After long journey, Julia Landauer earns first Xfinity Series start

LOUDON, N.H. — Several years of work were compressed into a little over 31 seconds Friday, and after her slip-sliding thrill ride was finished, Julia Landauer couldn’t contain her excitement in not having given up on her dream.

The 30-year-old from New York City will make her NASCAR national series debut in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network).

“I’m so giddy!” She told NBC Sports after her qualifying attempt. 

Landauer called it “an incredible sense of relief” to get through qualifying. She’ll start Saturday’s race 32nd after a lap of 31.430 seconds. 

It was quite a journey to get to this moment.

Landauer was the first and youngest female champion in the Skip Barber Racing Series at age 14. She won a Limited Late Model track championship at Motor Mile Speedway in Fairlawn, Virginia, in 2015. Landauer competed in the K&N Pro Series West in 2016-17. She was selected to the 2016 NASCAR Next Class, which included Harrison Burton, Todd Gilliland and Noah Gragson.

Landauer moved to the NASCAR Pinty’s Series, running selects races in 2018-19, but opportunities became scarce after that. She last raced in NASCAR in 2020 in a brief appearance in the Euro Series.

“The past several years in general have been quite an emotional roller coaster,” Landauer said. “I’ve been on track and had hopes of making it to the national series quite a few years ago and just couldn’t get the funding that was needed. 

“I kind of got to a point last year where I had almost decided, ‘Alright, it’s time to hang up the helmet.’”

She found sponsorship and that led to the opportunity this weekend with Alpha Prime Racing.

With only 20 minutes of practice Friday, Landauer had little time to prepare for