Judd's mom, Naomi, just announced her actress daughter has been engaged to Indy car racer Dario Franchitti since December.
While Franchitti's how-tos didn't help Ashley win this month's celebrity Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, the 32-year-old Southern belle and the 26-year-old speed demon have been happily cruising together since last May, when they met at a wedding reception.
Naomi Judd says her daughter's engagement to the Scotland-born racer has been a "private family joy for months." No wedding date has been set yet.
Judd's film résumé includes last year's hit Double Jeopardy, Kiss the Girls (1997) and A Time to Kill (1996). Her newest film, Where the Heart Is, in which she costars with Natalie Portman as a nurse and mother of four who spends her life getting knocked around by worthless boyfriends, opens tomorrow.
Granted, Judd's real-life love history is a tad more upstanding--having once dated the likes of Lyle Lovett, Matthew McConaughey and baseball player Brady Anderson. (We're pretending that fling with Michael Bolton never happened.)
Franchitti's no slouch either. The youngster nabbed three victories, two poles and 11 podium finishes last year, while his Team Kool Green took home the CART FedEx Championship. Franchitti also had Ashley's back when a stalker posing as a police officer busted into her Franklin, Tennessee, home last year.
Aside from her latest film, Ashley Judd's next appearance will be with her musical family May 17 on CBS. Mom, Naomi, and sis, Wynonna, will reunite their country duo for The Judds: The Power to Change.