This... is Nan Zipadelli

Nan is the wife of NASCAR Nextel Cup Champion Crew Chief Greg "Zippy" Zipadelli.

How the couple met (in Nan's words):

"We met in Old Forge, N.Y. I was teaching high school there in 1995 and Greg and [former Joe Gibbs Racing driver] Mike McLaughlin owned a home there and they would come up on weekends from Connecticut to go snowmobiling. I met Greg out with a bunch of friends one night. My friends knew his friends and we met. He told me he was a crew chief and I told him I was a teacher.

"Well, I didn't know anything about racing, so I thought 'crew' meant 'rowing crew.' Greg had said that he was from Hartford, but I thought he said that he was going to Harvard, and I thought he was in rowing. So, the next day we go to lunch and we're talking away, but he's not really paying attention. He's watching some race on TV. To me, I had no idea what racing was. All of a sudden, Greg says 'That's what I do.' And on the TV was a picture of Ray Evernham, and on the screen it read 'crew chief.' I was like, 'What?' I thought I was going to a Regatta. But instead I was going to a race track." [www.joegibbsracing.com]

The couple has two children, Zachary Charles (b. Sept. 5, 2001), and Elwina Sophia "Elli" (b. Dec. 19, 2005).

In 2003, Greg and Nan founded Zippy's Crusade for Kids, an annual charity snowmobile ride in the Adirondack Mountains, for the sole purpose of raising money for kids in need.  Since then, the annual sold out event has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars which has been donated to charities focused primarily on sick, terminally ill or disabled children, such as the Victory Junction Gang Camp, The Children's Miracle Network and Leg Up Farm.

Nanette Louise Turcotte was born on Oct. 28, 1969 in Watertown, N.Y. and grew up in Clayton, in the Thousdand Islands area of upstate New York. She is a 1992 graduate of SUNY Oswego.  The Zipadellis currently reside in Mooresville, N.C.

Flickr*: Photo album | Slideshow

* Note: Additional photos tagged 'exclusive' are available to Answer this... Flickr friends only.

You searched for this...
greg zipadelli wife

This post was updated on Jan. 28, 2006.