Of 8,000 licensed for local races in 2003, only 124 were women
By JEFF WOLF
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Since 1949, when Sara Christian became the first of 13 women to drive in NASCAR's premier stock-car series, the racing landscape has changed dramatically.
Television ratings for Cup series events are second only to the NFL, attendance at races usually rank second to none in sports, and NASCAR has become a multibillion-dollar industry.
But while career opportunities for women have improved elsewhere in NASCAR, women drivers remain a rarity.
When the Nextel Cup race begins at noon today at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, no women will be in the starting field, nor did any compete in Saturday's Busch series race at the speedway.
The last woman to run a Cup race in Las Vegas was Shawna Robinson, who qualified 36th and finished 42nd two years ago.
Eventually, however, a woman will compete regularly in Cup races, veteran motorsports reporter Deb Williams said.
"Yeah, it will be a tough road. And yeah, she'll still have to be 10 times better than her male counterpart," Williams said.
But that's just how Tina Gordon wants it. Gordon, a 34-year-old from Cedar Bluff, Ala., has driven her way to a full-time ride in NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series, a level just below the Busch series.
"When I get there, I want to be competitive," she said of the bigger series. "I don't want to be there just because I'm a female."
Gordon began racing in 1999 on dirt tracks in northern Alabama before graduating to local stock-car races.
It's a path not many women are taking.
According to NASCAR, of the 8,000 drivers licensed in 2003 to run in local races like those at Las Vegas Motor Speedway's three-eighths-mile Bullring oval, only 124 were women.
"You can't go out and read a book and be able to go racing the next day," Gordon said. "It's racing over a period of time, getting the experience."
Gordon competed in 10 truck races last year, twice finishing as high as 13th. In this year's season opener at Daytona International Speedway, she qualified 13th but finished 22nd after her truck developed suspension problems.
Gordon believes she has something that other female drivers lacked: a solid team. She is in her first year with Ohio-based Thorsport Racing, which is fielding two race trucks this season. Since entering the truck series in 1996, Thorsport has posted one victory in 171 races.
"Being in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series this year on a full-time basis is just going to get me that much more ready when I make the step into the Busch series or Nextel Cup series," Gordon said, adding that she plans to compete April 24 in the Busch race in Talladega, Ala.
Williams, who became director of public relations for Penske Racing earlier this year, believes it will take a special combination of driver and team to succeed in a world where too many times women have been more gimmick than contender.
Gordon might have another advantage over Robinson and other women who recently have tried to crack stock-car's major leagues: She has sponsors.
In racing, a driver's success is measured not only by what happens at the track on Sunday but whether that performance helps sell the sponsors' products and services on Monday.
Toward that end, Gordon appears in national television commercials for Sticks 'N' Stuff home furnishing stores, which has supported her racing effort since 2001. Her biggest coup came late last year when she landed Vassarette, a division of VF Corporation that sells lingerie, as her primary sponsor.
"The products they sell are for females," she said. "Forty percent of the NASCAR fans wear bras and panties, and what better fit for them to have a female driver promoting their products."
