Secret Reason Top Fuel Champion Shirley Muldowney Briefly Quit Racing | Shirley Muldowney

Video Description from YouTube:

Shirley Muldowney won three NHRA Top Fuel world championships, fought a decade-long war with the NHRA just to earn the right to compete, and became the first woman ever licensed to race Top Fuel nitro. On June 29, 1984, a front tire failure at 247 miles an hour at Sanair International Raceway in Quebec destroyed her car and nearly ended everything. Both legs were broken. The pelvis was shattered. Eighteen months of surgeries and physical therapy followed, along with medical bills that climbed past $150,000. The most decorated active driver in drag racing was off the track and nobody knew if she was coming back.

This is the full story — from street racing in Schenectady through her volatile partnership with Connie Kalitta, the NHRA licensing battles that spanned a decade, three world titles, the Heart Like a Wheel biopic, and the catastrophic Sanair crash in complete detail. We cover the eighteen-month recovery, the sponsor phone call that made the comeback financially possible, Don Garlits showing up when it mattered, and the 1986 Sports Illustrated quote where Muldowney told you exactly why she got back in the car if you were paying close enough attention. The heroic version of this story is true. The full version is more interesting.

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