Shirley Muldowney was the first woman to receive a license from the National Hot Rod Association to drive a Top Fuel dragster.
18 Facts About Shirley Muldowney
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Shirley Muldowney won the NHRA Top Fuel championship in 1977,1980, and 1982, becoming the first person to win two and three Top Fuel titles.
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Shirley Muldowney won a total of 18 NHRA national events.
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When she was 16, she married 19-year-old Jack Shirley Muldowney, who built her first dragster.
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Shirley Muldowney was the guy who tuned the cars that let the girl beat all the boys.
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In 1958, Shirley Muldowney made her debut on the dragstrip of the Fonda Speedway.
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Shirley Muldowney competed in the 1969 and 1970 US Nationals in a twin-engined dragster in Top Gas.
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Shirley Muldowney won her first major event, the International Hot Rod Association Southern Nationals, in 1971.
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Shirley Muldowney stepped up to Top Fuel, getting her license in 1973, behind the wheel of Poncho Rendon's digger; Don Garlits signed her application, one of three signatures she needed to make it official; the other two were Tommy Ivo and Connie Kalitta.
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In Columbus, Ohio, in 1976, Shirley Muldowney dominated Top Fuel, qualifying number-one by 0.05 second, setting low elapsed time and top speed of the meet, having the low ET in every round, breaking her own top speed record in the final, and winning the class.
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Shirley Muldowney's success met enormous opposition from those who felt drag racing was no place for women.
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Shirley Muldowney was sidelined for a long period, but returned to the circuit in the late 1980s.
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Shirley Muldowney appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on Feb 21,1986, walking with a cane.
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Shirley Muldowney continued to race, mostly without major sponsorship, throughout the 1990s in IHRA competition, as well as match-racing events.
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Shirley Muldowney returned to the NHRA towards the end of her career, running select events until her retirement at the end of 2003.
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In March 2016, Shirley Muldowney disregarded a cancer scare to be the official starter of the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals.
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Shirley Muldowney's name appears in the 1987 Michael Cooper song Quickness "with the Shirley Muldowney-es of Quickness".
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Shirley Muldowney's photo appears on the cover of Soul Asylum's 2024 album, Slowly But Shirley.