There are maybe four seconds between when Julie Nataas straps into a Nitro Funny Car and when it’s over. Four seconds to travel a quarter mile. Four seconds at 330 miles per hour, with 11,000 horsepower underneath her and a fire suit between her and an engine that burns nitromethane like a small controlled explosion running on a schedule.
She does this on weekends. On Monday, she edits the footage.
“A lot of it happens while it’s actually race day,” she says, not with the exhaustion you’d expect, but with the matter-of-fact energy of someone who has figured out a system. “I try to get my content knocked out during qualifying because there’s less pressure from me to perform as an athlete.”
That sentence contains the whole thesis. There is a version of Julie Nataas that is an athlete — NHRA World Champion, one of the fastest drivers in professional motorsports, a Norwegian who came to the United States and climbed straight to the top of the most unforgiving category in drag racing. And then there is a version of Julie Nataas that is a creator — someone who wakes up on race morning, hits record, and takes 80,000 Instagram followers through a day that most of them will never get within 300 feet of.
She is not interested in keeping those two versions separate.
ON BECOMING A CREATOR WITHOUT MEANING TO
Julie did not decide to become a content creator. She decided to become a race car driver, and the content followed from that.
“My creation comes from kind of being a race car driver,” she says. “I put out anything from race results to a day in my life, to YouTube videos, or even some funny reels here and there.”
The framing matters. She is not a creator who also races. She is a driver whose life, documented honestly, turns out to be exactly what people want to watch. The distinction shapes everything — the content feels specific because it is specific, sourced from a real discipline, not reverse-engineered for an algorithm.
If the racing had never happened, she says she would have ended up in marketing anyway. That was her major. That was always the plan B she kept in her back pocket. “I’ve always been interested in that side of the racing business,” she says, “because a lot of it is marketing.”
She understood early that motorsport runs on sponsorship, and sponsorship runs on visibility, and visibility, in 2024, runs on content. She did not need to be taught this. She arrived with it.
ON THE BRANDS SHE WANTS NEXT
The campaign she remembers most warmly is the one with Rockstar Energy, timed to her Top Fuel debut. “That was kind of cool to see them integrated into my world,” she says. The word she reaches for is integrated — not sponsored, not featured, not placed. Integrated. Into her world.
She has a clear vision for what comes next, and it is not what you would expect from a motorsport athlete with a racing-first platform.
“I want to bring in beauty brands.”
She says it directly, no hedge. The fan base in female motorsport is growing fast, she explains, and it skews in ways the industry hasn’t fully processed yet. “I always have some little girls coming up to me, or older women coming up to me.” She sees a gap. She sees a category — beauty — that hasn’t gone to where its audience already is.
It’s a sharp observation. Female athletes in high-octane sports have historically been asked to downplay femininity to be taken seriously on the track. Julie’s read is the opposite: the track is exactly where a beauty brand should want to be, because that’s where the audience went.
ON THE 30-MINUTE RULE
Ask any creator about their post-ritual and you get one of two answers: they post and disappear, or they post and spiral. Julie’s answer is neither.
“As soon as I’ve posted, I’m definitely on the app, wherever I post it, for at least 30 minutes. I’m engaging with the followers and the fans.”
She describes her followers as loyal — that specific word, unprompted. And the 30 minutes isn’t a tactic she read in a growth playbook. It’s her response to something she feels. “My followers are so loyal to me,” she says. “I just want to show that I appreciate them back.”
In a space full of creators who talk about community as an abstraction, this is concrete. She shows up because they do.
THE LONGER GAME
What Julie Nataas is building is not just a personal brand layered on top of a racing career. It is something closer to proof of concept — that an athlete in a niche, technical, physically dangerous sport can build a digital presence that earns attention from beauty brands, energy companies, and a fan base that spans age groups and continents.
The racing validates the content. The content funds the racing. The audience shows up for both.
Four seconds at 330 miles per hour. Then she edits the footage.
FOLLOW JULIE @julienataas on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube @julienataasracing on Facebook
The Interview
How did your creator journey begin?
It comes from being a race car driver. I put out anything from race results to a day in my life, to YouTube videos, or even some funny reels here and there. The racing is the source — the content just follows from that.
What would you be doing if not racing?
Marketing, somehow, someway. That’s what I went to school for. I’ve always been interested in that side of the racing business — because a lot of it is marketing. So that’s always been something I knew I’d do if nothing else.
What brands do you want to bring into motorsport?
Beauty brands. There are so many female drivers, and the fan base is growing so quickly. I always have little girls coming up to me, older women too. That audience is already there. Someone just needs to show up for them.
What’s your go-to ritual after posting?
I’m on the app for at least 30 minutes, engaging with everyone. Then maybe I’ll step away. My followers are so loyal — that’s one way I can show I appreciate them back.
Watch her full Meet the Creator episode here!