00:00Honestly, when they fire up that race car, the nerves go away, and it's just down to business.
00:04This is drag racing at its most extreme.
00:06In the top fuel division, cars go from 0 to 100 miles per hour in less than a second.
00:11Meanwhile, behind the wheel, drivers are subjected to G-forces greater than what space shuttle astronauts experience during launch.
00:17Women have been among NHRA's biggest stars for decades.
00:22Formula One, NASCAR, and IndyCar have all had female pioneers, but women are still the exception in those sports.
00:27And in Formula One, they've been virtually absent from the grid for decades.
00:31But here in top fuel, a woman behind the wheel barely merits comment.
00:36This is my first year running a top fuel dragster, but I've been driving race cars since I was eight
00:41years old.
00:42So absolutely living a dream, loving every second of it, and excited for the rest of the year.
00:46The 22-year-old top fuel rookie is one of the breakout stories of the season.
00:51In June, she won her first top fuel race, and already many people in the sport think she has the
00:56talent and the personality to widen drag racing's audience beyond the traditional motorsports fan base.
01:02But what I find most interesting about Gordon is how she got here.
01:05She's a third-generation drag racer who grew up at racetracks and in the garage.
01:10And I think that family story may help explain something important.
01:12Why has drag racing produced so many successful women when other major forms of motorsports happened?
01:18That tradition dates to Shirley Muldowney, who in 1976 became the first woman to win NHRA's professional ranks.
01:25Since then, women have won 200 races at the professional level.
01:28And in 2019, Brittany Force covered 1,000 feet in just 3.623 seconds.
01:33That's still the quickest top fuel run in NHRA history by a man or a woman.
01:37As I see it, when your daughter grows up in the garage, learning the car alongside everyone else, she's not
01:43an outsider asking somebody to take a chance on her.
01:46She is the next generation of racer.
01:50That family tradition has given aspiring female racers a way onto the track.
01:54Over time, as more women got the chance to race, they stopped being treated as exceptions and became part of
01:59the fabric of NHRA, opening opportunities for others.
02:03Maddie Gordon grew up in that world.
02:05Now, at 22, she may be the one to carry it forward.
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