylor’s twin sons from her first marriage, Hunter and Jake, 16, Taylor announced in May 2011 that she and Lamar are expecting their second child.
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Chandra Johnson, married to four-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, is a former model who was working for Wilhelmina when she was introduced to Johnson by his teammate Jeff Gordon in 2002. The pair married in 2003 in St. Bart’s—and honeymooned on team owner Rick Hendrick’s yacht. In 2010, Johnson gave birth to their first child, a girl named Genevieve. The world got an insight into the home lives of the model and NASCAR driver when they were filmed for the HBO reality series 24/7 in February 2010.
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Canadian model Lynne Kushnirenko, or Lynne Kush, has both beauty and brains. She has appeared on the cover of Playboy, and is also a chiropractor at a small private clinic. But she certainly isn’t out of place on the car-racing circuit, where she served as Miss Molson Indy Canada 2003. An athlete in her own right, Kushnirenko won the women’s Playboy Golf Tournament and also competed in baton twirling.
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Kurt Busch and his then-girlfriend, Eva Bryan, got engaged while attending the 2005 Huntington Grand Prix. They married during an off-week in 2006. Eva Busch is considered a fixture on the sidelines, even getting into a “fiery exchange” with Nicole Lunders, who was then Greg Biffle’s girlfriend (and now his wife). Lunders reportedly was angry about a crash she believed Kurt Busch started, and the fight became so heated that NASCAR officials had to have a talk with the women and remind them that entering other contestants’ pit boxes is not allowed. But reports of Eva Busch’s absence on the bleachers in recent races have led some to wonder if there’s martial trouble behind the scenes, especially since Kurt Busch has been photographed without his wedding band.
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Racing star Jeff Burton and his wife, Kim, have been married for 19 years, but as childhood sweethearts, they have nearly 30 years of memories between them. Considered the matriarch of racing wives and girlfriends, Kim Burton has been one of the most visible over the years. Her many admirers look at not only her physical beauty, but also her love for her husband. Over the years, she’s been photographed jumping for joy as well as crying and slamming her water bottle down.
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Samantha Sarcinella became a favorite of car-racing fans after she and then-fiance Kyle Busch appeared on the show Riding Shotgun in 2010, which portrayed her as a Newlyweds-esque Jessica Simpson. The show captured some of their spats, including one where Busch said Sarcinella “looked like a hooker,” to which she responded, “We won’t be sending that one to my grandmother.” But despite any tension recorded in the show, Sarcinella and Busch married in December 2010.
Called the “First Lady of NASCAR,” Krissie Newman met her future husband on a blind date in 2001 that was set up by her grandmother. Krissie is the head of the Ryan Newman Foundation, a charity dedicated to educating people about the importance of spaying and neutering their pets. A fixture on the racing sidelines, she gave birth to the couple’s first child in November 2010.
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No WAG gallery is complete with the fictional Carley Bobby, even if she did betray her husband. Played by Leslie Bibb, Carley Bobby was the ultimate car-racing WAG, going to all her husband’s races. As Ricky Bobby declared one night at dinner, “Dear Lord Baby Jesus, I want to thank you for this wonderful meal, my beautiful sons, Walker and Texas Ranger, and my Red-Hot Smokin’ Wife, Carley.” But when Ricky Bobby is injured, Carley leaves him fairly quickly for his other racing best friend, Cal Naughton, Jr. Looks like she loved the track more than the man.
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