NASCAR is not for the faint of heart. It is noisy, dirty and dangerous. So why would a "sweet little thing" like Janet Guthrie or Erin Crocker, want to be out in the middle of the pack, driving one of those fast and furious machines? Why would any woman want to drive for NASCAR?
Actually, women have always been involved in NASCAR. In the early days of racing, however, most women did nothing more than meet their husbands or boyfriends in Victory Lane, breathing a sigh of relief that they weren't suddenly without a lover and posing for pictures. They exchanged kisses and tried not to smear their lipstick and hoped that their tears of relief weren't making their mascara run. They were the cheerleaders and trophy girls of the race world. Though there was a smattering of women drivers, they were few and far between.
Looking back, we find that even during it's infancy NASCAR had those daring few women that just wanted to drive. One of the earliest was Ethel (Flock) Mobley. She was a sister to the Fabulous Flock Brothers - Bob, Fonty and Tim. It appears that the whole family was into fast cars, fast boats and planes. Of her seven brothers and sisters; three were into racing carts and running moonshine, her oldest brother Carl raced speedboats and her sister Reo was a stunt parachutist & wing-walker (as in airplane wings...) Coming from such a colorful background, racing cars probably seemed pretty tame. Ethel drove in more than 100 races. She competed against not only two other women, but all three of her brothers during NASCAR'S second ever event, in July of 1949 at the Daytona Beach Road Course. Though her brother Tim finished in second place, Ethel came in 11th, beating both of her older brothers. As a side note: this race was the only NASCAR race to ever feature a brother and sister racing against each other and also the only event where four siblings competed.
Other pioneering NASCAR females include Sara Chrisitan and Louise Smith. Sara actually beat Ethel onto the books as being NASCAR'S first female driver by about a month - she drove her first race in June of 1949 and both Ethel & Louise joined her on the Daytona Beach Road Course in July of that year. Three female drivers among a field of twenty-eight - even now that would be considered a rarity. Sara Christian raced in seven races during a two year period and had two top-10 finishes. She is credited with the only top-5 finish by a woman in NASCAR history and finished 13th in the final points standings.
Louise Smith actually didn't intend to become a driver when she showed up at the Daytona Beach race. Unhappy with the idea of being a spectator, she entered her family's new car, a Ford Coupe, in the race. Unfortunately, she rolled the car early in the 166-mile race and though she finished 20th, she also faced the humiliation of having her hometown paper run pictures of the wrecked vehicle. Undaunted, she continued to race from 1949 to 1956, earning herself the title of "the first lady of racing." She ran in various formats over the years, and won a total of 38 races in her career (though none of them in NASCAR). In 1971 she was once again involved with NASCAR, this time as a car owner. In 1999, she became the first woman inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. Louise Smith recently died in 2006 at the age of 90.
During the fifties, there were several women who gave NASCAR a try: Ann Bunselmeyer, Ann Chester, Marian Pagan, Sandy Lynch and Fifi Scott. They all raced only one of two races before driving off into the sunset of racing history, as did Goldie Parsons in the mid-60's and Christine Becker & Lella Lombari in the mid-70's.
The first serious contender of the fairer sex was Janet Guthrie. A former aerospace engineer,
Janet began driving on the Sports Car Club of America circuit in 1963. By 1972 she was racing full-time and in 1976 she was the first woman to compete in a NASCAR'S Winston Cup Superspeedway race. During the 1977 season, she was running 12th in her first Daytona 500 when she blew her engine with only 10 laps to go. In all, Janet Guthrie raced four seasons of NASCAR races before moving on to compete in IndyCar events. During her NASCAR career, she raced in over 30 races and had 5 top-10 finishes. Guthrie was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2006 and has published an autobiography entitled "Janet Guthrie: A Life at Full Throttle".
Patty Moise has driven in 133 races over the past 12 years. In addition to driving, Patty has owned her own team and married driver Elton Sawyer in 1990. Shawna Robinson has raced not only in NASCAR'S Sprint Cup series & Busch series, but also in the NASCAR Truck series. Tammy
Jo Kirk races not only trucks and autos, but motorcycles.
The most recent addition to the female NASCAR scene is 27 year old Erin Mary Crocker. Crocker started driving professionally in 2003 and participating in NASCAR'S ARCA series in 2004 and the BUSCH series events in 2006.
Over the years, women's roles in NASCAR have evolved almost as much as the sport itself. Thanks in part to the efforts of some of the early female pioneers in the world of racing they have gone from being cheerleaders to being car owners, members of pit crews and even drivers.