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Russian grid girl to NASC trucks driver: ‘You’re the father’

11.07.2023 - The news from Sochi brought the celebration in Tennessee to a full stop.

Hours after NASC Truck Series rookie Spike Lundberg won the Bristol Dirt 150 and celebrated in the winner’s circle for the first time in his career, he received word of a pending paternity case from across the world. A Russian grid girl claims a race weekend hookup at the Sochi Autodrom left her pregnant by the American driver.

A source close to the woman claims she was a grid girl on two stops in Sochi by the Formula 4 Eastern European Series, where Lundberg took second place overall in the last season standings. Lundberg finished on the podium four times in four opportunities in Sochi, including a sprint win in April.

If the rumors are true, the standings pylon wasn’t the only place Lundberg, 20, found success in Russia.



Grid girls pose for a photograph prior to the start of the first Sochi Grand Prix in Season 52 of the Formula 4 Eastern European Series. (Reuters Photo)

Lundberg declined interview requests regarding the Russian woman the day after the Bristol dirt race. Questions directed to team management at LokiSport Racing, the NASC truck team Lundberg drives for, were unanswered. LokiSport put out a statement the day after the race.

“We are aware of an international situation involving driver Spike Lundberg, and remain committed to Spike as he tends to a personal, private matter,” the statement reads. “Spike will be ready to drive the Next Exit Financial Ford truck in the Kansas 250.”



Spike Lundberg’s photo appeared on the cover of a Russian tabloid magazine the same weekend he won the Bristol Dirt 150 in the NASC Truck Series. Lundberg, according to the tabloid, had a romantic relationship with a Russian Formula 4 grid girl model that resulted in an unplanned pregnancy. (MRC Magazine Photo)

With the win at Bristol, Lundberg jumped from third to first place in the NASC Truck Series points standings. A third place finish at Richmond kept Lundberg at the top of the table, but the usually smiling and happy-go-lucky Lundberg was uncharacteristically quiet in post-race interviews.

“We had a Next Exit Ford truck that could have won this race, and I didn’t come through as a driver,” Lundberg said in a NASC-mandated press conference for podium finishers at Richmond. “I let down all of the men and women back at the LokiSport shop. I have to do better.”

Lundberg declined all questions related to his name appearing in Express Gazeta, a Russian gossip tabloid, in connection to his alleged relations with an F4 grid girl.

While racing in Russia and Ukraine, Lundberg made himself the target of Russian racing officials’ ire by finding not-so-subtle ways to protest the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He made a point to describe how he didn’t talk to Russian journalists, and how Russian journalists and drivers didn’t interact with him. If the rumors of secret relations with a grid girl are true, there appears to be a crack in the American racer’s carbon fiber curtain.

“She liked the American driver right away, and it seemed he liked her,” the source told the Russian tabloid. “She’s afraid, and he’s in the United States racing. It’s not fair.”

On Feb. 13, the U.S. State Department issued a Level 4 "Do Not Travel" advisory for Americans to travel into Russia. Lundberg reportedly went against the policy to compete in the F4 Eastern European Series, reportedly staying close to his international delegation of race engineers and mechanics. The Russian tabloid did not make clear how or when Lundberg might have interacted with the unnamed grid girl.



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