High speeds and crashes aren't looked upon all that favorably by the people who sell car insurance.
Good thing Tina Gordon got out of the business.
She is addicted to fast cars. And she doesn't even begin to sweat crashes - even the nasty kind that have broken both of her legs.
Several years ago, Gordon sold the insurance agency she owned so she could take up racecar driving full time.
She got the bug when she tagged along with her husband, Gary, to his weekly races on the dirt tracks of Alabama. He suggested that she sign up for the powder-puff races for women.
A petite Southern belle who was busy raising a toddler and didn't know a thing about racing, Gordon hemmed and hawed but eventually decided to give it a try. When her first race, as well as her next four, resulted in wins, she was hooked.
"In that very first race, I was racing against this girl who had won every single race at that track for the last three or four years," Gordon said. "Me and her were bumping and banging and rubbing fenders, and she got up into the wall and I won the race.
"The excitement of that, the rush of that made me want to keep racing all the time."
Fast forward nine years and the 35-year-old Gordon is the only full-time female driver in either of NASCAR's top two divisions - the Nextel Cup Series and the Busch Series.
She spent a rain-delayed Friday qualifying for today's Busch Series Tropicana Twister 300 at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet (1 p.m., Channel 5).
It will be Gordon's second race as the full-time driver for the No. 39 Yahoo! Ford car run by Jay Robinson Racing, which has a history of using female drivers. Last season, Tammy Jo Kirk was in a full-time driving role for Robinson.
Although more and more women are becoming involved with NASCAR - especially behind the scenes as engineers and crew members - Gordon and Kirk still are considered rarities.
"I don't care that I'm the only woman out there. I wouldn't have it any other way because I love being a woman," said Gordon, who is sponsored in part by Vasarette, a top-of-the-line lingerie manufacturer.
"I love getting my hair done and my nails done. One of the big jokes with my crew is that when I get into the car, I've got to spend all this time adjusting the mirrors so I can see my makeup.
"So yeah, I guess I'm different than most of the drivers. But when I'm on the track, I'm not thinking about that. I'm just trying to drive and win like anyone else.
"I think the other drivers must respect that because I've never been given a hard time by anyone. They don't think I'm out there just to be a novelty. They know I'm serious."
The proof is in Gordon's resume.
Three years after her first powder-puff race, Gordon starting beating the guys at the dirt tracks.
In 18 starts as a rookie at the Thunder Mountain Speedway in Fyffe, Ala., she had six top-five finishes and 11 top-10 finishes, and she finished 10th in points. So she knew it was time to try asphalt.
Gordon ran the NASCAR All-Pro Series full time in 1999 and 2000 and finished 20th in points both seasons. Over the last couple of years, Gordon has been involved in two serious accidents, breaking a leg each time. But that didn't stop her from also racing trucks as part of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
"My goal is to move into the Nextel (Cup) Series," said Gordon, who has won nearly $73,000 in just three NASCAR seasons. "When that time comes, I want to be experienced so I can be competitive.
"We've taken all the steps along the way and actually we've moved along pretty quick. It hasn't even been 10 years since I started racing, so for us to be running full time in the Busch Series is huge."
