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Shawna Robinson

Dash Division Debut

Robinson made her debut as a stock car racer in the spring of 1988, finishing third in the Charlotte/Daytona Dash Series Florida 200 in Daytona. That June, she made history by winning the AC Delco 100 NASCAR Dash Series race in Asheville, North Carolina, the first woman to win a major NASCAR Touring event. She also won her first race in the Goody's Dash series that year and was voted NASCAR Dash Series Most Popular Driver and Rookie of the Year. She won the Most Popular Driver award again in 1989.

In her first two years in NASCAR, Robinson started all thirty Charlotte/Daytona Dash Series races. She won three of them and finished in the top ten a total of twenty-one times. By 1991, she was ready to move up to the Grand National Division, competing in the Busch Series, in which full-size, eight-cylinder cars reach up to 200 miles per hour.

Chronology

1964	Born November 30 in Des Moines, Iowa
1983	Learns to drive and race diesel truck cabs
1984	Becomes first woman ever to win a major super speedway points race, at Milwaukee Mile Bobtail 100
1985	Competes in Paul Ricard Grand Prix Truck Race in France
1988	Becomes first woman ever to win a major NASCAR event, when she wins AC Delco 100 in Asheville, North Carolina
1989	Becomes first woman to win a NASCAR pole position, in Goody's Dash Series race at Florence, South Carolina
1991	Drives four Busch Series races for Huffman Racing
1994	Becomes first woman to win a pole position in a Grand National NASCAR race, at Busch Series in Atlanta, with track-speed record of 174.330 mph; at the race two days later, her car slams into another racer and hits retaining wall—she continues to race for 63 laps
1995	Races several Busch Series races in No. 36 CPR Motorsports Ford Thunderbird
1996-98	Gives birth to son, Tanner, and daughter, Samantha, and temporarily retires from racing; works as interior decorator
1999	Begins racing again
2000	Becomes first woman to finish in top 10 in a national ovaltrack motor sports series, at the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) series; breaks right shoulder and two ribs in wreck in Brooklyn, Michigan, at ARCA race in June
2001	Starts Winston Cup race at Brooklyn, Michigan, on June 10; is first woman to finish a NASCAR Winston Cup race since Janet Guthrie in 1980; begins working with BAM Racing
2002	Makes seven Winston Cup starts, with best at 24th at Daytona 500 in February

Additional topics

Famous Sports StarsAuto RacingShawna Robinson Biography - Racing Family, Dash Division Debut, Chronology, Pole Position History And Crash, Arca Comeback - Temporary Retirement, CONTACT INFORMATION