Best Female NASCAR Drivers of All Time, Ranked
On this page16
- 01The greatest female NASCAR drivers at a glance
- 02Danica Patrick
- 03Janet Guthrie
- 04Shawna Robinson
- 05Sara Christian
- 06Hailie Deegan
- 07Toni Breidinger
- 08Patty Moise
- 09Jennifer Jo Cobb
- 10Ethel Mobley
- 11Natalie Decker
- 12How We Ranked Them
- 13Cup, Xfinity, and Truck: Where These Records Live
- 14Era Caveats: Comparing 1949 to Today
- 15At a Glance
- 16Where the Money and Championships Sit
Rankings weigh verifiable on-track results first — poles, top-10s, laps led, and series-level records — then how far a driver pushed the ceiling for the women who followed. A historic first with thin results still places, but a driver with both ranks higher.
The greatest female NASCAR drivers at a glance
| Rank | Driver | Defining NASCAR record |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Danica Patrick | 191 Cup starts and seven top-10s |
| 2 | Janet Guthrie | First woman in the Daytona 500 |
| 3 | Shawna Robinson | First female national-series pole |
| 4 | Sara Christian | Only female Cup top-five finish |
| 5 | Hailie Deegan | Modern national-series prospect |
| 6 | Toni Breidinger | Active national-series barrier-breaker |
| 7 | Patty Moise | 1980s and 1990s series regular |
| 8 | Jennifer Jo Cobb | Truck Series longevity record |
- Record holder
Danica Patrick
Patrick owns every meaningful female mark in the NASCAR Cup Series: most career starts (190), most laps led, and seven top-10 finishes — more than any other woman. Those numbers put her clear of Janet Guthrie at No. 2, whose five top-10s came across a far shorter, less-funded run in the 1970s.
Her defining day was the 2013 Daytona 500, where she became the first woman to win a Cup Series pole, then led laps under green — another first — and finished 8th, still the best Daytona 500 result by a woman. She had already broken ground in open-wheel as the first woman to win an IndyCar race (2008 Indy Japan 300) before moving to NASCAR full-time in 2012, and retired from full-time racing after the 2018 Daytona 500.
Cup starts: 190 · Female Cup records: most starts, laps led, top-10s (7) · Defining feat: 2013 Daytona 500 pole, finished 8th
- Founding pioneer
Janet Guthrie
A former aerospace engineer, Guthrie is the first woman to lead a lap in a NASCAR Cup Series race, a milestone that predates every active driver on this list by decades. In 1977 she also became the first woman to compete in both the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500 in the same year, taking Top Rookie honors at that Daytona 500.
Across 33 Cup starts she posted five top-10 finishes, almost all with underfunded teams she helped assemble herself. She ranks below Patrick only because Patrick's raw statistical marks are larger — but Guthrie did it first, and with less.
Cup starts: 33 · Top-10s: 5 · Defining feat: first woman to lead a Cup lap; 1977 Daytona 500 + Indy 500
- First pole
Shawna Robinson
Robinson is the first woman to win a pole in what is now the Xfinity Series, setting a track-record lap of 174.330 mph at Atlanta in 1994. That qualifying record separates her from the pioneers ranked just below: she didn't only start races, she out-ran the field for a lap on speed.
She later made eight Cup Series starts across 2001 and 2002, becoming the second woman to race the Daytona 500 (2002), where she finished a career-best 24th. Her span across three national touring series is why later drivers still name her as an influence.
First female Xfinity pole: 1994 (Atlanta) · Cup starts: 8 (2001–02) · Defining feat: track-record qualifying run
- The original
Sara Christian
Christian is credited as the first woman to compete in NASCAR's top division, driving in the inaugural "Strictly Stock" race at Charlotte Speedway on June 19, 1949. She qualified 13th and finished 14th that day, then earned the United States Drivers Association's Woman Driver of the Year award for the season.
Her real marker came that October at Heidelberg Raceway: a 5th-place Cup finish that stood as the best by a woman for more than 60 years, until Patrick's results surpassed it in the 2010s. She ranks here — above active drivers with more starts — because being first, and holding a record for six decades, is not a thing anyone can repeat.
First female top-division start: 1949 · Career-best: 5th (Heidelberg, 1949) · Honor: 1949 Woman Driver of the Year
- Modern prospect
Hailie Deegan
Deegan is the first woman to win a race in what is now the ARCA Menards Series West, taking three wins across 2018 and 2019 and the 2020 ARCA Menards Series Rookie of the Year award. That regional breakthrough earned her a full-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series ride from 2021 to 2023.
She moved up to the Xfinity Series with AM Racing in 2024, then switched to open-wheel Indy NXT in 2025 — a reminder that the development pipeline giveth and taketh away. She ranks above the veterans below on ceiling and results at the regional level, not on a top-series breakthrough she hasn't yet made.
ARCA West wins: 3 · 2020 ARCA Rookie of the Year · Series run: Truck (2021–23), Xfinity (2024), Indy NXT (2025)
- Active barrier-breaker
Toni Breidinger
Breidinger is the first Arab American woman to race full-time in a NASCAR national series, joining Tricon Garage in the Craftsman Truck Series for 2025 — the only woman running full-time in NASCAR's top three national series that season. Before the jump she became USAC's all-time winningest female driver with 19 wins.
A single full-time Truck season hands her more starts than most women on this list ran in an entire career. She sits below Deegan for now on the strength of Deegan's ARCA West wins and championship-level regional results, but a strong Truck campaign could flip that.
First Arab American woman full-time in a national series: 2025 (Truck) · USAC wins: 19 (most by a woman)
- 1980s regular
Patty Moise
Moise logged 133 starts in what is now the Xfinity Series between 1986 and 1998 — a volume of top-series racing few women have matched — with four top-10 finishes, her best a 7th at Talladega in 1995. She is also credited as the first woman to lead a Busch Series event.
She added five Cup Series starts between 1987 and 1989, rare for a woman in that era, and did it largely without full-season sponsorship. Her ranking rests on sustained presence rather than a single headline result, which is why she sits behind the record-setters and barrier-breakers above.
Busch/Xfinity starts: 133 (1986–98) · Top-10s: 4 (best 7th, Talladega 1995) · Cup starts: 5
- Endurance mark
Jennifer Jo Cobb
Cobb holds a record built on sheer durability: she passed 200 Truck Series starts in 2020 and has continued since — the most of any woman in the series' history — while running as both driver and team owner, an unusual double.
NASCAR declined to approve her Cup debut at Talladega in 2021 with Rick Ware Racing, citing changed performance standards — a reminder of how narrow the top-series door remains even for accomplished veterans. Her rank reflects longevity and a genuine series record rather than a signature on-track result.
Truck starts: 200+ (most by a woman) · Role: driver and team owner · Note: Cup entry declined at Talladega, 2021
- 1949 co-pioneer
Ethel Mobley
Mobley raced in NASCAR's earliest 1949 events alongside her sister Sara Christian, and at the Daytona Beach race that July she finished 11th — a career best — beating her own brothers Fonty and Bob on the same track. She was part of the racing Flock family, whose brother Tim Flock became a two-time Cup champion and NASCAR Hall of Famer.
She kept racing in NASCAR's Modified division into the 1950s. She ranks just behind Christian among the 1949 pioneers because her sister is specifically credited as the first woman in the top division, while Mobley's best-remembered runs came in Modified and beach-course events.
Debut: 1949 · Career-best: 11th (Daytona Beach, 1949) · Family: sister of two-time champion Tim Flock
- Current contender
Natalie Decker
Decker set the highest-ever finish by a woman in the Truck Series with a 5th place in the 2020 NextEra Energy 250 at Daytona, driving the No. 44 Chevrolet. It remains one of the best restrictor-plate results any woman has posted in a top NASCAR-sanctioned event.
She has run a part-time schedule across the Xfinity, Truck, and ARCA series and returned to racing at Daytona in 2026. She closes the list as the clearest current example of a driver trying to convert occasional strong runs into a full-time ride.
Defining feat: 5th, 2020 Truck race at Daytona (highest by a woman) · Schedule: part-time Xfinity/Truck/ARCA
Reader interaction
Build your ranking
Drag the names into the order you think is right — or use the arrows — then submit to see how your list compares with everyone else's.
- Danica Patrick
- Janet Guthrie
- Shawna Robinson
- Sara Christian
- Hailie Deegan
- Toni Breidinger
- Patty Moise
- Jennifer Jo Cobb
- Ethel Mobley
- Natalie Decker
Audience ranking
How everyone ranked them
Built from reader rankings using position-based points.
No woman has won a NASCAR Cup Series points race. That single fact dominates the conversation, but it flattens a longer story: since the first “Strictly Stock” race in 1949, a small, stubborn group of drivers has forced its way into stock car racing’s top levels, one qualifying run at a time. The ranking above weighs their results and impact; the sections below explain how, and add the context that makes the order make sense.
How We Ranked Them
On-track results come first — poles, top-10s, laps led, and series-level records that can be checked against the timing sheets. Danica Patrick and Janet Guthrie top the list because their statistical marks and historic firsts are unmatched. Sara Christian and Ethel Mobley rank high for being first, full stop, in NASCAR’s inaugural 1949 season, even though the fields and technology of that era make their raw numbers hard to compare with modern ones.
The second factor is how far a driver widened the door for the women behind her. That is why active racers like Hailie Deegan and Toni Breidinger appear on results achieved so far, not on projection — their careers, and the Drive for Diversity program that helped produce them, are still in progress. Where two drivers are close, the one with a verifiable on-track record (a pole, a series start record) ranks above the one with mainly a “first.”
Cup, Xfinity, and Truck: Where These Records Live
The records here span all three of NASCAR’s national series, which matters because the ceilings differ. The Cup Series is the top tier, where Patrick set the female start, laps-led, and top-10 marks. The Xfinity Series (formerly Busch/Grand National) is where Shawna Robinson won her pole and Patty Moise built her start total. The Truck Series is where Jennifer Jo Cobb and Natalie Decker set their marks. If the differences between these tiers are new to you, our breakdown of the Cup, Xfinity, and Truck Series lays out how a driver climbs from one to the next — and how the playoffs work once they arrive.
Era Caveats: Comparing 1949 to Today
Ranking a 1949 pioneer against a 2025 full-time racer is not apples to apples. Christian and Mobley raced short fields in stripped-down street cars on dirt and beach courses; a “top-10” then could mean beating only a dozen rivals. Modern drivers face 30-plus-car fields, spec chassis, and vastly deeper competition. The list treats historic firsts as their own category of achievement rather than trying to force a single statistical yardstick across 75 years.
At a Glance
| Rank | Driver | Era | Signature Achievement |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Danica Patrick | 2010s | Female Cup records: 190 starts, most laps led, 7 top-10s; 2013 Daytona 500 pole |
| 2 | Janet Guthrie | 1970s | First woman in the Daytona 500 and Indy 500 (1977); first to lead a Cup lap |
| 3 | Shawna Robinson | 1988–2003 | First female Xfinity (Busch) pole, 1994; 8 Cup starts (2001–02) |
| 4 | Sara Christian | 1949 | First woman in NASCAR’s top division; 5th at Heidelberg, best by a woman for 60+ years |
| 5 | Hailie Deegan | 2018–present | 3 ARCA Menards West wins; full-time Truck (2021–23), Xfinity (2024) |
| 6 | Toni Breidinger | 2021–present | First Arab American woman full-time in a national series (Truck, 2025) |
| 7 | Patty Moise | 1986–1998 | 133 Xfinity (Busch) starts, four top-10s; five Cup starts |
| 8 | Jennifer Jo Cobb | 2004–present | Most Truck Series starts (200+) by any woman |
| 9 | Ethel Mobley | 1949 | Raced NASCAR’s first 1949 events; sister of champion Tim Flock |
| 10 | Natalie Decker | 2018–present | 5th at Daytona in 2020, highest Truck Series finish by a woman |
Where the Money and Championships Sit
None of these drivers won a Cup title, and the sport’s earnings gap is part of why the pipeline stays thin — sponsorship dollars follow results, and results need seat time. For the broader context around what stock car racing pays and who has dominated it, see our looks at NASCAR’s most championships, the drivers with the most wins in NASCAR history, and what today’s stars actually earn on and off the track. For the full library, browse our motorsport guides.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the best female NASCAR driver of all time?+
Danica Patrick is the most accomplished by the numbers. She holds the female Cup Series records for most starts (190), most laps led, and most top-10 finishes (7), and she is the only woman to win a Cup Series pole, which she did for the 2013 Daytona 500. She also became the first woman to lead a Cup race under green-flag conditions that same day.
Has a woman ever won a NASCAR Cup Series race?+
No. No woman has won a points race in NASCAR's top division. The closest marks belong to Danica Patrick, whose 2013 Daytona 500 pole and 8th-place finish are the best qualifying and finishing results by a woman in that race. In the Truck Series, Natalie Decker's 5th at Daytona in 2020 is the highest finish any woman has recorded in that national series.
Who was the first woman to race in NASCAR?+
Sara Christian is credited as the first woman to compete in NASCAR's top division, driving in the inaugural Strictly Stock race at Charlotte Speedway on June 19, 1949. She qualified 13th and finished 14th. Her sister-in-law-era peer Ethel Mobley raced in the sport's earliest 1949 events too, and Louise Smith joined them, making the 1949 season NASCAR's first with multiple female competitors.
Why hasn't a woman won a NASCAR Cup race yet?+
A few structural reasons stack up: limited sponsorship for female entries, a thin development pipeline from short tracks to the Cup Series, and far fewer full-time women than men on any given grid. NASCAR launched its Drive for Diversity program in 2004 partly to widen that pipeline. Danica Patrick's Cup-record top-10s came across 190 starts — the kind of volume women rarely get.
Which female drivers are active in NASCAR today?+
Toni Breidinger runs full-time in the Craftsman Truck Series for Tricon Garage, the only woman full-time in NASCAR's top three national series. Jennifer Jo Cobb continues in the Truck Series, where she owns the female start record, and Natalie Decker runs a part-time schedule across the Xfinity, Truck, and ARCA series. Hailie Deegan moved to open-wheel Indy NXT in 2025 after Truck and Xfinity stints.
What made Janet Guthrie's career so significant?+
Guthrie, a former aerospace engineer, is the first woman to lead a lap in a NASCAR Cup Series race and the first to compete in both the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500 in the same year (1977). She posted five top-10 finishes in 33 Cup starts, almost all with self-built, underfunded teams. Her firsts set the template every later female driver has measured against.
Sources
Play & tools
Free browser games and tools — no account, no download.
- Play 24-0 — Draft an F1 chassis and two drivers, then chase a perfect 24-0 — win every race on the 24-round calendar.
- Explore all our games →
Related motorsport guides
View all →
Best Race Car Drivers of All Time: Ranked Across Motorsport
The greatest race car drivers ever, ranked across F1, IndyCar, NASCAR and Le Mans — from Hamilton and Schumacher to Fangio and Andretti, with the case for each.
How Do NASCAR Playoffs Work?
NASCAR's playoffs feature 16 drivers in a 10-race, four-round elimination format that ends with a winner-take-all Championship 4 finale. Explained simply.
NASCAR Cup vs Xfinity vs Truck: The 3 Series
NASCAR's three national series are the Cup Series (top tier), the Xfinity Series (second), and the Craftsman Truck Series. See how the cars, races and drivers differ.
NASCAR Stage Racing Explained: Stages & Stage Points
NASCAR splits each race into three stages. The top finishers in each stage earn stage points, and a caution flies at each stage break to reset the field.
What Is a Green-White-Checkered Finish in NASCAR?
A green-white-checkered finish is NASCAR overtime: if a late caution appears, the race is extended so it ends under green over a two-lap dash to the checkered flag.
What Is the Lucky Dog in NASCAR? (Free Pass)
The lucky dog, or free pass, gives the first car one lap down its lap back when a caution comes out — a chance to rejoin the lead lap and keep racing for the win.