Why Danica Patrick will make the NASCAR Hall of Fame - Motorsport.com
Sixty-six years ago tomorrow, the first NASCAR race was held at Charlotte Speedway, a three-quarter-mile dirt track in North Carolina, on June 19, 1949. Finishing 14th was Sarah Christian. Ethel Mobley was 11th. Christian finished 18th. Louise Smith was 20th. The female drivers were there in NASCAR, from the start. She is the first woman driver to genuinely make NASCAR her career. HOF credentials And while she may not yet have compiled sheer statistics that would send her to the NASCAR Hall of Fame, the fact that she has been the first female driver to prove that a woman – particularly a woman that isn’t built like a roller... All that said, yes, Patrick doesn’t have a win, but look at her stats this season: As we approach the halfway mark, she is 19th in points, ahead of Greg Biffle (20th), Sam Hornish Jr. (25th), her car owner, Tony Stewart (26th), and her boyfriend,... I’m not remotely saying that her situation mirrors the struggle that Hall of Famer Wendell Scott faced as the first black driver to make a living in NASCAR, but there are similarities. But Scott’s first real season with NASCAR – 1961, when he competed in 23 of 52 races that year, winning $3,240 – came a stunning 52 years. Source: www.motorsport.com
