Legge and other extraordinary women who have been running nascar

When Katherine Legge takes the green flag in Sunday’s Nascar Cup Series race on Phoenix Raceway, she becomes the 17th different woman competing at the top level of warehouse car racing and the first in over seven years. The British racer will also be just the third woman running in the Cup series that was not born in the United States and ended up until 1977 -starters Lella Lombardi (Italy) and Christine Beckers (Belgium).

Legge, a skilled sports car racer and veteran of four Indy 500S, is still pretty new in the world of warehouse car racing. However, Nascar already has a fascinating story with female racers over the years. So on this International Women’s Day, let’s look at the racers who have competed with a difference at NASCAR’s highest level.

Danica leads the field Daytona 500 to the green flag

A name known by everyone, with star power at the height of ‘Danica Mania’, which was only matched by Dale Earnhardt Jr. self. Hype and attention were surreal, just as the expectations of her. Patrick made history as the first woman to ever won an Indycar race when she took the routed flag in the Indy Japan 300 in 2008 on Oval on Twin Ring Motegi. She also led laps and ended up in third place in the Indianapolis 500. Patrick also broke new grounds on Nascar and started more cups than other women in history. She appeared in the 191 Cup race in total, including seven Daytona 500S. She even earned a pole position for NASCAR’s crown jewel event in 2013 – another first first.

While her stay in the cup series lasted for several years, she never found Victory Lane. Patrick, like many open wheels racing converts, found that the transition was quite the learning curve. Still, she scored seven top-ten finish (another record) and placed as high as sixth. Her career ended in 2018, unfortunately crashed into her seventh and last Daytona 500 start. However, Patrick has another record as the only woman who has ever scored a top-ten finish in the big American race.

Danica Patrick, Premium Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

Janet Guthrie blows a path on Daytona and Indianapolis

Guthrie was the first woman to compete in Indianapolis 500, and performed the same business in Nascar’s Daytona 500. And she did so in the 1970s, when the risk was far greater than the modern and mind was far less open to the idea of ​​women in stock cars. But it did not deter ‘the queen of speed’. Her Nascar Cup career spans 33 races, scoring five top-legs and matched Danica’s career-best result of the sixth.

The 6th place finished on one of the more difficult tracks on the circuit and completed 400 eerie laps around the dangerous Bristol Motor Speedway. She was a trailblazer in every sense of the word, broken stereotypes and was ‘the first woman’ to do many things in the world of warehouse car racing.

Pioneers in nascar, with items still standing

Louise Smith, Sara Christian and Ethel Mobley all have something in common. Each of these women competed in the preliminary NASCAR Cup series season back in 1949. And all three participated in the second ever cup race on the beaches of Daytona. Smith ended up running a total of 11 races in his short cup career, but it’s still third on the list of all the time for female copy drivers. She won various modified, late model, sportsmen and dwarfs in her racing career, but her best finish in the cup series was 16 ..

Now Mobley was actually the sister of two-time cup champion Tim Flock as well as Bob and Fonty. In the above -mentioned Daytona Beach Road Course Race, the flocks set an ever -unbroken record by having four siblings in the same event. Mobley continued to beat both Fonty and Bob in the race as well as the other two women on the web. While her cup career was short, Mobley competed in over 100 Nascar Whelen modified races.

Christian has a special distinction between this trio. She was part of the original 33 driver field in the very first cup race, making her the first woman to ever competed in the Cup series. But the most impressive moment of her career came later that season when she ended up in fifth place in Pittsburgh, which is just this day as the best result ever achieved by a woman in the Nascar Cup series.

Shawna Robinson is the first to catch the routed flag

Robinson tried 13 cups of running between 1995 and 2002, and made the course on eight occasions. It includes a performance in Daytona 500 in 2002, when she ended 24. Together with Patrick and Guthrie, this is the only three women to ever competed in NASCAR’s biggest race.

Robinson also competed at all three national levels with 61 XFinity Starts, Three Truck Starts and even a full season in Arca, where she ended up sixth in points. Note that she served a pole position as an XFinity Series driver and became the first woman to ever won a NASCAR -sanctioned event when she won in a Dash series ran in New Asheville in 1988. She was only 23 years old at the time.

Winston Cup Series debut for Shawna Robinson

Photo by: Autostock

Patty Moise – a pillar of the XFinity series

Moise, Kona to the current NASCAR VP for Competition Elton Sawyer, ran only five cups during her career, ending as high as 26. However, no woman has more starts than her in the second of NASCAR’s three national levels, which appears in all 133 XFinity races throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Her best finish was seventh on Talladega, but she was also a skilled road racer with some background in IMSA.

Honest mentions

The following women never came to the cup series, but they certainly deserve a nod on this list. Johanna Long is known for winning the Snowball Derby in 2010 (a prestigious Late Model Race), which is a feat that many short tracks of racers around the country can only dream of. In Nascar, she consistently impressed despite her equipment and drove it into the front half of the field in the early 2010s. Many people think she could have done so much more, but for a long time never got the opportunity for equipment that reflected her abilities.

Then there is Jennifer Jo Cobb, whose 234 truck series starts is easily the most of every woman in history. Her career in Nascar spans 15 years, and most impressive she did most of it while driving for the team she owned and operated.

Hailie Deegan is a driver whose story is far from done, but she has already made a bit of history. The daughter of X-Games legend Brian Deegan, the younger Deegan won two NASCAR-sanctioned races as she won three events like a K&N (now Arca) West Driver during 2018 and 2019. She ran full time in the truck series for three years and has 18 XFinity starter, but unfortunately never seemed to find her place at national level. She is now embarking on her rookie season as an Indy NXT driver and is taking on a whole new challenge.

Like her father, Deegan has quite a background on dirt and off-road racing, which helped her finish number two in a superstar racing experience in Eldora in 2023. She finished just behind Tony Stewart and beat several NASCAR CUP masters and veteran drivers from both warehouse car racing and open wheels.

HAILIE DEEGAN, AM RACING, Airbox Ford Mustang

Photo by: Matthew T. Thacker / NKP / Motorsport -Pictures

Upcoming and upcoming nascar stars

When Legge is preparing for his NASCAR CUP debut, the question of who is the next female NASCAR star rises? Many people thought Deegan could fill the vacant position that Patrick has left behind, but it has not happened yet.

Some look at Toni Breidinger-a 25-year-old, who is currently competing in his rookie truck season as a full-time driver for the Toyota-supported Tricon Garage. Her 15th place in her truck debut last year was the highest of every woman in history and with good equipment she has the opportunity to show her true potential in 2025. In recent years she has competed in Arca, which has finished as high as the third and placed fourth in the 2024 series championship.

Another name to see is 20-year-old Isabella Robusto. She is currently competing full time in Arca and has already turned heads in Legends Car and Late Model Racing Scene. Her third place finish as a teenager in 2022 South Carolina 400 was definitely a great achievement that placed in front of several established names, including Earnhardt Jr. Unfortunately, in 2023, a concussion slowed her career a bit, but she has a great opportunity for her year of supporting Arca Super Team Venturini Motorsports.

In just six Arca starter, Robusto already has two top-fives and three top-legs, as well as a pole position.

Toni Breidinger, Tricon Garage Toyota

Photo by: Jonathan Bachman – Getty Images