We shouldn't have doubted her

By Jim Huber, Turner Sports Interactive
June 12, 2001
10:13 AM EDT (1413 GMT)

Commentary

We should have known long ago never to question a woman.

Jim Huber

We should have learned putting them on the spot only makes them stronger, angrier, more resilient and, in the end, right.

Aren’t they always?

Shawna Robinson heard our mutterings, repeated them out loud. And then stuffed them right down our throats on Sunday afternoon at Brooklyn.

"They thought I’d crash," she said of us all, "they said I’d get in the way and, best bet, they thought I’d never finish."

She didn’t do any of the above. Instead, she competed, she spun out but she finished. The first woman in a dozen years to start a Winston Cup race and the first in a baker’s dozen to make the checkered flag. Granted, she started 32nd and finished 34th but that was just three laps behind the eventual champion, Jeff Gordon.

When will we learn? Of course, a good 50 percent of y’all (at least those of you who have been in e-contact with me over the months) knew all along. One thing that has truly stunned me in my rookie experience with this column is the number of women in NASCAR fandom. Not just little girls, not just starry-eyed young women but females of all ages. Mothers and grandmothers and not just a few grandmothers, too.

So you knew. What’s to stop a woman from competing in this sport except predjudice and experience? Women have been proving for decades that, given a level playing field, they can belong. It’s still up in the air whether their strength and endurance can carry them through a full and gruelling season. But there I go again! When will I learn to keep my big mouth shut?

It has been tough for Shawna Robinson. Very tough. She’s struggled and there’s nothing to say the struggle is over now. But she took giant steps Sunday, not just for herself but her gender. Imagine the heroic furor that might come should she (or any other woman) become a week-in and week-out competitor in this sport?

And imagine who might be leading the cheers? Shirley Muldowney and Patty Moise and Janet Guthrie and Lyn St. James, for four. And we questioned them, too, didn’t we?

When will we ever learn?

Jim Huber's column will return in mid-July. The opinions listed here are solely those of the writer.