PHOTO: Lee Johnson Collection
SEASON IN REVIEW
Des Moines, Iowa driver Shawna Robinson picked up her first LASTCAR Busch Grand National Series Championship in 1993, scoring three last-place finishes in twenty-four starts during a twenty-eight race season. In doing so, Robinson became the first female driver to score a LASTCAR championship in any of NASCAR’s top three divisions.
Robinson was competing in her third Busch Grand National Series season. In seventeen previous starts, her best finish in the series was a pair of 11th-place runs at Volusia County and Michigan in 1992, two of her first starts in the #25 Polaroid Oldsmobiles owned by Don Beverley. Mike Laughlin acquired the team in 1993, and Robinson raced a combination of Chevrolets, Oldsmobiles, and Pontiacs during the season.
Unfortunately, Robinson struggled that season, scoring thirteen DNFs in twenty-four starts, failing to qualify for two late-season races at Charlotte and Hickory, and falling short of a career-best finish with a season-best 12th at Indianapolis Raceway Park on July 31. She also scored three last-place finishes, beating Jeff Green for the LASTCAR title with a last-place run in the season finale at Atlanta.
Robinson’s first last-place run of the year came at Myrtle Beach on June 12, when her #35 Polaroid Pontiac lost the engine after 35 laps of the Carolina Pride / Budweiser 200. Her other two finishes came in the final four races of the season. The first of those occurred at Martinsville on October 17, when her #35 Polaroid Captiva Pontiac blew the engine after 39 laps of the Advance Auto Parts 500. The other occurred in the season-ending Slick 50 300 at Atlanta on November 13, when her Pontiac was tangled-up in a crash after five laps.
Robinson’s 23rd-place finish in points was the best of her Busch Grand National Series career. She ran a total of 61 races in the series though 2005 and improved her career-best finish to a 10th at Watkins Glen in 1994. She continued to race in other stock car divisions until she found her way to ARCA, where she finished 6th in the 2000 point standings.
She moved to the Cup Series in 2001, finishing 34th in her series debut at Michigan, then becoming the first woman since Janet Guthrie to qualify for the Daytona 500 in 2002. Her 24th-place finish in The Great American Race was the best of her seven-race Cup career driving for BAM Racing. She was the last female driver to race in the Cup Series until Danica Patrick a decade later.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
Larry Pearson won fifteen races and back-to-back Busch Grand National Series Championships in 1986 and 1987, but didn’t finish last in the series until 1993. In the Budweiser 250 at Bristol on April 3, Pearson’s #92 Stanley Tools Chevrolet started 7th, but crashed on the opening lap. Pearson is currently recuperating from another serious Bristol crash he sustained during a celebrity race in 2010.
Three-time World of Outlaws Champion Sammy Swindell made his final four Busch Grand National Series starts in 1993. Swindell had attempted to break into NASCAR since 1984, but made only a few starts with poor finishes, most notably a 41st-place run in a backup car during the 1991 Daytona 500. He scored his only Busch last-place finish in his final series start at Indianapolis Raceway Park on July 31, when his #26 Bull & Hannah’s Ford fell out with mechanical woes after 10 laps of the Kroger 200. Swindell went on to compete in the inaugural Truck Series season in 1995, where he finally broke through with a pole and a 4th-place finish at Bristol, then a 12th-place finish in points.
On October 9, 1993, nineteen-year-old Casey Elliott finished last in the All Pro 300 at Charlotte when his #94 Racing Collectibles Ford was involved in a crash after 16 laps. His uncle and car owned Bill Elliott finished 4th behind race winner Mark Martin. It was Casey’s second and final start, and tragically, it was the last time the two raced together. Casey died of bone cancer on January 14, 1996.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Shawna Robinson (3)
2nd) Jeff Green (2)
3rd) Troy Beebe, Jim Bown, Clay Brown, Nathan Buttke, Chad Chaffin, Dale Earnhardt, Casey Elliott, Tim Fedewa, Harry Gant, Mike Garvey, Kenny Gragg, Page Jones, Jason Keller, Richard Lasater, Dick McCabe, Phil Parsons, Larry Pearson, Tom Peck, Dave Rezendes, Tommy Sigmon, Jack Sprague, Sammy Swindell, Rick Wilson (1)
