Tlačové správy - Spiked: No wins, no baby, no girl?

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Spiked: No wins, no baby, no girl?

When NASC Silver Cup driver Spike Lundberg was ready to talk, the room fell silent.

The light-hearted mood of a post-race press conference turned somber, as the 22-year-old subject of international scandal opened up for the first time in nine months.

“I want to clear the air with you all, because I know I’ve been blowing off your questions for months,” Lundberg told the reporters in the infield press area at Talladega Superspeedway moments after he qualified seventh for the Alabama 300. “There’s no Russian baby. That story is not real. I have been catfished.”

Lundberg was the subject of an international scandal when allegations surfaced in a Russian tabloid that he had a romantic fling with a Russian “grid girl” model in Sochi while competing in the F4 Eastern European Series. The American has since gone on to win a NASC Truck Series championship and to represent the United States in the A1GP Nations Cup.

“Someone contacted me over social media with news that I was going to be a father, and they were trying to get money and other commitments from me,” Lundberg said. “It didn’t add up, and so that’s when my team and I contacted the police.”

Lundberg went on to say that authorities in Russia were not sympathetic to his efforts to find the person behind the social media messages, but that his employers with Mercedes AMG Petronas and its affiliated NASC operation, LokiSport, hired private investigators.

Love in Russia?

Lundberg has dismissed reporters’ questions about the Russian pregnancy scandal throughout his rookie season in Silver Cup.

An MRC Magazine reporter’s question in Talladega uncovered another bombshell. The story of the hookup with the grid girl had to have been fake, right?

“Not exactly,” Lundberg replied. “My family is disappointed, but I don’t mind confirming that I did have an encounter with a Russian woman. I put personal matters ahead of professionalism, and for that, I am sorry to my team and my family.”

The American racing driver stonewalled questions about the extent of his relationship with a Russian woman, but he did say he has not communicated with her since the story broke in Express Gazette, a Russian tabloid magazine.

“I thought I was talking to her on social media, but it was another person the entire time,” Lundberg said. “I would like to talk to her, even if nothing more comes of it. This whole mess has been very emotional for me.”

Lundberg said he does not know the identity of the person he believes catfished him in an attempt to extort money.

“I really thought I was talking to a woman who wanted to be in a relationship with me, in spite of our being on opposite sides of the world and coming from two different cultures,” Lundberg said. “I really tried, but the whole thing turned out to be fake.”

“I was ready to take responsibility and do whatever it was going to take to make the situation right for myself and for her,” Lundberg said, declining to give the name of the woman he had a romantic relationship with in Sochi.

Distraction for Silver Cup rookie

Lundberg’s first season in Silver Cup is self-described as both challenging and disappointing. He has 20 top 10 finishes in 27 races, but has not won a race. He sits sixth in the Silver Cup standings headed into the second playoff race at Talladega.

“I have no doubt that my situation and this whole thing with a scandal in Russia has been a giant distraction for me and for my team at LokiSport,” Lundberg said. “I appreciate those men and women sticking with me and having my back. We have lost races and had DNFs because of my mistakes. I want to be better for them.”