This Texas Stripper Scammed NASCAR Out of Thousands of Dollars

We know Texas has a long history with NASCAR but this is truly one of the most unique stories ever told in the racing world. A Texas woman, who started work as a stripper, started her own racing team. However...the way she DID IT, was through some... let's call them "not so-legal ways".

Meet the Texas stripper who scammed NASCAR: Angela Harkness

Angela Harkness, whose real name was Fatemeh Karimkhani, was born in Tehran, Iraq in 1976. She would move to the United States and work as a stripper in California & Texas. The Round Rock native would meet her husband, a banker named Gary Jones, and the two would come up with a plan: start their own racing team. And they did.

Together they would form their own team, Angela's Motorsports, in late 2002. They would actually enter two cars in the 2002 Ford 300; the #02 driver by Jay Sauter & the #71 driven by Kevin Lepage. They didn't finish well but they looked forward to the 2003 season; they managed to get an Austin based sponsor for the car, WiredFlyer. They would have Mike McLaughlin set to race in the Xfinity series 2004 & would even have Robert Yates provide engines for the team.

Things were looking good...that is until Angela & Gary needed to pay. Angela & Gary needed $6,000,000 to remain in business; when the two didn't have the money, it was revealed that Gary Jones was embezzling over a $1 million from his Wells Fargo bank. They were arrested shortly afterwards.

However before she was sentenced, Angela would flee to Mexico and later back to the United Arab Emirates. She didn't last long on the run; she would be arrested and sent BACK to Texas for her sentencing. Angela was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison under charges of fraud, theft and embezzlement.

Amazingly, that's just the TIP of story of Angela Harkness. There's much more that went into what happened after her arrest in 2005 (she's been in trouble since) & what happened to the reminder of the racing team, as well as her life BEFORE her "racing" career.

Since NASCAR started doing more intensive background checks on anyone who wants to join the sport, these kinds of things don't happen. But it's forever going to remain one of the craziest things to happen involving NASCAR and Texas (aside from everything the Texas Motor Speedway).

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