Women in Motorsport Who Are Absolutely Crushing It Right Now

I'm going to say something that shouldn't be controversial but somehow still is: some of the most exciting stories in motorsport right now involve women. Not as a gimmick. Not as a PR exercise. As straight-up fast, brave, absurdly talented racing drivers who are putting up results that would make most weekend track-day warriors weep into their helmets.

If you're a real racing fan, you already know some of these names. If you don't, buckle up. These women have been out here collecting trophies, setting records, and driving machines that most people couldn't handle in a video game, let alone at 340 mph in real life.

Brittany Force -- The Fastest Woman Alive (No, Seriously)

Let's start with the one that blows everyone's mind when they hear the numbers. Brittany Force drives a Top Fuel dragster for John Force Racing in the NHRA. She's a two-time Top Fuel champion. She holds both ends of the NHRA Top Fuel national record -- the quickest elapsed time at 3.623 seconds and the fastest speed at 343.51 mph. Read that again. Three hundred and forty-three miles per hour. In under four seconds. That makes her, by any measurable standard, the fastest woman in the history of motorsport.

Force has 19 event wins, surpassing Shirley Muldowney's record for the most wins by a female Top Fuel driver in NHRA history. She stepped away from full-time competition after the 2025 season, which means we just watched the tail end of one of the most dominant runs in drag racing history. Anyone who dismisses NHRA as "not real racing" should try standing 30 feet from a Top Fuel launch. The ground shakes. Your chest cavity vibrates. And Brittany Force is the one strapped into that thing, pulling 5+ Gs. Absolute warrior.

Jamie Chadwick -- The One Knocking on Open-Wheel's Door

Jamie Chadwick won the W Series three times. Three. Then she decided that wasn't enough and went to America to race in Indy NXT, the feeder series for IndyCar. Her 2023 rookie season was a grind -- new car, new tracks, new country. But she stuck with it, and in 2024 she put it all together: she became the first woman to win a road course race in Indy NXT/Indy Lights history, taking a lights-to-flag victory at Road America after converting her maiden pole position into her maiden win.

She also scored a podium at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, becoming the first woman on an Indy NXT podium since Pippa Mann in 2010. For 2025, Chadwick shifted to the European Le Mans Series with IDEC Sport, keeping her skills sharp across different machinery. She's only 27. The story isn't over -- it's barely started.

Hailie Deegan -- Stock Car's Most Talked-About Young Gun

The daughter of motocross legend Brian Deegan, Hailie has been racing with a chip on her shoulder since day one. After the NASCAR Truck Series and Xfinity Series, she pivoted to open-wheel racing in 2025, running Indy NXT with HMD Motorsports. She finished 14th in the standings with a best result of 11th at Laguna Seca -- solid for someone learning an entirely new discipline.

For 2026, she's back in stock cars with Bill McAnally Racing, running full-time ARCA Menards Series West while making part-time Truck Series starts. Kevin Harvick -- the 2014 Cup champion -- raced against her at Kern County Raceway Park and came away impressed. She's 24, her fanbase rivals drivers twice her experience level, and she's clearly not done climbing.

Danica Patrick -- The Benchmark Nobody's Topped

You can't write about women in motorsport without talking about Danica. The numbers speak for themselves: only woman to win an IndyCar race (2008 Indy Japan 300), third at the 2009 Indianapolis 500 (best finish by any woman in the race's 100+ year history), and first woman to lead laps at the Indy 500 -- in her rookie year.

In NASCAR, she won the pole for the 2013 Daytona 500, the first woman to sit on pole for the Cup Series' biggest race. Her best Cup finish was sixth at Atlanta in 2014. No, she didn't win a Cup race. Neither did a lot of very good male drivers. Danica proved a woman could compete week in, week out, at the highest levels of American motorsport for over a decade. 191 Cup races. Seven full IndyCar seasons. She moved the needle. Period.

Michele Mouton -- The Queen of Speed

If you only know one name on this list, make it Michele Mouton. This French rally driver climbed into an Audi Quattro in 1981 and proceeded to terrify every male driver on the World Rally Championship grid. She won the Rallye Sanremo that year -- the first and still only woman ever to win a WRC round. In over 50 years. One woman. And she didn't stop there.

In 1982, Mouton won three more rallies -- Portugal, Greece, and Brazil -- and finished second in the drivers' championship. Second in the world. She lost the title to Walter Rohrl, one of the greatest rally drivers in history. She also set the record at Pikes Peak, obliterating the existing mark. Mouton wasn't a "good female driver." She was one of the fastest rally drivers of the Group B era, full stop. If you've ever geeked out over the legendary cars of that era, watch her onboard footage. It's genuinely terrifying.

Lella Lombardi -- The Only Woman to Score F1 Points

In the entire history of Formula 1 -- 75+ years, over 1,000 races -- exactly one woman has finished in the points. Lella Lombardi, an Italian driver who competed in 12 Grands Prix between 1974 and 1976, scored sixth at the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix at Montjuic Park. The race was stopped early after a catastrophic accident, meaning half points were awarded, giving Lombardi 0.5 points. The smallest haul in F1 history, but arguably the most significant half-point ever scored.

No funding, no factory support, and a paddock culture that was openly hostile to her presence. She qualified for races on sheer talent, drove underpowered machinery, and still managed to put her name in a record book no one has matched since. She passed away in 1992, but every time a woman tests an F1 car or enters F1 Academy, they're walking a path Lombardi started cutting five decades ago.

Simona de Silvestro -- The Swiss Army Knife of Motorsport

Simona de Silvestro might be the most versatile racing driver you've never heard of. IndyCar (71 starts, Indy 500 Rookie of the Year in 2010). Formula E. Australian Supercars, as the first full-time female driver in the series' modern era. F1 test driver for Sauber. Porsche factory driver. The woman has done everything.

Her IndyCar highlight came at the 2013 Grand Prix of Houston, where she finished second -- only the third woman in IndyCar history to record a podium. But here's the plot twist: she now also represents Italy in bobsled and qualified for the 2026 Winter Olympics in the monobob event. She went from open-wheel cars at 230 mph to hurtling down an ice track at the Olympics. Some people are just wired differently.

Christina Nielsen -- Sportscar Royalty

Christina Nielsen doesn't get nearly enough attention, and it genuinely annoys me. This Danish driver became the first woman to win a full-season championship in a major North American professional sportscar series when she and Alessandro Balzan clinched the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD title. She's a two-time IMSA champion.

Her 2016 season included wins at the 12 Hours of Sebring and 6 Hours of Watkins Glen -- two of the most grueling endurance races on the planet. The previous year she finished runner-up by just two points. She's also the first Danish female racer to compete at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. If you're into GT racing, Nielsen is royalty.

Why Motorsport Is the Great Equalizer

Here's the thing that makes motorsport fundamentally different from almost every other sport: the car doesn't care who's driving it. A Top Fuel dragster generates the same forces whether there's a man or a woman strapped in. An F1 car's downforce doesn't adjust based on gender. The Audi Quattro didn't go slower through Group B rally stages because Michele Mouton was behind the wheel -- it went faster, because she was that good.

Yes, physical fitness matters. G-forces are brutal, heat is oppressive, and races last hours. But the primary skills -- reaction time, spatial awareness, car control, mental toughness under absurd pressure -- aren't gender-dependent. The biggest barriers women have faced in motorsport have always been financial and cultural, not physical. Sponsorship pipelines, junior series access, and a paddock culture that's been slow to change. Not talent. Never talent.

These women didn't just participate. They won. They set records. They beat men head-to-head in the same machinery on the same tracks. If that doesn't earn your respect, I'd argue you're not really a motorsport fan -- you're just a guy who likes loud noises.

Know their names.