Yahoo! Sports – Canadian driver Maryeve Dufault will make her NASCAR debut on Saturday in the Nationwide Series Napa Auto Parts 200 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Dufault, who started racing in the ARCA Series this year, was a model on the Price is Right and according to IMDB, was a player for the New York Euphoria in the 2005 Lingerie Bowl.
Dufualt has said that she used the money she earned from modeling to pay for tires and equipment so that she could go race.
Dufault, 29, has made 12 starts in ARCA in 2011 with one top 10, a 10th place finish at Chicagoland Speedway. She’ll be driving the No. 81 for MacDonald Motorsports and is one of four Canadian drivers entered in Saturday’s race in the series that is most commonly referred to as the AAA to the Sprint Cup’s Major League.
She will also become the first Canadian woman in NASCAR when the green flag drops on Saturday. Jacques Villenueve (the son of Gilles Villeneuve), Alex Tagliani and Patrick Carpentier are the other three Canadians entered in the event. It will be Carpentier’s final race before he retires.
Plus, it will be Dufault’s chance to race against Danica Patrick for the first time. Patrick, who is running a partial Nationwide Series schedule this season before her anticipated move to the series full-time in 2012, is running this weekend’s event in Montreal as the Izod IndyCar Series is off.
And while it may appear that Dufault is just profiting on her good looks to break into NASCAR, she has more credentials than other female drivers who have raced in the Nationwide Series this year. Will she be a contender for the win on Saturday? No. But she’s not being set up for embarrassment either.
Maryeve? Mary Eve? Folks couldn’t decide on one first name, so they just meshed ’em right together. Wait, Bob Barker ‘Price is Right’ or Drew Carey ‘Price is Right’? Must be Drew Carey, right? It’s an important question. Important like…Jack Nicholson now, or 1974? I don’t watch NASCAR, but if this chick, Maryeve Dufault, and Danica Patrick are the start of a new trend of smoking hot women in NASCAR, the chances of me watching just went way up. I hope this chick wins the Piston Cup.
Meg Ryan,
-bp
[lobbed by Jonesy]