Shawna Robinson

Shawna Robinson (born November 30, 1964) is an American retired professional stock car racing driver.

She was a competitor in all three of NASCAR's national touring series, as well as the ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Series and the Charlotte/Daytona Dash Series.

Robinson is one of 16 women to participate in the NASCAR Cup Series, and one of three women to race in the sports' premier event, the Daytona 500.

Robinson was born on November 30, 1964, in Des Moines, Iowa.

Her legal name is Eileen "Shawna" Jade, but she went by Shawna on the racetrack.

She is the youngest of five children of former race car driver Richard "Lefty" Robinson, an amateur diesel truck racer who worked on cars in his home garage and promoted races in the Midwestern United States, and his wife Lois who competed in auto racing before she flipped a car, and was asked by Lefty to stop racing.

She grew up in a poor family.

Lefty and Lois were also known for innovative ways of entertaining crowds at stock car races which garnered national recognition.

Robinson was inspired by race car drivers A. J. Foyt, Sammy Swindell, and Steve Kinser in her teenage years, and found inspiration in woman driver Janet Guthrie by her early twenties, as she had more interest in NASCAR than open-wheel racing.

She and her siblings were taught that they were allowed to do anything they wished and drove minibikes, motorcycles, and snowmobiles.

Robinson persuaded him to let her compete in racing, and started off at Toledo Speedway driving a 1976 International semi-tractor.

She participated in a five-lap sprint race where she finished second after leading for four laps, and took third position in the feature event.

Robinson started competing in her childhood and, after graduating from high school in 1983, she began racing in semi-tractors.

After graduating from Saydel High School in 1983, Robinson spent the summer deciding on her career path as she worked as a department store cashier.

She went with her father to help him promote local races.

She achieved early success with 30 victories, and moved into the GATR Truck Series becoming the championship's rookie of the year for 1984.

Four years later, Robinson started competing in stock car racing where she became the first woman to win a top-level NASCAR-sanctioned race that same year, finishing a career-high third place in the points standings.

The following season, Robinson won two races and battled for the Charlotte/Daytona Dash Series championship in which she finished third overall.

She was twice voted the Charlotte/Daytona Dash Series Most Popular Driver.

After this Robinson began racing full-time, and won 30 feature races before moving to the super-speedway division in April 1984; she faced early resentment from her male competitors.

In the same year, Robinson moved from Iowa to Pennsylvania.

Lefty believed Robinson's presence helped to increase fans' interest.

Robinson's father acted as her mentor although her mother was against her racing because she felt she would be hurt in a crash.

In the same year, she became the first woman to win a Great American Truck Racing (GATR) Truck Series points-scoring race on a superspeedway when she won the Milwaukee Mile Bobtail 100 at Milwaukee Mile.

Robinson was sponsored by her father for the remainder of the season after achieving her first race victory.

She was voted the 1984 GATR Rookie of the Year.

Robinson went to France to compete in the Paul Ricard Grand Prix Truck Race the following year, and took second in the 1986 Grand Prix of Trucks held in Mexico City.

Robinson was victorious in the GATR Big Rig race at Flemington Speedway in 1987.

Robinson began competing in the Charlotte/Daytona Dash Series in the spring of 1988.

She garnered the attention of the Global Marketing Sports Group owned by Pat Patterson who found her a race seat with car owner David Watson, and drove a Pontiac Sunbird.

That same year, she moved to Charlotte, North Carolina because the city is the center for stock car racing.

Robinson started the season with a third-place finish in the Charlotte/Daytona Dash Series Florida 200 at Daytona International Speedway.

She became the first woman to win a top-level NASCAR Touring Series race with a victory in the AC Delco 100 at Asheville-Weaverville Speedway on June 10, 1988, after starting from 13th position and taking the lead seven laps before the finish.

She finished third in the Drivers' Championship, and was awarded the series' Rookie of the Year accolade as the highest-placed first season driver.

Robinson was also voted by her fellow competitors the Charlotte/Daytona Dash Series Most Popular Driver at the series' awards banquet held in Charlotte.

She moved to the NASCAR Busch Series in 1991 where she struggled to perform well but achieved one pole position in 1994.

Robinson left a year later to start a family and began an interior decorating business.

In 1999, she returned to active competition in the ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Series where she ran strongly, and finished sixth in the series championship standings the following year.

Robinson returned to NASCAR in 2001, and made her debut in the Winston Cup Series but was unable to compete successfully.

She retired from racing four years later to focus on her family and concentrate on running her interior design and furniture business.