Top 5 female NASCAR drivers who made an impact feat. Hailie Deegan

Female NASCAR drivers have been competing in NASCAR since the very beginning. In the 77-year history of the NASCAR Cup Series, 17 women have made at least one start. The first to break into the series did so in 1949, its inaugural year.

Since then, 11 women have returned for multiple races, and only one, Danica Patrick, has run a full season, making 191 starts from 2013 to 2017. Just six women have made five or more Cup starts, and only three have reached double digits.

Here’s a look at the top five female NASCAR drivers who made an impact, featuring Hailee Deegan.

#5 Katherine Legge

After her 2024 Indianapolis 500 appearance, Katherine Legge opted not to return in 2025, choosing instead to race full-time in NASCAR. Her first taste of stock car racing came in 2018 with four Xfinity Series starts, and the experience left her wanting more.

"I loved it and wanted to do more… I have so much fun doing it and am so motivated. I really want to make this home,” she said (via NASCAR.com).

In 2025, Legge aimed to debut in the Cup Series at COTA but instead made her first start at Phoenix Raceway with Live Fast Motorsports. It was a tough race: she was involved in several incidents and accidentally ended Daniel Suárez’s day. Legge later acknowledged (via NASCAR.com):

“It was going to be my first foray and fly under the radar and that didn’t happen... I wanted to use it to gain experience.”

In the Xfinity Series, Legge joined Jordan Anderson Racing but has faced difficulties. She failed to qualify at Nashville and Rockingham and recorded three DNFs in four starts. She led a lap at Talladega with Joey Gase Motorsports and was running midpack before a multicar crash ended her day.

Her remaining 2025 races include Cup events at Mexico City, Chicago, Sonoma, Watkins Glen, and Richmond, and Xfinity races at EchoPark Speedway and Indianapolis. Supported by McLeod, Anderson, and veterans like AJ Allmendinger and Justin Allgaier, Legge remains focused on growing her stock car experience and possibly returning to the Indy 500 in the future.

---

#4 Sara Christian

Sara Christian was a force in NASCAR’s inaugural 1949 season, finishing 13th in the standings, still the best season result for a female driver in Cup Series history. Her fifth-place finish at Heidelberg Raceway was also the highest-ever single-race result by a woman in the Cup Series.

She started six of eight races that year, including the inaugural event in Charlotte, where she was credited with a 14th-place finish despite handing off the car mid-race. At the Daytona Beach and Road Course, she raced alongside her husband Frank Christian, the only couple competing in a NASCAR race, finishing 18th to his sixth.

At Langhorne, Pennsylvania, the female NASCAR driver finished sixth and was invited to Victory Lane with Curtis Turner, a rare honor for anyone other than the race winner. Her performances got her the United States Driver’s Association’s “Woman Driver of the Year” in 1949. As noted in the 1949 season finale program at North Wilkesboro.

Cody Dinsmore of the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame said (via NASCAR.com):

“They realized that she was good enough to where she could compete with the men.”

She retired in 1950 due to a back injury but was inducted into the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame in 2004, with Frank entering in 2013. She passed away in 1980.

---

#3 Danica Patrick

Danica Patrick holds the record for the most NASCAR Cup Series starts by a woman - 191 races from 2012 to 2018. She was also the only female driver to compete full-time in the Cup Series, racing full seasons from 2013 through 2017 with Stewart-Haas Racing.

The female NASCAR driver came into NASCAR with huge expectations following her success in IndyCar, where she won a race and placed third at the 2009 Indy 500. Coming to the Cup Series full-time in 2013, she raced for five seasons, grabbing seven top-10 finishes, the most by a woman in the series, though she never cracked the top 20 in season standings.

“She didn’t come into the sport to set a car up, she came to the sport to learn to drive it,” said her former crew chief Tony Eury Jr. (via ESPN).

She made history in the 2013 Daytona 500 by winning the pole and finishing eighth, the best finish by a female driver in that race.

---

#2 Janet Guthrie

In 1977, Janet Guthrie became the first woman to race in the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500. A physics graduate from the University of Michigan, she started in sports car racing, working on her own vehicles without factory support.

In NASCAR’s Cup Series, Guthrie broke ground by leading a lap, another first for women in the sport. She returned to the Indy 500 in 1978 and 1979, proving she belonged on motorsport’s biggest stages.

Her technical skills and independence set her apart, but so did her mindset. In a piece about the female driver, IndyStar reflected on her thought process behind racing, writing:

“It wasn't about proving anything — it was about racing.”

She was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2019. She was also honored with NASCAR’s Landmark Award in 2024.

---

#1 Hailie Deegan

Hailie Deegan began her career in off-road racing before moving to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West in 2018–2019, where she became the first female to win a race in series history. She ended that run with three wins and ten top-five finishes.

In 2020, she moved up to the NASCAR Truck Series, taking five top-10 finishes over three seasons. In 2024, Deegan ran a partial Xfinity Series schedule. Though she faced setbacks in NASCAR’s top developmental levels, she kept building her skills.

In 2025, Deegan made her open-wheel debut in the full 14-race INDY NXT season with HMD Motorsports, a significant career shift.

“I have much to learn, but I am ready to go… The team brings a wealth of knowledge, and I look forward to soaking up as much of that as possible,” she said (via FOX Sports).

Before the INDY NXT season, she also got early experience in open-wheel cars at a Formula Regional Americas race at Circuit of the Americas. Her family has prior ties to motorsports since she is the daughter of motocross icon Brian Deegan.