Shawna Robinson has proven to be ultra resilient in her efforts to establish herself in the upper levels of NASCAR racing. After an abortive attempt at the Daytona 500 in 1995, she finally made her Winston Cup debut in 2001, making one start in four attempts for MK Racing.
Robinson qualified 32nd and finished 34th at Michigan, where she set an ARCA qualifying record in 2000. She also made a limited number of starts in the NASCAR Busch Series. The BAM Racing team for which she planned to drive in 2002 failed to qualify for five Winston Cup races in 2001.
Robinson has been a race driver ahead of her time since she was a 19-year-old slinging a big-rig tractor around Midwest tracks on the Great American Truck Racing tour, where she made her debut in 1980.
After setting landmarks in the Goody's Dash Series, NASCAR Touring; NASCAR Busch Series; and ARCA RE/MAX Series Robinson is once again attempting to become the first female driver to compete in more than a couple races in more than 20 years.
After competing with GATR from 1983-88, Robinson moved to NASCAR stock cars in 1988, where she finished third in her debut race in the Goody's Dash Series at Daytona International Speedway. Later that season she became the first woman to win a NASCAR Touring event when she won the Dash race at New Asheville (N.C.) Speedway. She was Goody's Dash Most Popular Driver and Rookie of the Year that season.
The next year, she became the first woman to win a NASCAR Touring pole position in a Dash race at I-95 Speedway in Florence, S.C. That was a feat she repeated in 1994 at a much higher level when, after several partial schedules in the Busch Series and one full season, she won the pole for the Busch Light 300 at Atlanta Motor Speedway with a record lap.
In 2000, after taking the better part of five years off to start a family, Robinson, the mother of a young son and daughter, became the first female to finish in the top-six of a national motorsports oval series, running among the point leaders in ARCA's premier series all season. At the same time, she became the first female to run a full season in a national stock car racing series. She has scored top-10 finishes in virtually half her ARCA starts.
"I never was a cheerleader," she said. "I'm an athlete. I'm probably not coordinated enough to be a cheerleader but that doesn't matter. I've always wanted to compete. And if I compete, I want to win. I was born competitive and that's in my blood. Whatever car I'm in, whatever series I'm running, whatever track I'm racing -- I want to be a factor. I want people to know Shawna Robinson was there."
In 2002, Robinson made seven Winston Cup starts. Her best finish was 24th at the Daytona 500 in February. She had four finishes of 40th or worse and finished the year 52nd in the Winston Cup standings.
