Fantasy NASCAR Racing

(home - Corinth, MS)
Alright, this one is kind of weird. You see, technically, Terri O'Connell wasn’t a woman when she made her one and only NASCAR start at the 1990. Yep, that’s right. Back in 1990, she was a he, and his name was J.T. Hayes.  Hayes started 38th and finished 38th after completing only 10 laps.  He won national championships in go-kart/midget car/sprint car competitions across the country. She rose to compete in the NASCAR Cup Series; driving the #91 Crossroads City of Corinth Ford Thunderbird for Donlavey Racing in 1990 at North Carolina Motor Speedway.  O'Connell never psychologically felt like a man.  She had sex reassignment surgery in 1994 following a near-fatal 1991 motor accident. "I was trapped upside down, engine throttle stuck, fuel running all over the racetrack and me.  The accident didn't scare me, but the thought that I hadn't lived life to its full potential just ran chill bumps up and down my body."  She legally changed her name from J. T. Hayes to Terri O'Connell.  O'Connell, a former model, also created the first apparel company for the female race fan called "Speedsters" in 1995.  In 2011, O'Connell began racing again as part of an all female driving team headed up by Dick Barbour Racing of Atlanta, Georgia.  I guess technically this shouldn’t count as a female driver, since at the time Terri was biologically male.  But he felt like a woman on the inside, and I just couldn’t leave out the first and only transgendered driver in NASCAR (that we know of).  Some info from Wikipedia