Courtesy of NASCAR.com

Female drivers began making history in NASCAR since the day — June 19, 1949 — the organization ran its first NASCAR Cup Series race in Charlotte, N.C.

Sara Christian, driving a 1947 Ford, finished 14th in a field of 33 cars and went on to rank 13th in the standings of what was then known as Strictly Stocks.

One race later, on the Daytona Beach road/beach course, three female drivers — Christian, Ethel Mobley and Louise Smith — donned helmets. Mobley, driving a 1948 Cadillac, finished 11th. She beat future champions Buck Baker and Herb Thomas as well as Fonty Flock, Marshall Teague and Curtis Turner.

Tammy Jo Kirk became the Truck Series’ first female competitor. Kirk remains the most successful female, finishing 20th in the 1997 standings as a rookie with a best finish of 11th on the road course at Heartland Park in Topeka, Kan.

Jennifer Jo Cobb is poised to erase Kirk’s championship achievements from the series record book. Heading into Friday’s Built Ford Tough 225, the Kansas City, Kan., competitor ranks 16th in points. Only two female drivers, Kirk and Christian, have managed top-20 points finishes in a NASCAR national series.

Cobb finished 22nd at Chicagoland Speedway on Aug. 27. She’s twice finished 14th, at Darlington Raceway and Texas Motor Speedway, in posting five top-20 finishes.

“I think there are a lot of talented female drivers out there,” Cobb said. “Our team, we’re just moving along, gaining experience and it’s starting to pay off. We’re not looking to be the best [NASCAR] team with a female driver, that’s not our intention, but I think we’re a young team that has really improved all season long. Hopefully, we can continue to do that and finish the season strong.”

Moving into the final top 15 is Cobb’s goal, especially as the team seeks sponsorship for 2011.

“We’ve made so many strides this season and I feel we can continue to improve next season as well, but it’s not going to happen without support from a sponsor. We’re hopeful something will come up.”

Kyle Busch sure does know his way to Victory Lane. This past weekend at Chicago, Busch celebrated his fourth national series victory in a row just off the heels of his sweep at Bristol. If Busch wins the Build Ford Tough 225 Friday at Kentucky Speedway, it will be his 80th career national series victory — he would remain ninth on the all-time win list.

Since the inception of the Truck Series, Busch would be the only driver to win five consecutive races involving all three national series.

Check out the winners’ list at Kentucky Speedway for the past decade in the Truck Series:

2009: Ron Hornaday, four-time series champion.
2008: Johnny Benson, 2008 series champion.
2007: Mike Skinner, 1995 series-champion.
2006: Ron Hornaday.
2004: Bobby Hamilton, 2004 series champion.
2002: Mike Bliss, 2002 series champion.
2000: Greg Biffle, 2000 series champion.

Of the 10 total Truck Series races at Kentucky, seven were won by past, reigning or future champions. Only in 2001 (Scott Riggs), 2003 (Carl Edwards) and 2005 (Dennis Setzer) were the winners not also a champion.

Why is this potentially a huge story? There’s a marquee name absent from that list in points leader Todd Bodine, the 2006 series champion.

What makes the statistic especially strange? Bodine usually excels at 1.5-mile tracks like Kentucky (with wins at Texas, Kansas, Las Vegas, Homestead and Atlanta).

Yet, success has eluded Bodine at Kentucky. In five races at the track, he has an average finish of 13.2 and a Driver Rating of 92.2. Neither numbers are terrible, but they were deflated in part because of a runner-up finish in 2005.

Since then, Bodine has struggled. Over the past three races, he has finished 11th, 27th and 16th, respectively.

But he need only look at last year’s race for some optimism. Despite a finish outside the top 10, Bodine led 45 laps, had a Driver Rating of 114.8 and an Average Running Position of 3.9.

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