IndyCar has a long and storied history and the path to it has had a great many variations to it over the years and decades. Indy Lights and Indy NXT are household series names now but before these came into being, there were a number of other series and precursors that individuals could enter as they attempted to get into one of the pinnacles of racing. In this first part of The Road to IndyCar, we take a look at the women who competed in these series from the 1970s onwards.
Nancy James
Nancy James made her debut in the then precursor to the IndyCar series, the USAC Mini-Indy Series at the final race of the four round 1977 season. This was held at the Phoenix Raceway with Herm Johnson taking the win on that occasion. Nancy would finish in twenty-fourth place.
At the penultimate round of the 1978 season, Nancy James returned to the series for her second and final appearance. The race took place at the Trenton Speedway in New Jersey and James finished in twelfth place out of twenty-eight drivers competing and scored an appropriate twelve points for her efforts.
Desiré Wilson
Desiré Wilson was the next woman after Nancy James to make an appearance in IndyCar’s Feeder Series. This happened almost a decade later in the 1986 season of the American Racing Series - the successor to the USAC Mini-Indy Series. The South African driver competed at Phoenix Raceway where she after starting in tenth, she ran for much of the race in fifth place. But it wasn’t to be thanks to contact with the wall.
“It was my first ever oval with no prior testing of the car. With the help of Tom Bagley – I had a great qualy, and an interesting race doing well – around 5th position, but then I “pinched” the car into the corner with a bit of understeer, - and oops, the rear broke loose and I went into the wall. Overall though I enjoyed the one off event!” - Desiré Wilson
Five years later, Wilson returned to the series, then called Indy Lights, where she competed for a sole round held in Denver. She finished in twelfth place and picked up a single Championship point as a result.
Cathy Muller
Between Wilson’s two appearances in the series, Cathy Muller came onto the scene. She first appeared in the 1989 Season of the American Racing Series. Competing for McNeill Motorsports, she finished in ninth place after starting in eleventh at the final event of the year held at Laguna Seca.
Muller came back for the 1990 Season of the American Racing Series. She competed once again for McNeill Racing but only for the first two of eight races that she competed in that year. For the remaining six, she switched teams to Stuart Moore Racing. Her best results were a P7 finish at the second round of the year in Long Beach and then back-to-back P5 finishes later in the year in Toronto and Denver. Muller finished in sixteenth place overall in the Championship out of thirty drivers that competed that season.
Cheryl Glass
Nazareth Raceway was the setting for the penultimate round of the 1990 American Racing Series and it was there that Cheryl Glass made her first start in the series, finishing in P7 having started in P9. Her final appearance in the series came a round later at the season finale at Laguna Seca where she qualified in P17 for Glass Racing. However, she didn’t make the race start. 12 points overall was what she managed to accumulate from her dual appearances in the series and Glass is also remembered as one of the first African American women female racing drivers in the United States of America.
Her story extends far past this and is worthy of further exploration so keep your eyes peeled here on It’s Race Week! for that in the future.
Mishael Abbott
It would be quite a while before the next woman made an appearance in an IndyCar Feeder Series. It wasn’t until 2005 in the Infinite Pro Series that it happened when Mishael Abbott took to the track. She competed for four races at Homestead, Phoenix, Indianapolis and the IMS Road course with a highest finish of P8 at Homestead in Miami - a venue where Formula E raced in 2025.
Abbott returned to the series again in 2006 for a further three races at Homestead, Indianapolis and Watkins Glen. She had a highest finish of P12 from those appearances which came at her final race in Watkins Glen.
Veronica McCann
2006 also saw one other woman competing in the Infinite Pro Series, albeit for a one off appearance. Veronica McCann competed at the final round of the year in Chicagoland where she finished in P11 driving for Brian Stewart Racing.
Sarah McCune
In 1996, Sarah McCune ran her first full season in Midget Racing. By the end of the season, Sarah had scored twelve top-ten finishes in fifteen races and won three of them. As a result, she was invited to attend the Lyn St. James Driving School that November. This is significant because Lyn had previously competed in the top tier of American single seater racing - IndyCar - and was the first woman to do so. McCune then made her Infinite Pro Series debut also at Chicagoland in 2005 for Sam Schmidt Motorsports where she finished in ninth place. It was her sole appearance in the series.
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Check back soon here on It’s Race Week! for the next in this series that will take a look at the women who competed over the years in Indy Lights.