Shawna Robinson facts for kids

Shawna Robinson (born November 30, 1964) is a retired American professional stock car racing driver. She competed in all three of NASCAR's main racing series. She also raced in the ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Series and the Charlotte/Daytona Dash Series. Shawna is one of only 16 women to have raced in the NASCAR Cup Series. She is also one of only three women to compete in the sport's biggest race, the Daytona 500.

Shawna started racing when she was a kid. After finishing high school in 1983, she began racing semi-trucks. She quickly became successful, winning 30 races. She then moved to the GATR Truck Series, where she was named Rookie of the Year in 1984. Four years later, Shawna started racing stock cars. In that same year, she became the first woman to win a top-level NASCAR-sanctioned race. She finished third in the points standings, which was her best career result.

The next year, Shawna won two more races and fought for the Charlotte/Daytona Dash Series championship, again finishing third overall. She was voted the "Most Popular Driver" in the Charlotte/Daytona Dash Series twice. In 1991, she moved to the NASCAR Busch Series but found it harder to succeed. She did earn one pole position in 1994. Shawna took a break from racing in 1995 to start a family and a business. She returned to racing in 1999 in the ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Series. She raced well and finished sixth in the series championship in 2000. Shawna came back to NASCAR in 2001, making her debut in the Winston Cup Series. She retired from racing four years later to focus on her family and her interior design business.

About Shawna Robinson

Early Life and First Races

Shawna Robinson was born on November 30, 1964, in Des Moines, Iowa. Her full name is Eileen "Shawna" Jade, but she used Shawna for racing. She was the youngest of five children. Her father, Richard "Lefty" Robinson, was a diesel truck racer. He worked on cars at home and helped organize races. Her mother, Lois, also raced cars but stopped after a crash. Shawna grew up in a family that didn't have much money.

Shawna's parents were known for making races exciting for fans. When she was a teenager, Shawna looked up to race car drivers like A. J. Foyt. By her early twenties, she was inspired by female driver Janet Guthrie. Shawna was more interested in NASCAR than other types of racing. She and her siblings learned they could do anything they wanted. They rode minibikes, motorcycles, and snowmobobiles.

After high school in 1983, Shawna worked as a cashier. She helped her dad promote local races. She convinced him to let her race. She started at Toledo Speedway in a 1976 International semi-tractor. In her first five-lap sprint race, she finished second. She then took third place in the main event. After this, Shawna raced full-time and won 30 races. She moved to the super-speedway division in April 1984. At first, some male racers were not happy about her racing. In 1984, Shawna moved from Iowa to Pennsylvania. Her dad thought her racing helped bring more fans to the events. While her dad supported her, her mom worried she might get hurt.

In 1984, Shawna became the first woman to win a Great American Truck Racing (GATR) Truck Series race on a superspeedway. She won the Milwaukee Mile Bobtail 100 at Milwaukee Mile. Her father sponsored her for the rest of that season. Shawna was named the 1984 GATR Rookie of the Year. The next year, she raced in France. In 1986, she finished second in a truck race in Mexico City. Shawna won another GATR Big Rig race at Flemington Speedway in 1987.

Racing in NASCAR and ARCA

Starting in Stock Cars (1980s)

Shawna began racing in the Charlotte/Daytona Dash Series in the spring of 1988. A sports marketing group noticed her and helped her get a racing spot with car owner David Watson. She drove a Pontiac Sunbird. That same year, she moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, because it's a big center for stock car racing.

Shawna started the season strong, finishing third in the Florida 200 race at Daytona International Speedway. On June 10, 1988, she made history. She became the first woman to win a top-level NASCAR Touring Series race. This happened at the AC Delco 100 at Asheville-Weaverville Speedway. She started 13th and took the lead seven laps before the end. She finished third in the Drivers' Championship. She also won the "Rookie of the Year" award for being the best first-year driver. Her fellow racers voted her the "Most Popular Driver" in the series.

The next year, Shawna continued to do well. She earned the first pole position (starting from the very front) by a woman driver in NASCAR at I-95 Speedway. She later won the Dash Series race at Myrtle Beach Speedway. Earlier that year, she won at Lanier National Speedway and earned two more pole positions. It would be 29 years before another female driver won a major NASCAR touring race. Shawna finished third in the points standings for the second year in a row. She also won the "Most Popular Driver" award again. She raced in all 30 Dash Series events in 1988 and 1989. She finished in the top ten 21 times. In 1989, the Women's Sports Foundation nominated her for the "Sportswoman of the Year Award."

Moving Up (1990s)

In 1991, Shawna started racing in the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series. This series was a stepping stone for drivers hoping to reach the top NASCAR circuit, the Winston Cup. At first, she didn't have a sponsor, which made racing difficult. In her first Busch Series race at Orange County Speedway, she started 26th and finished 15th. Later that year, she finished 21st and 18th in other races. Her final race that year ended early due to an accident. She finished 54th in the Busch Series points.

In 1992, Shawna changed teams. She had a tough rookie season but improved in July and August. She finished 11th twice, which was her best result that year. She ended the season 38th in the Busch Series championship. She was also second in the "NASCAR Busch Series Rookie of the Year" standings.

For the 1993 Busch Series, Shawna drove in 24 races. She had her best finish of the season, 11th place, at Indianapolis Raceway Park. She finished the year 23rd in the points standings, which was her highest in the Busch Series. She also raced in the Busch North Series once.

In 1994, Shawna earned her first career pole position in the Busch Series at Atlanta Motor Speedway. This was a first for a woman in the series. However, she was involved in a crash early in the race and had to stop. Later that season, she got her first top-ten finish in the Busch Series, coming in tenth at Watkins Glen. Soon after, she lost her sponsorship and left the team. Shawna took a break to regain her confidence and started doing interior decorating as a hobby. In November 1994, she married engine builder Jeff Clark.

In 1995, Shawna planned to race in the Busch Series and some Winston Cup races. She tried to enter the 1995 Daytona 500 but didn't qualify. She had two top-20 finishes in the Busch Series. After four races, she decided to stop racing to start a family. She was pregnant and turned down a chance to test at Daytona. She said that racing was a part of her, and she wanted her children to know who she was. Before her two children were born, Shawna started her interior decorating business from home.

Shawna returned to racing in 1999 in the ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Series. In her first race at Daytona, she finished second. This was the best finish for a woman driver in that championship at the time. She then raced for Winston Cup driver Jeremy Mayfield's team and finished fourth at Lowe's Motor Speedway. She won the "highest finishing rookie" award that year.

Back to NASCAR (2000s)

Because of her strong results, team owner Michael Kranefuss became interested in Shawna. He decided to give her a full-time spot for the 2000 ARCA season. She became the first woman to race full-time in a national stock car series in America. That season, Shawna finished in the top ten in half of her races. She also broke a track record at Michigan International Speedway and earned her first pole position in the series. During that race, she crashed and broke two ribs, but she was able to return to racing. Shawna was also the first woman to lead at least one lap in the ARCA Series at Toledo Speedway.

She almost won her first ARCA race at the final event of the season, leading for 66 laps. She finished sixth in the Drivers' Championship. This made her the first woman to finish in the top six in an American national oval track motor sports series. In 2001, Shawna returned to NASCAR to race in the Busch Series. She also made her debut in the Winston Cup Series, racing in six events. She became the first woman to start a NASCAR Cup Series race since Patty Moise in 1989. However, she had trouble finding sponsors and couldn't finish her planned schedule.

In October 2001, Shawna joined BAM Racing and raced in the NASCAR Winston West Series. The team owner, Tony Morgenthau, was impressed with her speed and offered her a multi-year contract. She tried to qualify for 24 races in the 2002 season. At the 2002 Daytona 500, Shawna qualified 36th, becoming the second woman to start the race. She finished 24th despite spinning her car. She struggled during her rookie season due to sponsorship problems and her team hiring other drivers. Her rivals said her car was not competitive, not that her driving skill was lacking. She made no more appearances for BAM Racing after the Pepsi 400 and was later released. She finished 52nd in the Drivers' Championship. Outside of racing, Shawna spoke for "Women in Sports." She separated from Jeff Clark in early 2002 but remained friends.

In 2003, Shawna moved to the Craftsman Truck Series. She drove for three races with a pit crew made entirely of women. She finished 18th in her first race. She also returned to ARCA that year. Shawna competed in the annual ten-lap Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race in Long Beach, California, finishing seventh overall.

Shawna left auto racing at the end of 2005. She had struggled with poor performances and felt that team owners and crew chiefs sometimes worked against her. She refused to be called a "gimmick" driver just because she was a woman. Shawna is one of 16 women to have raced in the NASCAR Cup Series. She is also one of three women to have driven in the sport's biggest event, the Daytona 500.

Life After Racing

After retiring from racing, Shawna focused on her family and her interior design business. Many of her clients came from the NASCAR community. She also started a company called Happy Chairs, where she creates and redesigns furniture. She looks for old chairs that are in bad shape but are still strong. She then takes them apart and rebuilds them. Her work has been praised by online magazines and customers.

Shawna tried out for the reality TV show The Amazing Race 16 with fellow NASCAR driver Jennifer Jo Cobb, but they were not chosen. She also helped plan and decorate for Kelley Earnhardt Miller's wedding in 2011. In March 2014, Shawna was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her friends helped run her businesses while she was getting treatment. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt Miller helped raise money for her medical bills. She later recovered and finished her final treatment in September 2015.

Shawna's Impact

Other drivers have called Shawna Robinson a "competent racer." As a female race car driver, Shawna was a pioneer in NASCAR, a sport mostly made up of men. She helped open doors for other women drivers, like Danica Patrick. In March 2002, the Iowa Senate honored her for her racing career.

In an interview in 2002, Shawna said she was an athlete who wanted to compete and win. She wanted people to remember that "Shawna Robinson was there." She felt she continued the work of Janet Guthrie in "opening doors for a lot of women" in racing and other sports where men are usually in charge.

Joe Dan Bailey, who worked with seven-time Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt, said Shawna had similar qualities to Earnhardt. She knew how to make her car feel better and how it behaved. Shawna said her success came from hard training. She noted that people often looked for her weaknesses because she was a woman. She felt more pressure because of her gender. Shawna said she didn't try to overpower male rivals. She also said her career was not "a crusade for feminism." Even though Shawna achieved many "firsts" for women in motorsports, she said these records were not the most important thing to her.