Shawna Robinson – The First Lady of Nascar

Stock car mom
Ownership conflicts, a marriage, and the births of her son Tanner (in 1996) and daughter Samantha (in ‘97) led to Robinson’s semi-retirement from racing.

She still remembers the day she had to turn down an opportunity to test cars at Daytona because she’d recently found out she was pregnant.

“I told the team owner, ‘God, you know how bad I want this, but I guess with the timing, this is where I am right now,’” Robinson said with a hesitant chuckle. “And he replied, ‘Well, I have to tell you, that’s the first time I’ve ever gotten that excuse from a driver.’”

Her hiatus from the track, thankfully, was temporary. She returned to racing in 1999, climbing behind the wheel of the No. 8 Kmart Ford Taurus for former NASCAR team owner Michael Kranefuss as part of the ARCA RE/MAX Series. Rust hadn’t formed on Team Robinson, and she went right back to her winning ways. That year, she set a track record during a pole-winning qualifying run at Michigan International Speedway. She also finished sixth in points, becoming the first female to finish in the Top 10 for ARCA.

“When I came back, I felt like I was stronger than when I left,” Robinson said. “I had a different mentality.”

And people had a different mentality about putting a mom behind the wheel of a race car.

“I did get questions, like, ‘Now that you are a mom, how can you do this?’ And, ‘Don’t you feel now that you shouldn’t be putting yourself at risk?’ (But) I looked at it this way. If a woman succeeds at climbing a mountain, and she breaks records, and then she has children, does that mean she’s not going to climb mountains anymore? No,” Robinson said. “This was what I knew. I felt safer on the race track than I was on the street. And I wanted to teach my kids that you always should go for your dreams. You go after whatever your passion is in life. And if you are lucky enough to find that passion, then do whatever you can do to become the best that you can be.”

The next few years were a series of highs and lows for Robinson’s racing career. She joined the Winston Cup in 2001, competing in races for Kranefuss and Michael Waltrip Racing. BAM Racing accepted her in 2002, then released her shortly after. She left racing in 2003, only to return to the Busch Series two years later. She competed for Keith Coleman Racing but was released after six races.

These memories leave a bitter taste in Robinson’s mouth. As she tells it, biased crew chiefs and team owners who didn’t want her around conspired to prevent her from succeeding on the track. When she fought back against perceived sexism, she was labeled “emotionally unstable.”

“Remember back in the day when Tony Stewart had anger issues because of the way he treated the media?” Robinson asks. “Basically, if I was a guy, and I walked in there and just busted (someone’s) nose or punched a hole in their wall, I would be a cool bad-ass. But because I yelled and screamed and showed emotions, because I was angry … then I became emotionally unstable. That’s where the end started.”

After a series of escalating mishaps, Robinson left stock car racing in 2005.

“I just was at a point in my life where this was not how I wanted to race,” she said. She had grown exhausted from the sexism and NASCAR politics. Her kids were getting older. Her passion for racing was fading.

“I was tired. I was tired of beating down doors. I had been beating down doors since I was 18. I think I was just exhausted. If I was going to race, I was going to race for somebody good,” Robinson said. “And so I walked away from it.”

She admits she has missed racing every day since.

Female racers, past and present
It has crossed Robinson’s mind more than a few times that had she been able to tough it out a few more years, she might have become the “face” of women’s NASCAR racing instead of Patrick.

“If I could have just gotten a second wind and continued a couple of more years, boy, I would have been it,” she says. “Maybe it just makes me feel good to know that. But it really wasn’t the time, within NASCAR, where things were going to be made easier (for women). There are things they can do to make your road a little better. You can see that now with Danica, where they are being very positive in the media. If you go in with a top-rate owner, and the spin is very positive toward the media, it helps. It really helps.”

Lack of support, in Robinson’s opinion, goes a long way in explaining why a woman hasn’t broken through to officially become “the one” in NASCAR.

“Why would a woman succeed with lesser opportunities? I don’t think Jimmy Johnson would have succeeded if he didn’t have the opportunities that he had with Jeff Gordon and Busch cars,” she said. “(Johnson) wasn’t that great in the Busch series. He was learning and building. He was winning occasionally before he came in. But he really needed help.”

Patrick is getting that help. And because of it, Robinson believes Patrick will be “the one” to finally kick the door hard enough to keep it open. She’s marketable, and conducts herself with class on and off the track. But Robinson places one condition on Patrick’s success. She needs to choose to race NASCAR full time, and not divide her attentions between open-wheel IndyCar racing or other competitive series.

“She doesn’t have to race full time,” Robinson said, explaining that Patrick is paid handsomely for the part-time racing she does do. “But I think the racer in her will want to.”

You get the sense Robinson sees a bit of herself in Patrick. She might even envision herself in the spotlight Patrick now holds. When it comes down to it, Robinson missed her window of opportunity.

Unfortunately for her, it wouldn’t be the last time.

The not-so-amazing Race
Before the hotel confinement, the trip to California, and “The Amazing Race” audition, Robinson had received a letter. Aware of her accomplishments, the marketing team for the yet-to-open NASCAR Hall of Fame wanted her to donate items from her racing days for inclusion in the racing museum.

Needless to say, Robinson was thrilled. They asked her for a helmet and a suit. They sent her the paperwork needed to facilitate the donation.

“You are basically loaning them the items, and they return them back to you when they are done with them,” she said. “I was going to give them the Daytona suit for display.”

Those papers, Robinson, got filed away someplace. Lost in stacks of others papers, perhaps. She left town for her “Amazing Race” audition without completing the task.

“It’s just such a disappointment on my end. I basically just didn’t get my stuff to them quick enough. I think I just got wrapped up in another opportunity, an adventure that I went and tried to do. It’s my fault,” she said.

The mistake has gone noticed. Robinson said people who attended opening events at the hall have contacted her, asking why her stuff isn’t prominently displayed along fellow racing pioneers Janet Guthrie and Patty Moise. She can only sigh, explaining the gaffe again and again.

“They are going to add me eventually,” she said. “But how sad is this? The stuff is sitting in my garage in a container. I lost my window.”

That’s not all she lost.

Out of 15 pairs that auditioned for “The Amazing Race,” the producers selected 11 Robinson and Cobb didn’t make it to Victory Lane. The producers passed on the duo, and they were cut from the show. No “Race.” No memorabilia in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. For Robinson, it’s the equivalent of a Daytona wreck, a “Did Not Finish” in the standings. It couldn’t be more disappointing.

C’mon, get Happy
Robinson isn’t sad, though. She’s convinced the hall will let her in during the next inclusion window. And she’s far too busy running the next chapter in her career: Happy Chairs.

Racing wasn’t Robinson’s sole passion. “I have always been artistic,” she said, linking her creative traits back to her mother.

Her outlet, when she wasn’t on the track, was furniture decorating and room design. During her extended breaks from NASCAR, she’d decompress by painting nurseries for close friends. Disney characters like Tigger and Pooh were her specialty. Recommendations would circulate among her NASCAR colleagues. Robinson ended up painting the Waltrips’ home, Martin Truex’s race shop and home, and Kasey Kahne’s race shop.

“Through word-of-mouth, it just turned into a business,” Robinson said.

That business is called Happy Chair. Through it, Robinson restores worn and weathered chairs and gives them new life.

“I love big, bold crazy color. I love art,” she says on her website, ShawnaRobinson.com. “As is evident from my past as a race car driver, I love the thrill of taking risks. I’ve combined these loves to create Happy Chair; a unique, soul stirring, heartwarming furniture company designed to create happiness!”

The vibrant chairs convey a mantra Robinson has lived by her entire life.

“If you don’t love something, then you shouldn’t do it,” she said.

~ Sean O’Connell