Sara
Christian
- first Strictly
Stock (now Winston Cup) race was in 1949 at Charolette Speedway
- she was the first
women to compete in NASCAR
- she qualified
13th and finished 14th driving a 1949 Oldsmobile at a 3/4 mile dirt track
in Charlotte in the very first Winston Cup race on June 19, 1949.
She drove a No. 71 Ford owned by her husband Frank and she got out and let
Bob Flock driver the concluding 90 laps.
- she was joined
by Ethel Mobley and Louise Smith to compete in a 166-mile race three weeks
later in Daytona Beach when Christian finished 6th.
- later that year
she raced in Hillsborough, North Carolina with Louise Smith where she finished
23rd
- then again the
trio competed in Langhorne Pennsylvania where Christian finished 6th
- in September
of 1949 she started 21st and finished 6th in a race where Curtis Turner
invited her to join him in celebration in Victory Lane
- the concluding
races included:
- her best finish
was fifth in the October race at Heidelberg,(Pittsburgh) PA, making the
only top five finish by a woman in NASCAR
- and North Wilkesboro
where she finished twelve
- she ran 6 out
of 8 races in 1949 and finished 13th in point standings
- she also had
two other top ten finishes
- she was named
top women driver of the year in 1949.
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