Patrick to set record: Saturday night at Bristol, #10-Danica Patrick will again make NASCAR history when she makes her 34th career Sprint Cup Series start, breaking a tie with Janet Guthrie for the most career series starts by a woman. Not that breaking the record comes as much of a surprise. When it was announced that Patrick would become the first woman to run a full Cup Series schedule, August 24th was immediately known to be the date this mark would be met. The history of women in NASCARs top division is pretty sparse. Only 16 women have ever started a Cup race, half of those doing so in NASCARs first seven seasons (1949-55). Besides Patrick and Guthrie, only one other woman has even reached double digits in starts, Louise Smith, who ran 11 races in NASCARs first four seasons.
