When it comes to single seater racing, it’s not often that we see women competing in the top categories. It’s something that Formula 1 has struggled with for decades. In IndyCar however, while the series is currently in a drought on the female driver front, there is a longer and more promising history that shows that it is possible for women to not only enter into the series but to remain there for multiple seasons as a number have done ranging all the way from the 1970s to 2026.
Let’s take a look then at the women so far in history who have competed in IndyCar.
Janet Guthrie
Before any women competed part-time or even full time in IndyCar, one woman took aim at one of the biggest races in all of motorsport and took her shot.
Janet Guthrie raced in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series in the late 1970s and while doing this, decided to take on the Indy 500. As you do. The Iowa born racer first attempted to compete in the 1976 Indy 500. However on this occasion she failed to qualify and was forced to wait a year before her next attempt in 1977. Competing for Rolla Vollstedt, Janet qualified in twenty-sixth and slid down to twenty-ninth by the end of the race due to engine issues. That didn’t matter too much though as history had been made. Janet Guthrie had become the first woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500.
1978 would be her best showing at the Indy 500 though. Driving in a Wildcat chassis with a DGS engine, Janet qualified in fifteenth place before going to finish in an incredible ninth place. She finished ahead of drivers such as Mario Andretti and Rick Mears. Guthrie later confessed to having also raced with a fractured wrist, having injured herself in a tennis match just days before the race.
Guthrie returned in 1979 and qualified in fourteenth in her Lola chassis. But she would finish in thirty-fourth and this would essentially be the end of her Indy 500 career. While she came back one last time in 1980, she finished her time in IndyCar as she started it by failing to qualify for the race.
Lyn St. James
The Ohio born driver made her debut IndyCar appearance for Dick Simon Racing at the 1992 Indianapolis 500. It was her sole outing that year but she made it a memorable one as she competed in one of the greatest racing spectacles on Earth and finished in a very respectable P11.
She returned for seven races in 1993 with a highest finish of P13 in Phoenix. In 1994 Lyn competed only in the Indy 500, already her third time in the fabled race, where she finished in nineteenth. She competed in the race again in 1995 as well as in the races held in Milwaukee and Michigan, finishing in a highest position of seventeenth in the latter.
In 1996, Lyn St. James competed in a further three races with three different teams, finishing a career best of eighth at the season opener held at Walt Disney World driving for Simon/Scandia Racing. From 1997 until the end of 2000, Lyn then competed in just the Indy 500 for a range of teams, including her own, Lyn St. James Racing in 1998.
Sarah Fisher
Sarah Fisher made her IndyCar debut in the 1999 season finale held at the Texas Motor Speedway. She finished in twenty-fifth on that occasion and earned herself five points as a result. Fisher returned for all but the opening race in 2000, driving for Walker Racing. After a series of results on the edge of the top ten, Fisher broke through in style at the penultimate race of the year held in Kentucky. Everything came together for the American driver and she finished in third place - her first of two podiums in IndyCar. Top two in the Championship Buddy Lazier and Scott Goodyear joined her on the podium in first and second respectively and she finished ahead of known drivers such as Eddie Cheever and Jeff Ward.
Fisher continued with Walker Racing in 2001, achieving her second and final IndyCar podium with them at just the second round of the year in Homestead, Miami. One other top ten finish came her way that season at Pikes Peak International Raceway and she finished the season in nineteenth place overall.
In 2002, Fisher moved to Dreyer & Reinbold Racing for whom she raced for part of the season, achieving a best result that year of fourth place in Nazareth. She drove for the outfit full time in 2003 but was only able to break into the top ten on one occasion at Phoenix Raceway.
Sarah Fisher’s career in IndyCar became tougher after this as she was only able to compete in the Indy 500 in 2004, finishing in twenty-first, before not competing at all in the series in 2005. But Fisher was back in 2006, this time again with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. After two races with them towards the end of the season, she raced for the team full time in 2007 with back-to-back top ten finishes in Texas and Iowa. It would also be the year she achieved her highest overall finishing result to date of seventeenth by season’s end.
From 2008 until the end of 2010, Sarah competed in a total of sixteen IndyCar races, under her own banner of Sarah Fisher Racing. From these sixteen races, her best result came in 2009 in Kentucky where she finished in twelfth place. Fisher’s final race was at the 2010 season finale in Homestead, Miami where she finished in twenty-second.
Danica Patrick
The most successful female IndyCar driver to date, Danica Patrick came onto the scene in 2005 for Rahal Letterman Racing. Finishing near the top ten on her first three outings, Patrick then achieved back-to-back fourth place finishes in Motegi, Japan and Indianapolis. A further five top ten finishes came her way that year and Danica ended the season in P12 overall in the Championship. She finished four points ahead of now six-time IndyCar Champion Scott Dixon. It would be her worst full season final position.
Driving once again for Rahal Letterman Racing in 2006, Danica finished in ninth place overall with seven top ten finishes and equalling her best result so far of fourth place which she did in Nashville and Milwaukee.
From 2007 until the end of 2011, Danica switched over to Andretti and in her first year with the team, she was able to get onto the podium three times - the first of which was in Texas. Her next podium was another third place, this time in Nashville. IndyCar legends Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon joined her on the podium this time around. Patrick then went one better by finishing in second place in Detroit with only Tony Kanaan ahead of her.
Danica’s success wouldn’t end there though. After finishing in seventh overall in 2007, she propelled herself into sixth place by the end of the 2008 season. Her journey there was aided by a fantastic win when IndyCar went racing once again in Japan around the circuit in Motegi. Despite this breakthrough win, it would be Danica’s only podium of the year. Seven top ten finishes followed but the closest she came to another podium was a pair of fifth place finishes in Nashville and Sonoma.
In 2009, Danica found herself back in the podium places again - this time at the 93rd running of the Indianapolis 500 when she finished in third. Nine other top ten results came together at the end of the season to put Danica in her best ever overall Championship position of fifth.
2010 saw Danica stand on the IndyCar podium for two final occasions. Both were second place finishes which came in Texas and at the season finale in Miami. She finished in tenth place overall and it would be a finishing result she’d repeat again for her final full season in IndyCar in 2011, with a best result instead of fifth in Milwaukee.
It wasn’t until 2018 that Danica made her next and final IndyCar appearance. Competing for Ed Carpenter Racing, she contested in that year’s Indy 500, finishing in thirty-second.
Simona de Silvestro
The Italian-Swiss racing driver made her IndyCar debut in 2010 with HVM Racing. In that first year and her second year in the series in 2011, she drove for the American outfit, achieving a best result of fourth place at the season opener in 2011 in St. Petersburg. Four other top ten finishes came her way during this two year period before she drove for Lotus HVM Racing in 2012. It was a tough third season for Simona that year with a best result of fourteenth in Detroit.
In 2013, Simona switched teams to race for KV Racing Technology and it was with them that she had her best season in IndyCar. Nine top ten finishes were on the cards that year with five of those in the last five races of the season. Moreover, one of these was Simona’s first and only podium in IndyCar - a second place finish in Houston. Justin Wilson finished behind her in third while Scott Dixon won the race. Simona finished in a career best of thirteenth overall that year.
But 2013 would also prove to be her final full season in the sport. In 2014, she didn’t compete in IndyCar at all, only to return in 2015 for three races which included a fourth place finish in Louisiana.
It would be a further six years before her next appearance in the 2021 Indy 500 where she finished in thirty-first. Simona came back one final time to IndyCar in 2022 for four races in Road America, Mid-Ohio, Nashville and the season finale in Laguna Seca.
Milka Duno
The Venezuelan driver competed across four seasons of IndyCar from 2007 until the end of 2010. She debuted with a fourteenth place finish in Kansas driving for SAMAX Motorsport. Duno raced in a further six races that year with a best finish of eleventh in Texas.
Across 2008 and 2009, Milka continued to compete in IndyCar part-time, racing for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. While under their roof, Duno’s best result was a fourteenth place finish at the penultimate round of the 08’ season held at Chicagoland.
She moved to Dayle Coyne Racing in 2010 but again, was unable to break into the top ten for her first and final full season of IndyCar. Instead, she got as high as nineteenth in three races held in Chicagoland, Kentucky and Motegi before leaving the sport at the end of the year.
Ana Beatriz
Ana Beatriz made her way into IndyCar via the feeder series Indy Lights. She then made her IndyCar debut in 2010 with Dreyer & Reinbold on home soil at the season opener in Brazil where she finished in thirteenth place. She competed in a further three races that year, including in the Indy 500 before an almost full season with the team in 2011.
In 2011, she rose as high as eleventh place which she managed on the streets of Toronto and racked up 212 points to finish in twenty-first overall by the end of the year.
In 2012 and 2013, Beatriz competed for Andretti Autosport and Dayle Coyne Racing in two races for the former and seven for the latter. Her best result during this period was a fourteenth place finish at Long Beach in 2013 and her final race that year in Iowa would prove to be her last in the series.
Pippa Mann
Like Ana, Pippa came up into IndyCar after a stint in Indy Lights. However, Mann’s career in IndyCar, while longer in duration, would be sparser than the Brazilians. She competed in eighteen races from 2011 until the end of 2019, eight of which were the Indy 500 - where she got a best result of sixteenth in her final IndyCar appearance in 2019. The majority of her races were with Dayle Coyne Racing but Mann was never able to do more than six races across an entire season (this occurring in 2015) and as a result, it kept hindering her progress within the sport. Mann’s best results did come during that six race stretch in 2015 with two P13 finishes in Fontana and Pocono.
Katherine Legge
The British driver made her IndyCar debut in 2012 with Lotus Dragon Racing for a five race stint at the start of the season. Her best result came at Long Beach where she finished in nineteenth place and Legge competed in a further five races that year. That included her best IndyCar result to date which was ninth place in Fontana.
Like a number of the other drivers mentioned previously, Legge struggled to get a full season in IndyCar and instead had to settle for races when she was able to get them. In 2013 she raced in the Indy 500 but it would be ten years before she got the chance to race again in IndyCar, again at the 500.
In 2024, she competed for Dayle Coyne Racing in seven races across the year with a best finish of fifteenth at the penultimate race of the season in Milwaukee. It then wouldn’t be until this year that Legge got the chance to race in IndyCar again - once more in the Indy 500 as she also became the first woman to attempt to do the double, competing in both the Indy 500 and NASCAR’s Coca Cola 600 on the same day. However, she was caught up in a nasty crash with Ryan Hunter Reay early in the race and was forced to retire. To date, Legge is the most recent female driver to compete in IndyCar. There is no word yet on if Legge will return again in 2027.
Tatiana Calderon
The Colombian driver drove for seven races in the 2022 Season of IndyCar with A.J Foyt Enterprises. Her best results came at Long Beach and at the Indianapolis Road Course where she finished in sixteenth and fifteenth respectively. Calderon’s last appearance came at Mid-Ohio and the following year, she switched disciplines to race in the European Le Mans Series with Team Virage.
She’s continued to race and be involved in a range of categories since then, including Formula E and most recently, the GT Challenge de las Américas. In the latter, she took the overall win in her debut weekend back in July where she shared driving duties with Juan Diego Hernández as the pair drove for Nacent Racing.
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While Katherine Legge is the last female driver to appear in IndyCar, it’s been thirteen years since Simona de Silvestro was the last full time female driver in the series. With no women competing in Indy NXT in 2026, that looks unlikely to change in 2027. Hopefully there’ll be steps in the right direction to change that narrative by the time the 2028 IndyCar Season comes around.