Drag racer Shirley Muldowney (born ca. 1940) was the first woman to break through in that sport, making her virtually a household name in the 1970s on par with daredevil motorcycle-jumper Evil Knievel.

Shirley Muldowney was the first woman of drag racing, a certifiably macho sport that entails placing a driver inside a specially constructed 20-plus-foot four-wheeled cage with an engine underneath. Speeds can reach 250 miles an hour. Within the National Hot Rod Association's Top Fuel classification in which Muldowney achieved most of her wins, the car's engine is powered by nitromethane and is geared to burn out after a quarter-mile strip, the distance of a match. Her male competitors liked to assert the woman driver had an unfair advantage because of her weight, which hovered just above 100. Buying and maintaining such vehicles is both expensive and risky, but more dangerous are the physical hazards that drag racing presents...