It seems like a gold mine, putting a female driver in a car that promotes products that women use every day. It seems like a gold mine, pulling a female driver out of a sea of male drivers, and helping her win races. Guaranteed coverage, easy name recognition. “But it’s all so much more complicated than that,” Shawna Robinson said. What seems like a gold mine has been more like a series of land mines for one of NASCAR’s few female drivers. Robinson returns to racing for the first time since October at Kentucky Speedway this weekend. Her extra-long layoff is not by choice. Sponsorships have fallen through or gone to other drivers. More than anything, Robinson wants to secure a long-term deal. “I never wanted to get off the racetrack, I just wanted to get back on it in the right way,” she said. This weekend is hardly what she would call the right way, driving in yet another of a slew of one-race deals. In Saturday’s Meijer 300, Robinson’s ride is the #91 Altovis Pontiac, a car owned by fellow Busch Series driver Stanton Barrett. “I’m not jumping up and down about doing another one-race deal,” she said. Robinson only took this one because Barrett called and she will have a chance to work with her former crew chief, Terry Allen, again. Robinson’s struggles to secure anything long-term have started her wondering why some of racing’s top owners and sponsors won’t invest in a female driver. She questions the true intentions of the organization that has recently made a push for more females and minorities in the sport through its “Drive for Diversity” campaign. Barrett, the owner of Robinson’s #91 car this weekend, said one-race deals are dangerous deals for any driver. “You get in a position where you’re running bad equipment a few times and people remember that,” he said. “Everyone remembers your last race. I don’t care how long you’ve been running or how many top 10s (finishes) you’ve had.” Robinson, 40, has had her share of longer deals, but they have led her back to the same place, watching races on TV and remembering when. Her future seemed bright. Early on she had some success in ARCA and as a part of the Goody’s Dash Series. She set two Busch track records and, in 1989, became the first woman in NASCAR history to win a pole in the Dash Series. In 1992, she finished second in the Busch rookie-of-the-year points. She completed a full Busch season in ’93, finishing 23rd in points and making $71,325. She was competing on the Busch level with big names like Jeff Gordon, Joe Nemechek and the Burton brothers before she took three years off to have two children, Tanner and Samantha. The road back has had its share of sputters and stalls, including a gimmicky all-female crew in a truck race last year, which she called “a fiasco.” Maybe Robinson was ahead of her time. In the past year or two, NASCAR has been pressured to and has made advances toward developing minority programs like “Drive for Diversity.” But Robinson isn’t afraid to say what she thinks the program really is. “I don’t think that’s real,” she said. “I think it’s about media and coverage. I think they’re speaking that. They’re talking about it, but they’re not doing it.”
“Drive for Diversity” was launched last fall to give “the best of the best competing on local tracks the training, mentorship, networking opportunities and financial support to climb the NASCAR circuits as far as their talent will carry them, including to the Nextel Cup Series,” according to a NASCAR news release. However, those drivers will start on NASCAR’s lower rungs and might take years to develop. This season, only three women — Terry MacDonald-Cadieux, Tina Gordon and Kelly Sutton — have raced in the Craftsman Trucks Series. Robinson will be the first woman this season to run in Busch [actually Tina Gordon and Kim Crosby both ran at Talladega]. None has raced Nextel Cup. NASCAR officials could not be reached for comment. It’s clear there’s room for females in auto racing. A NASCAR-sanctioned study showed that more than 40 percent of its 75 million fans are women. And the products geared historically toward female consumers are plastered on many cars going around the ovals. In Saturday’s race at Kentucky Speedway alone, products abound that seem to lend themselves to a female spokesperson and driver. Products like Trimspa, Kleenex, Cottonelle, Advil, Clorox and Wisk. Robinson said driving for Altovis, a supplement designed to help women stay energetic, was a big reason she got back in the car. “A female driver should be in this car because it makes sense,” she said. That apparent demand does not mean companies loading big bucks onto the sides of cars and into garages will shell it out. Barrett thinks it’s all about changing perception. “There’s a demand for women drivers,” said Barrett, who is driving the #97 Rogisen Chevrolet this weekend. “But a lot of people think there aren’t a lot of good female drivers, but there are. I’ve known Shawna for almost 15 years and I know what she’s capable of.”
Robinson admits she is jaded and maybe a little bitter about not getting the opportunities that she has seen many of her male counterparts get. But she understands it’s about numbers. By her estimation, there are 200,000 male drivers to every female driver nationally. It’s easier to go for a man, who has won championships at the sport’s many levels, than to take a chance on a woman who may not have had the same opportunities. “I don’t think I deserve to be in a great car if I’m not out there running all of the time,” she said. “It’s kind of a chicken and egg kind of thing. How can you get out there to prove yourself if you don’t have the funding and the backing to be out there and prove yourself?” She speaks for women on all levels of racing. It’s a role she’s become comfortable with. She doesn’t mind rocking the boat.
If she could design a program for a female driver, a three-year contract would be optimal, with two years running full-time in the Busch Series and maybe a third at the Nextel Cup level. “It doesn’t have to be the best situation, just a decent, consistent situation,” she said. “A woman who can compete consistently is what we need.”(Lexington Herald-Leader)(6-17-2004)
