* Danica Patrick wins. After 50 starts, Patrick won her first Indy Car race, third race of the '08 season at the Honda-owned Twin Ring Motegi in Motegi, Japan. She is the first woman to win an IndyCar Series event and is now fifth in Indy Racing League championship points just behind teammate Tony Kanaan and ahead of her other two teammates, Marco Andretti and Hideki Mutoh, who are seventh and eleventh respectively.
Patrick drives the No. 7 Motorola Dallara/Honda/Firestone for Andretti Green Racing and has had one win, two top 10s, and one did not finish (DNF) in the first four of 16 races of the season.
The 92nd Indianapolis 500 is next on the circuit, where Patrick made history by starting fourth and finishing fourth at the 89th Indianapolis 500 and earned Chase Rookie of the Year honors driving for Rahal Letterman Racing. She had the highest 
starting and finishing position for a female driver in the event's history. The rookie led 19 laps during the race to become the first woman to lead at Indianapolis. She capped the IndyCar Series season by winning the Bombardier Rookie of the Year Award after finishing 12th in the standings for Rahal Letterman Racing.
As of press time Patrick qualified fifth for the 92nd running of the Indianapolis 500.
The car driven by Patrick in the 2005 Indianapolis 500 has found a home in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum. Rahal Letterman Racing Co-owner Bobby Rahal officially presented the car to the museum during a ceremony May 6. The car was donated to the museum by its current owner, Stanley Ross, who owns and maintains a number of historic racecars, including ones driven by Rahal throughout his legendary career.
Now with the merger of the Champ Car Series and the Indy Racing League, it should bode well for Patrick as the series has added some street and road courses to the schedule, which plays into her background with the Toyota Atlantic series and her early kart-racing experience on road and street courses.
Patrick has become one of the most recognizable female athletes in the United States, gracing the covers of publications such as Sports Illustrated, TV Guide, and ESPN: The Magazine. She most recently was featured in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.
* Hillary Will leads team Kalitta. The fastest woman in the history of the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, Hillary Will, driver of the 8,000-HP KB Racing LLC Top Fuel dragster, is hoping her team's stellar performances this season will translate into her first NHRA Top Fuel event win.
At the first two events of this season's 24-event NHRA national event schedule, Will set the track record for speed at both of the quarter-miles at Phoenix International Raceway (334.32 MPH) and at the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Calif.(334.56 MPH).
Will's speedy blast in California established her as the fastest woman ever in drag racing. She and the KB Racing LLC team were also the fastest of the racing weekend (tie) at the third event in Gainesville, Fla., with a 330.63-MPH lap. They were again the fastest team of the fifth event in Las Vegas at 331.85 MPH.
Will made her second semifinal appearance of the 2008 POWERade Drag Racing Series during eliminations of the O'Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill., the seventh race of the season, and was the No. 3 qualifier.
Will is now in sixth place in POWERade Top Fuel championship points and leads teammate Doug Kalitta, who drives the flagship Top Fuel dragster for Mac Tools. Native Australian Dave Grubnic drives the other Kalitta Motorsports Top Fuel dragster, while Will drives the Ken Black-owned and Kalitta Motorsports-managed Top Fuel dragster.
The Countdown to the Championship breaks the 24-event POWERade Series season up into two sections: the 18-race Countdown to 10 and the six-race Countdown to 1. After the first 18 races, only the top 10 drivers advance into the final segment of the "playoffs," and their points are reset to within 10 of one another with the exception of the points leader, who will have a 30-point advantage over second place. The 10 drivers will then compete for POWERade Championships at the season's final six races.
Will, a former standout in the Top Alcohol Dragster class, moved up to the quickest and fastest NHRA professional class, Top Fuel, in 2006 and can only hope to challenge the record of Shirley Muldowney, the first Top Fuel female driver to win three NHRA titles and who broke the gender barrier 30 years ago. Now, a generation later, more women are following her path to the top of the drag-racing world.
* Ashley Force drives to first championship. In the sixth race of 24 at the NHRA Funny Car series in Atlanta, Ashley Force, who entered the event as the first-ever woman to lead the NHRA POWERade Series Funny Car standings, made history when she won her first-ever funny car final. The win, the first by a woman in that class, took on added significance as it came against her father, legendary 14-time Funny Car champion John Force.
Force, the 2007 Funny Car rookie of the year, went to one final last year and struggled at times with consistency. That hasn't been a problem for her this season, especially now as her team is on a streak of three consecutive finals appearances.
Had John Force won at Atlanta instead of his daughter, the history books still would have been rewritten as that finals win would have given the 125-time event winner his 1,000th career win, a plateau never achieved in the NHRA. He did achieve that milestone at the next race at the Midwest Nationals in Madison, Ill., on his 59th birthday.
Ashley Force's Funny Car win means that there's now only one class in NHRA competition–from Top Fuel to Super Street–that a woman has not won, and that is Pro Stock, where Erica Enders has twice been a finalist.
Force now stands second in the POWERade Series Funny car championship point standings ahead of her teammates Robert Hight in fourth, John Force in fifth, and Mike Neff in 11th, all driving Ford Mustangs.
The Countdown to the Championship works the same for Funny Car as it does in Top Fuel, and it would be a shock not to see Force's team in the final 10, and even a possible championship for her.
* Angelle Sampey strives for five. Angelle Sampey and her Rush Racing NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle team have dealt with a host of performance-robbing issues with her S&S powered Buell through the first three races on the NHRA POWERade season. But at the latest race at Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis, they finally had a platform to tune with.
The winningest woman in professional motorsports started the weekend in the top half of the field, jumped to fourth in the second qualifying round, and started eliminations with the second-quickest ET of the round. She ended up going out in the second round due to a vacuum leak.
Sampey drives for Rush Racing Products and has switched from a Suzuki to a V-Twin Buell. With the change have come some injuries she's had to fight through. The Buells are harder to control than a Suzuki, which she had been riding for most of her life. Also, most of the riders in the series are taller and heavier than Sampey, who is 5-foot-1 and 100 pounds.
Sampey has also been reunited with former Crew Chief George Bryce, who was her crew chief when they won three straight championships, as she tries to become the winningest driver in motorcycle history.
The two will "Strive for Five" because Sampey, 37, of New Orleans, needs only five wins to become the top driver in the class. She has 41 wins in her 13-year career. She would pass the late Dave Schultz, who has 45 victories. She has finished in the POWERade top five for 11 consecutive seasons out of 12 years on tour.
Sampey and the Rush Racing team are scheduled to race next June 5-8 at the Torco Race Fuels NHRA Route 66 Nationals at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill.
* Chrissy Wallace goes Truckin'. Chrissy Wallace is the daughter of NASCAR driver Mike Wallace. Her uncles are Rusty and Kenny Wallace. She started Bandalero Racing at 10 years of age. At 13, she started Legend Car Racing, At 16, she started racing Thunder Roadsters. Now she is racing Legends Cars, Thunder Roadsters, Late Models, and Pro-Challenge.
Among Wallace's many young career highlights: In 2007, she drove late-model stock cars at Hickory Motor Speedway in North Carolina, finishing third in the points and winning four times, the first woman to win in a late-model stock car at Hickory in 57 years.
Wallace carries one of the most recognizable names in stock-car racing. She's the first daughter of a racer to compete in one of NASCAR's three premier series and appears to be the next female driver headed toward a full schedule in one of those.
Wallace made her NASCAR debut in the Kroger 250 Craftsman Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway in March driving for Germain Racing, a past championship team with team driver Todd Bodine. Her dad was on the spotters stand spotting for her throughout the race.
Two-time NASCAR Cup champion Tony Stewart sponsors Wallace's Late Model and spent time working with her in truck practice. She started the race in the 35th position and finished on the lead lap in the 18th position.
The Germain team said it plans to run Wallace in five more truck races this season, as well as four or five ARCA races. She'll also compete in about 10 Late Model races with her team there. And then there is talk that she may end up in a full-time ride with Germain next year.
Other notable achievements from women in drag racing:
* Shirley Muldowney was the first woman to get her license in Top Fuel and became the first woman to clock a four-second run, 1989 NHRA Keystone Nationals, Reading, Pa., 4.974 seconds.
* Shirley Muldowney was the first female to advance to a final round in Top Fuel, 1975 at Columbus, Ohio, lost to Marvin Graham.
* Shirley Muldowney was the first female to win in Top Fuel, 1976 at Columbus, Ohio, defeating Bob Edwards; She earned 18 career victories, second all-time for females behind Angelle Sampey (41).
* Shirley Muldowney was the first female to qualify No. 1 in a pro category, 1976 at Columbus, Ohio, with a performance of 6.031 seconds, 229.00 mph.
* Shirley Muldowney was the first driver (either gender) in NHRA history to repeat as Top Fuel champion after her initial title in 1977 ('80 & '82).
* Shirley Muldowney was the only female driver to be included in NHRA's list of top 50 drivers as part of its 50th anniversary celebration in 2001. She was ranked No. 5 on the prestigious list ahead of Kenny Bernstein (No. 6) and Joe Amato (No. 9).
* Shirley Muldowney vs. Lucille Lee was the first and only all-female Top Fuel final in NHRA history, taking place in 1982 at Columbus, Ohio. Muldowney won. Angelle Sampey vs. Karen Stoffer in Pro Stock Motorcycle (Reading 2002) is the only other allfemale professional final in NHRA history. Sampey won.
* Melanie Troxel is the quickest and fastest woman in NHRA history, clocking a time of 4.458 seconds (Oct. '05, Dallas) with a career-best speed of 332.51 mph (Feb. '07, Pomona 1).
* Melanie Troxel (TF) and Erica Enders (PS) became the first women to earn No. 1 qualifying positions in pro categories at the same national event (Topeka 2006).
* Melanie Troxel (TF) holds the record for most consecutive final round appearances for a woman in a professional category, at six ('05 Pomona 2 - '06 Las Vegas 1).
* Melanie Troxel holds the record for most consecutive final rounds by a Top Fuel driver (any gender) to start a season in NHRA history, at five (2006).
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