#56 | Elana Mullen
Schemes: 1985 7-Eleven Pontiac | Prince Racing
Active Seasons: 1981-1989 (Debuted in 1979)
Starts: 192
Wins: 3 | 1985 Daytona 500 Champion
Elana Mullen wasn't the first female driver to participate in a Cup Series event.... Hell, she wasn't even the first female driver to win a race! However, many of today's female drivers have stated that in one form or another, Elana Mullen was the one to inspire them to become a racecar driver. Elana didn't come from South-Centeral Nowhere though. Born as Elana Krenic in 1957, Her father was a mechanic for one of the NRC's open-wheel series teams. Having been around racing pretty much all her life because of this, Elana eventually began racing in her late teens. It wasn't easy, after all this is 1970's America we're talking about. Elana had to practically fight for every opportunity she got early on in her career. Once she entered in the Sportsman division, however, things changed. She began to win races and consistently run up front each race. After a couple of years, she tried to break through into the Cup Series, with limited success. She did have to take a break in 1980, however, as by this point, she had met Zachary Mullen (whom was a funny car drag-racing driver himself), married him, and together had a child - John Mullen,
whom would go on to have success in the Cup Series himself..... Afterwards, while Elana wouldn't compete in every race each season, she would race what was more or less considered full-time from 1981 through to 1988. While she would run in the back half of the top 10 in most races, it seemed like that's where she would stay. After all, this is the same time period in which Eric Reinhardt, Homer Parsley, Chandler Riles, and a slew of other more dominant and successful drivers were all competing as well. No one would've thought that Elana would win a race in her career, even though she clearly had the talent to race..... However, in 1985's season-opening Daytona 500, that changed. Elana Mullen would become the first female driver to win the biggest event in all of stock-car racing, and to this day only one other female driver has done so. Over the course of the next couple of seasons, she was able to earn another two victories. Unfortunately, while I wish I could say the story ends here on an upbeat note.... It doesn't. In the 16th race of the 1989 season, the Clayton 500 at Talladega, Elana Mullen would strap into a racecar for the final time. Late in the race, Elana's car would lose a tire, causing a fiery crash where she would ultimately receive fatal injuries.....
.... A multitude of female drivers compete on a weekly basis, and as mentioned earlier, attribute Elana Mullen as the reason they started racing. Elana son, John Mullen, is not only a Cup Series driver himself, but also managed to get his own Daytona 500 victory, and a Cup Series championship to boot. While it is generally agreed that while Elana might not have ever been a champion of the sport herself, it is agreed that she does have something a lot of other drivers don't: A legacy in the sport that is continued even to this day..... The scheme presented for her in the Legends sub-set is the one she drove for most of the 1985 season, including that Daytona 500 victory.....