Originally Posted on Foxsports.com on April 16, 2006.
Before Danica-Mania, Janet Guthrie, Lynn St. James, Sarah Fisher, Erin Crocker, Melanie Troxel or Katherine Legge, there was Louise Smith.
Louise Smith raced in the Nascar Cup series before it was the Cup series. Back in the day when Bill France (sr, not jr) was promoting a wacky new idea he had called Nascar, he tried a gimmick. He tried to find a female racer to beef up local crowds. He found Smith.
Smith, without support from her husband, would race with the likes of Curits Turner, Ralph Earnhardt (Dale Jr.'s grandfather) and other assorted drivers.
Smith never won a race in what is the top series - in fact she did not place higher than 16th. But Smith was a multi-time winner in modified races.
The most famous story about Smith is that she drove her husbands brand new car to Daytona to see the race on the beach shortly after the war (i.e. WWII). She couldn't resist racing the car - but crashed during the race causing a lot of damage (including smashing in the roof). The new car had been her husband's, and a friend had managed to get the car for him when he returned from the war. Smith tried to drive home, but the car was too damaged, so she left it for repair with a friend. When she got home, Louise told her husband the car had broken down and was a piece of junk he never should have bought. He responded by throwing the newspaper at her which detailed her crash and had a photo of the damaged car. Smith reported she ran out of the house at that point so he could "cool off."
Smith did eventually retire from racing, but kept in touch with life at the track, working closely with the Darlington Track.
Smith died this week at 89, and racing lost a true pioneer. Let's hope someone picks up the torch for her soon.
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