There's something about a TV talk show queen asking a probing question that turns even the toughest person into pudding.

That's what happened to Natalie Sather, who races for Sellers Racing in the Whelen All-American Series, when Tyra Banks asked about a particular scar shooting down Sather's shin.

“

Getting all 'dolled up' is something I don't do very often, let alone on national television.

”

-- NATALIE SATHER

Seven years ago, when Natalie was 17 and running sprint cars at her home track, Red River Valley Speedway in Fargo, N.D., she was T-boned in a violent wreck. Her leg was busted ugly in three places. Her foot was actually pointing backwards, the kind of trick you'd see from Harpo Marx to get a laugh. In reality, it made grown men sick.

Sather had been racing since she was 9, starting in go-karts, and after seven surgeries on the leg, doctors were saying she'd likely never wheel a race car again. She had a foot-long metal pin inserted into her leg from knee to ankle to hold together her fibula. Four months after the scary wreck, she was competing.

Usually, Sather will show off the battered leg with a sly smile and quick story about the golf-ball sized in infection she fought, and how she defied doctors' orders by constructing a special leg brace allowing her to return to competition -- before medical permission was granted.

Yet when she was alone on stage of The Tyra Banks Show at its Manhattan studio for a pre-taped show airing Thursday, with pictures of her leg eliciting audience gasps and cameras bearing in and Tyra wondering how such a scar affects you as a woman, an old wound was opened, and the accident took on a new context.

Her breakdown was quick and complete, and Natalie recovered like a steely veteran driver going wicked loose off a turn and transferring that bobble into greater speed. "It's a beauty flaw," she said, wiping her eyes. "I'm embracing it. It's who I am."

In the audience, Jeff Knight, Natalie's 2009 car owner with Total Velocity Motorsports, was clearly moved. He knew about Natalie's accident but never considered how it could impact a young lady away from the race track.

"At the shop, she's a regular driver," said Knight, who is also a pastor in a ministry outside Seattle. "I've only seen her in a fire suit. Watching her on the show, talking to Tyra about the accident and her scar, I've learned about a new side of Natalie."

Banks, whose show is seen by millions of young people -- contributing to her Forbes ranking as the fifth most-influential woman in America -- had invited Sather on the program to undergo a beauty "makeover." The former supermodel-turned-entrepreneur and Emmy Award-winning host was looking for a young, successful woman working in a profession that puts grease under her nails.

Sather, once a cheerleader and runner up as Miss Teen North Dakota, was an easy choice for the show. Heck, she could double for Danica when Lifetime does the movie of the week.

But don't get fooled by Natalie's smoky looks; she's tough as nails. She's had her share of concussions. She's jousted on the track with men old enough to be her father in taking the American Sprint Car Series (ASCS) Midwest points championship in 2007 and in winning 2008 rookie of the year honors at Knoxville Raceway in Iowa.

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The attractive young driver is a self-proclaimed tomboy, who last season won a race as a member of the NASCAR Drive for Diversity program in the Whelen All-American Series and also bakes a mean chocolate chip cookie. She lists hunting and shopping as her hobbies. She calls herself "my father's son" and would rather be no place else than at the race shop, wearing jeans and T-shirts during the week and a fire suit on weekends.

After discussing Natalie's accident, Tyra began styling the driver's jet black hair, which runs thick and down the length of her back. Would she turn it into Dynasty-meets-disco? A Farrah Fawcett flip? Tyra chose for Natalie an old-style pompadour -- a 50's look brought into 2009.

The talk-show diva sprayed and pulled and combed and teased the thick mane, singing loudly the whole time. Racing stock cars, Natalie hadn't lost her hearing, but Tyra's singing may now have done the trick.

To finish the job -- on the hair, not her ears -- Natalie went backstage for the full makeover, including makeup and a new outfit: lime green shorts a young lady aiming to cause a stir might wear to the Kentucky Derby on a warm Saturday in May, along with an abbreviated fancy bolo-style jacket to be worn if bull fighting on Rodeo Drive.

She rose above the garish costume and looked absolutely gorgeous, albeit teetering ever so slightly on four-inch stilettos. Natalie had broken a bone in her foot while racing. Training for the Miss North Dakota pageant she trained herself to walk in heels despite the pain.

As a member of the NASCAR PR team based in New York, I was (gladly) serving as Natalie's PR man the day of the shooting. She flashed me a look saying, "If they really want me to wear this loud outfit right now, is it possible to flash backward in time, and when NASCAR gets a call from Tyra looking for a race-car driver to do a makeover on national TV, maybe just send them over to the open-wheel people?"

I responded with my best telepathically confident "game on" nod, as if to say, "You look simply gorgeous, girl, and when out there revealing this makeover, America will be yours."

(I normally don't interject "girl" in the middle of unsaid thoughts, but this was The Tyra Banks Show. When in Rome ...)

As an African drum brigade set down a pounding beat, Natalie strutted onto Tyra's stage. She effortlessly pivoted on those perilous heels like Edyta on Dancing with the Stars. She vogued with the attitude of an MTV dancer. The crowd went wild.

While she prefers to walk on pit road in racing shoes rather than on the catwalk in stilettos, Natalie said the experience was unforgettable and, ultimately, fun.

"Getting all 'dolled up' is something I don't do very often, let alone on national television," Natalie said. "I was asked to appear on the show since I am a female in a male-dominated sport, and most of the time I find myself wearing jeans and a T-shirt, hair in a pony, with no makeup. I have been known to say, 'I am the girliest tomboy you will ever meet.'

"But, on the same note, as much as I like to be girly, I do struggle with it. Going on the Tyra show gave me some great tips on makeup, and fashion. I would have preferred to discuss racing, how Peyton Sellers and H.C. Sellers, my crew chief, are helping me, working on the cars, and competing against guys. But let's be honest: What girl doesn't like to get a makeover!"

Here's what you need to know about Natalie Sather. An appearance like this is monumentally important in a young driver's career. Agreeing to do it as an out-of-the-comfort-zone TV stunt, can go sideways and stick with you a long time. When Natalie got off stage, she didn't want to know how she looked or sounded. She asked, "Did I represent NASCAR well?"

Natalie Sather came from Fargo, N.D., to the big city, and during the course of a few fast minutes, she laughed, she cried, she strutted her stuff, and she invited America to get to know a tough, hard-core racer with real emotions, who is a genuine young lady easy to root for.

If portraying grace and style while showing real human emotion are good for the sport, then yes, Natalie, you did well, very well.

• Natalie Sather and 36 other fans are featured in Andrew Giangola's book
The Weekend Starts on Wednesday: True Stories of Remarkable NASCAR Fans.
The book is available in the NASCAR.COM Superstore.