The first-ever female driver in NASCAR was Sara Christian who was one among those who raced at Charlotte back on June 19, 1949. More than 75 years later, women are no longer a novelty in the sport. There have been many who have managed to climb the highest orders of motorsports and make an impact. One among them is Jennifer Jo Cobb.
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Born in Kansas, she is the daughter of a modified stock car division driver at the local Lakeside Speedway. She slid behind the wheel in 1991 and became a part of the ARCA Menards Series in the early 2000s. It was 2004 when she drove her first NASCAR Xfinity Series race. She drove in 31 races over 12 years and recorded a best finish of 29th in 2011. Her better days came in the Truck Series.
She announced in 2010 that she would be driving full-time in the third tier and became a driver for her outfit, Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing. After finishing 17th in the standings that year, she finished sixth in the 2011 season-opening race in Daytona. The latter was a result that would be broken by Natalie Decker in 2020. She started 233 races over 17 years in the Truck Series.
Cobb is the highest-finishing female driver in overall Truck Series points and has the most starts by a female driver as well. She was expected to make her maiden Cup Series start in Talladega in 2021 but NASCAR did not approve her entry due to lack of practice and qualifying. Her most recent race was at Kansas earlier this year where she ended up in 32nd place.
What is Jennifer Jo Cobb doing these days?
The former driver hasn’t had the sweetest of times since retiring from full-time driving in 2021. Her former husband, Carlos Eduardo Troconi-Ortiz, was convicted of assaulting her spotter Clayton Hughes. Cobb and Hughes were in a relationship and the incident left Hughes with permanent, disabling injuries.
“I went through some really tough personal stuff,” she told Frontstretch back in February. “I didn’t even have the desire to be at the racetrack, to be honest. But I knew I wasn’t done. It’s just… I had to heal. I really had to heal.” Fortunately, she now has the desire to race again and the energy to look for sponsors.
She is a big advocate for entrepreneurship and was a speaking ambassador for the U.S. Embassy. She has traveled extensively to head educational sessions on leadership and business. Cobb is an inspiration to many youngsters not only on the race track but also outside of it.
