Top Five Women Racers in Motorsports History (So Far)
In honor of Women’s History Month, ExoConsulting has chosen our top five women racers throughout motorsports history, based on accomplishments on and away from the asphalt.
Janet Guthrie
Although Janet Guthrie was not the first woman to compete in motorsports, she was one of the first to gain prominence with 33 career starts in the NASCAR Cup Series and 11 starts in IndyCar.
Kicking off her racing career in 1972, the Iowa City native made her presence known in the sportscar racing scene, earning two class wins in the 12 Hours of Sebring. Guthrie made her stock car debut in the 1976 World 600 at Charlotte.
Competing at races in Bristol, Charlotte, Daytona, Darlington, Talladega, and Ontario (Calif.), Guthrie had 33 career starts with five top 10 finishes, including a sixth in the 1977 Volunteer 400 at Bristol. Guthrie acknowledged the reality that, like her contemporaries, she fought the battle of sexism in motorsports.
“The problem for women, in my opinion, is they still have a harder time finding funding for this very expensive sport than does a man of similar accomplishments,” Guthrie said in an NASCAR on NBC article written by Jerry Bonkowski in 2020.
Still, Guthrie, the first woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500 and Daytona 500, takes pride that she blazed a trail for women behind the wheel and beyond .
While Guthrie did not race for enough years to be eligible for the NASCAR Hall of Fame as a driver, she won the 2021 Landmark Award, an honor that she shares with Mike Helton, Ralph Seagraves, and Alvin Hawkins.
Sara Christian
Originally from Dahlonega, Georgia, Sara Christian was the first woman to race in NASCAR. Born in 1918, Christian made her debut in 1949, racing in six of the eight races.
Competing in NASCAR’s inaugural season, Christian kicked off her stock car career with a 14th place effort at Charlotte while earning a sixth at Langhorne and a fifth at Pittsburgh. Placing 13th in the 1949 championship standings, Christian made her final start in the 1950 season with a 14th at Hamburg, New York.
While Christian’s NASCAR career was brief, her fifth at Pittsburgh remains the highest finish in a Cup race for a woman. Christian raced among stock car’s greatest like Lee Petty, Bill Rexford, Red Byron, and Curtis Turner.
Christian, who passed away in 1980 at the age of 61, posthumously earned the honor of being inducted into the George Automobile Racing Hall of Fame in 2004.
Courtney Force
Before stepping away from NHRA competition prior to the 2019 season, Courtney Force was quite the force as a determined and successful Funny Car competitor. The youngest daughter of NHRA champion John Force, the Yorba Linda native made a name for herself on quarter mile drag strips across America.
A consistent contender since her rookie season in 2012, Force was a fan favorite, making time for young racing enthusiasts during the grueling NHRA season.
“It’s extremely gratifying to know that you’re in the sport, doing what we love, and we have young girls that come up to us and tell us that they look up to us as role models, and they didn’t know that girls could drive a racecar and didn’t know they could win until they saw us on TV,” Force said in an interview on The Podium Finish in 2018.
While Force was a winner on the drag strips of the NHRA circuit, the Californian remains a true champion for women who also look to make their mark and contributions in the world of motorsports.
Danica Patrick
Danica Patrick was a tour de force in motorsports as a versatile racer in open wheel and stock car events. While Patrick may be known for winning the 2013 Daytona 500 pole, the first woman to achieve this feat in NASCAR, her biggest moment took place in 2005 when she qualified fourth in the 89th Indianapolis 500, the best qualifying effort for a woman in the most famous race in motorsports.
With 10 laps left in the race, Patrick drove into the lead before falling back to a fourth place finish in the waning
moments. Despite coming up short of winning the 500, Patrick took pride in her historical moment. “I made a hell of a point for anybody, are you kidding me?" Patrick said in a New York Times article written by Dave Caldwell on May 30, 2005.
Patrick became the first woman to win an NTT IndyCar Series race when she emerged victorious in the 2008 Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi.
Shirley Muldowney
Known as “The First Lady of Drag Racing,” Shirley Muldowney, originally from Burlington, Vermont, fell in love with racing during her childhood.
“School had no appeal to me,” Muldowney said in Game Changers: The Unsung Heroines of Sports History, a book written in 2016 by Molly Schiott. “All I wanted was to race up and down the streets in a hot rod.”
Beginning her street racing career in the 1950s in Schenectady, New York, Muldowney earned her license
as a pro NHRA racer in 1965. Throughout her storied NHRA racing career, Muldowney’s tenacious and competitive nature proved enduring.
Winning the NHRA Top Fuel championship in 1977, ’80, and ’82, Muldowney won 18 NHRA races before retiring in 2003.
Immortalized in the 1983 biopic Heart Like a Wheel starring Bonnie Bedelia, Muldowney was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1990, the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2004, and the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2005.
Honorable Mentions: Sarah Fisher, Shawna Robinson, and Lyn St. James
Written by Rob Tiongson, March 22, 2021
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