To be criticized in that way felt crushing. She kept it together for the rest of the class, then cried all the way home. She gave herself three days to feel bad.

After that, she decided the experience was “the huge kick in the ass that I needed.” In those days, early in her racing career, she was less self-assured, and she was getting all sorts of mixed tips from people to “tone down New York, play up New York, tone down Stanford.” One person told her not to use words with too many syllables.

After that brutal consulting session, she realized there was just one thing she needed to play up: herself.

A few weeks after Julia sent me her bad-news email in 2018, she emailed me again to say she was able to get into three races, after all, in Canada. It was for the Pinty’s series, which is named after a Canadian food company. The series is a little below the Xfinity series, NASCAR’s second tier, but it’s well regarded and full of seasoned drivers. It’s also a less expensive series to run, costing thousands of dollars, rather than millions for the top NASCAR races.

Her ability to race this season was thanks to Joey McColm, a racer himself and the head of a team called Canada’s Best Racing Team, or CBRT. It was also thanks partly to Julia’s uniqueness within her sport. In a news release, Joey said he liked Julia’s “marketability,”280 and his team seemed happy to have the only woman in the race. Julia was open to doing events and speaking engagements for sponsors, Joey told me, which some of the more traditional drivers aren’t willing to do. Julia’s experience on Survivor and in the consulting class had taught her that she needs to open up more, to be less guarded. She shares a lot more about herself with the public now. She’s willing to use her experiences to try to connect with fans and potential sponsors’ audiences. (She was, after all, allowing me to follow her around for the weekend.)

The thing is, “Canada’s Best” wasn’t technically the best in the series—at least not as far as winning was concerned. When I was following Julia, the team was ranked ninth. Several of the men with CBRT only worked part-time in the garage, and Julia knew the team was underfunded going into it. Joey, the owner, told me that while all teams, including his, are on a fairly tight budget, it doesn’t affect the components of the car, only how many races they can enter. One expert I talked to said the reality is probably somewhere in the middle: that is, if they had more money, teams like CBRT would be able to afford more workers, which could affect how well the cars run.