For those who enjoys their daily dose of speed-related sports, Nicole Manske is a major reason they’re willing to veg out in front of the tube for hours at a time. Who is Nicole Manske? She’s the blonde (but sometimes brunette) former host of Speed Channel’s The Speed Report and the current host of ESPN’s NASCAR Now. And get this — she’s a former Miss Teen USA contestant and was on the same cheerleading squad as Indy racing darling Danica Patrick. I kid you not.

Thanks to Waterdrinker9 for hipping us to the wonders of Nicole Manske.

More on Nicole Manske via Wikipedia:

Nicole Manske (born July 2, 1980) is a beauty queen and news reporter from Roscoe, Illinois who has competed in the Miss Teen USA pageant.

A native of Rockton, Illinois, Manske graduated from Hononegah High School in 1998. While there, she and future auto racer Danica Patrick were cheerleaders together in 1996.

Manske won the Miss Illinois Teen USA 1998 and competed in the Miss Teen USA pageant broadcast live from Shreveport, Louisiana in August 1998. Manske was a semi-finalist in the pageant, placing third (of ten) in the evening gown competition, seventh in swimsuit and tenth in interview, placing her eighth overall on average. The competition was won by Vanessa Minnillo of South Carolina. Two years after passing on her title she competed in the Miss Illinois USA 2001 pageant and placed first runner-up to Rebecca Ambrosi.

Manske attended Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, Illinois, earning her first job while at Northern Illinois for WREX-TV, the NBC station in Rockford. She worked as a general assignment reporter for WANE-TV in Fort Wayne, Indiana before going to WISH-TV in Indianapolis, Indiana in April 2004. During her career at WISH-TV, Manske covered the Indianapolis 500, the United States Grand Prix, the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts, and the NBA’s Indiana Pacers. She was also a pit reporter for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network. In the May 15, 2006 edition of The Indianapolis Star , Manske announced that she would be leaving WISH-TV for Speed Channel in Charlotte, North Carolina with the 2006 Indianapolis 500 on May 28 being her last day.

Manske was the co-host of The Speed Report (formerly Speed News), a weekend motorsports program on Speed Channel at 7 PM and 8:30 PM EST on Sundays, a position she has held since from July 1, 2006, when she replaced Connie LeGrand to January 27, 2008.

On January 23, 2008 it was announced that Manske was leaving Speed Channel to become the new host of NASCAR Now on ESPN. It was announced that she would be replaced by on a part-time basis by Fox and Speed reporter Krista Voda.

The speed queen, who is often referred to as NASCAR’s version of Erin Andrews, in action:

Pics of Nicole, with some nice ones via IndianaRacing.net, and more from Busted Coverage: