When Katherine Legge takes the green flag in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway, she will become the 17th different woman to compete at the top level of stock car racing and the first in over seven years. The British racer will also be just the third woman to race in the Cup Series who wasn’t born in the USA, joining 1977 starters Lella Lombardi (Italy) and Christine Beckers (Belgium).
Legge, an accomplished sports car racer and veteran of four Indy 500s, is still fairly new to the world of stock car racing. However, NASCAR already has a fascinating history of female racers throughout the years. So on this International Women’s Day, let’s take a look at the racers who have competed with distinction at NASCAR’s highest level.
Danica leads the Daytona 500 field to the green flag
A name known by all, with star power at the height of ‘Danica Mania’ only matched by Dale Earnhardt Jr. himself. The hype and attention were surreal, as were the expectations for her. Patrick made history as the first woman to ever win an IndyCar race when she took the checkered flag in the 2008 Indy Japan 300 on the oval at Twin Ring Motegi. She also led laps and finished third in the Indianapolis 500. Patrick broke new ground in NASCAR as well, starting more Cup races than other woman in history. She appeared in 191 Cup races total, including seven Daytona 500s. She even earned pole position for NASCAR’s crown jewel event in 2013 — another first.
While her stay in the Cup Series lasted for several years, she never did find Victory Lane. Patrick, like many open-wheel racing converts, found the transition to be quite the learning curve. Still, she scored seven top-ten finishes (another record) and placed as high as sixth. Her career ended in 2018, unfortunately crashing out in her seventh and final Daytona 500 start. However, Patrick holds another record as the only woman to ever score a top-ten finish in The Great American Race.
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
Janet Guthrie blazes a trail at Daytona and Indianapolis
Guthrie was the first woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500, accomplishing the same feat in NASCAR’s Daytona 500. And she did it in the 1970s, where the risks were far greater than the modern day and minds were far less open to the idea of women in stock car racing. But that didn’t deter the ‘Queen of Speed.’ Her NASCAR Cup career spanned 33 races, scoring five top-tens and matching Danica’s career-best result of sixth.
That 6th place finish came at one of the more difficult tracks on the circuit too, completing 400 grueling laps around the perilous Bristol Motor Speedway. She was a trailblazer in every sense of the word, shattering stereotypes and being ‘the first woman’ to accomplish many things in the world of stock car racing.
Pioneers of NASCAR, with records that still stand
Louise Smith, Sara Christian and Ethel Mobley all have something in common. Each of these women competed in the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series season way back in 1949. and all three took part in the second-ever Cup race on the beaches of Daytona. Smith ended up running a total of 11 races in her brief Cup career, but that’s still third on the all-time starts list for female Cup drivers. She won various modified, late model, sportsmen and midget races in her racing career but her best finish in the Cup Series was 16th.
Now, Mobley was actually the sister to two-time Cup champion Tim Flock, as well as Bob and Fonty. In that aforementioned Daytona Beach road course race, the Flocks set a still unbroken record by having four siblings in the same event. Mobley went on to beat both Fonty and Bob in that race, as well as the other two women on the grid. While her Cup career was short, Mobley competed in over 100 NASCAR Whelen Modified races.
Christian holds a special distinction amongst this trio. She was part of the original 33-driver field in the very first Cup race, making her the first woman to ever compete in the Cup Series. But the most impressive moment of her career came later that season when she finished fifth at Pittsburgh, which stands to this very day as the best ever result achieved by a woman in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Shawna Robinson is the first to capture the checkered flag
Attempting 13 Cup races between 1995 and 2002, Robinson made the field on eight occasions. That includes an appearance in the 2002 Daytona 500 where she finished 24th. Along with Patrick and Guthrie, these are the only three women to ever compete 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. Of note, she earned one pole position as an Xfinity Series driver, and became the first woman to ever win a NASCAR sanctioned event when she was victorious in a Dash Series race at 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 mainstay in the Xfinity Series
Moise, the wife of current NASCAR VP of competition Elton Sawyer, ran only five Cup races during her career, finishing as high as 26th. However, no woman has more starts than her in the second of NASCAR’s three national levels, appearing in a total of 133 Xfinity races throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Her best finish was seventh at Talladega, but she was also a capable road racer, with some background in IMSA.
Honorable mentions
The following women never made it to the Cup Series, but they certainly deserve a nod on this list. Johanna Long is known for winning the 2010 Snowball Derby (a prestigious late model race), which is a feat many short track racers around the country can only dream of. In NASCAR, she consistently impressed despite her equipment, driving it into the front half of the field in the early 2010s. Many believe she could have done so much more, but Long never got the opportunity in equipment that reflected her abilities.
Then there’s Jennifer Jo Cobb, whose 234 Truck Series starts is easily the most by any woman in history. Her career in NASCAR spans over 15 years, and most impressively, she did most of it while driving for the team she owned and operated.
Hailie Deegan is a driver whose story is far from finished, but she’s already made a bit of history. The daughter of X-Games legend Brian Deegan, the younger Deegan won two NASCAR-sanctioned races when she won three events as a K&N (now ARCA) West driver during 2018 and 2019 seasons. She ran full-time in the Truck Series for three years and has 18 Xfinity starts as well, but unfortunately, never seemed to find her place at the national level. She’s now embarking on her rookie season as an Indy NXT driver, taking on an entirely new challenge.
Like her father, Deegan has quite the background on dirt and off-road racing, which helped her finish second in a Superstar Racing Experience race at Eldora in 2023. She finished just behind Tony Stewart, beating several NASCAR Cup champions and veteran drivers from both stock car racing and open-wheel.
Photo by: Matthew T. Thacker / NKP / Motorsport Images
Up and coming NASCAR stars
As Legge prepares for her NASCAR Cup debut, the question rises about who is the next female NASCAR star? Many thought Deegan could fill the vacancy left by Patrick, but it hasn’t happened yet.
Some look to Toni Breidinger — a 25-year-old currently competing in her rookie Truck season as a full-time driver for the Toyota-backed TRICON Garage. Her 15th-place finish in her Truck debut last year was the highest of any woman in history and with good equipment, she has the opportunity to showcase her true potential in 2025. In recent years, she has competed in ARCA, finishing as high as third and placing fourth in the 2024 series championship.
Another name to watch is 20-year-old Isabella Robusto. She currently competes full-time in ARCA and has already turned heads in the Legends car and late model racing scene. Her third-place finish as a teenager in the 2022 South Carolina 400 was certainly a big achievement, placing ahead of several established names, including Earnhardt Jr. Unfortunately, a concussion in 2023 slowed her career slightly, but she has a big opportunity his year with the backing of ARCA super team Venturini Motorsports.
In just six ARCA starts, Robusto already has two top-fives and three top-tens, as well as a pole position.
Toni Breidinger, TRICON Garage Toyota
Photo by: Jonathan Bachman – Getty Images
In this article
Nick DeGroot
NASCAR Cup
Katherine Legge
Janet Guthrie
Danica Patrick
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