Like many other female racers on this list, Johanna Long was the daughter of an avid racing fan who helped turn his daughter into a lean, mean racing machine. Long began racing karts at the young age of five and made her NASCAR debut in 2009. Since then, she has raced in a variety of competitions and often manages to beat much older and more popular competitors.
Long is an extremely active racer and has participated in 38 events in 2009 alone. Of these 38 events, she managed to win 27 top-ten finishes, 17 top-five finishes, and 5 wins. From there, Long only improved and later crossed a major milestone in her NASCAR career when she won the Snowball Derby winner in 2010. We’re excited to see this trend continue and look forward to what Long might accomplish next as one of NASCAR’s top racing drivers.
Angela and Amber Cope
Female drivers are quite rare in the NASCAR sport. But what’s even rarer, is two identical female driver twins who compete together in NASCAR events. Angela and Amber Cope, also known as the Twin Turbos, made history in 2010 when they both competed in three top NASCAR events together. Angela, however, is regarded as a slightly better racer than her sister, Amber.
The two have built an incredible racing career, but it took them many years to do so. They overcame many obstacles before getting the recognition they do today and had to share a racing car at an early point in their career.
Janet Guthrie
Janet Guthrie has a very interesting life story that involved a massive career transition toward her passion. It’s hard to describe what would motivate a successful aerospace engineer, which is one of America’s best-paying jobs, to switch careers and become a professional race car driver. In 1972, she made the switch which was quite a feat considering that there had been no female NASCAR drivers in over a decade.
Perhaps it was her deep knowledge of physics that helped her, but what’s clear is that Janet Guthrie was a great driver. She finished 15th in the 1976 World 600 tournament, her first-ever race, and went on to quality and complete in the challenging Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500 races. Guthrie is revered in the race-driving world and her race suit and helmet are displayed at the Smithsonian Institute, the world's largest museum, and research complex.
Kristin Bumbera
Kristin Bumbera took her NASCAR career and turned it into her own successful racing brand. These days Bumbera is mostly retired from her once-impressive professional racing career with some incredible stats, which include 16 wins, 53 top 5's, and 97 top 10's.
Throughout her NASCAR career, Bumbera received two Rookies of the Year titles, and was accredited as NASCAR's Drive for Diversity “Participant of the Year”
Cyndie Allemann
Cyndie Allemann is one of Switzerland's most popular female race car drivers. She competed in various racing events since her debut in 1997, including the Renault Speed Trophy F2000, Formula 3 Euro Series, Firestone Indy Lights, and most recently, the ADAC GT Masters. The veteran racer has driven some of the best cars you'll ever see, including a Ford GT, an Audi R8 LMS, and various other impressive supercars.
Cyndie’s career has slowed down in recent years, but she's still very much active on social media and has a relatively successful Instagram account with over 65,000 followers.