When Danica Patrick entered NASCAR, she didn’t just show up. Instead, she shook the stock car racing system entirely, becoming the face of women in stock car racing. Every milestone she hit, whether it was her IndyCar victory or the Daytona 500 pole, brought with it headlines and history attached.

But here’s the truth that a lot of motorsports and NASCAR fans forget. Well, Danica wasn’t the only woman fighting her way through the ranks in a male-dominated sport. There was another female racer who was quietly building speed, respect, and momentum of her own. She battled in the same gritty feeder series, showed real racecraft, and earned the admiration of drivers and crews who knew talent when they saw it.

Yet she never got the Cup Series shot. No full-season deal. No prime-time push. And suddenly, NASCAR fans are remembering her.

Danica Patrick’s rival, who deserved more

It started with a simple question on Reddit: “Who are some of the biggest wasted talents in NASCAR?” And the replies came flying in faster than a pole lap at Daytona. Names like James Buescher, Colin Braun, Tim Steele, Ron Hornaday, and others were tossed in. Undoubtedly, these were talented drivers who never got the Cup break they deserved. But one name stood out, mentioned again and again, almost with a sense of unfinished business: Johanna Robbins.

Known to longtime fans as Johanna Long, she was once considered the next big thing in NASCAR’s women-in-racing narrative. And this was long before the sport fully embraced diversity and visibility. Robbins wasn’t a media project or a marketing experiment. She was a pure racer.

If you wind the clock a few years back, you’ll see that in 2009, at just 17, she raced 38 events across multiple series, racking up 27 top-tens, 17 top-fives, and five victories. Robbins became only the second woman to ever win the historic Snowball Derby in 2010, cementing her place as a contender with serious potential.

Then, the following year, she made her first Truck Series start, initially with Billy Ballew Motorsports and later with her family’s team, Panhandle Motorsports. Despite driving underfunded cars, she still put up impressive runs and even qualified ninth at Texas.

With sponsorships tough to secure, Robbins found herself struggling for a permanent seat. However, things took a brighter turn as she earned a two-year deal in 2012 to run the then NASCAR Nationwide Series (future O’Reilly Auto Parts Series) with ML Motorsports. Now, this was a small, determined operation. However, here, she truly showed her grit.

In her 21 starts that season, she started every race she entered, notched an average start of 19.6, two twelfth-place finishes, and finished the season in 20th place. And at Richmond, she even charged into the top five after passing Denny Hamlin, only for a tire blowout to end her run prematurely. Despite these flashes of brilliance, major Cup teams never offered her a development deal.

Meanwhile, the spotlight shifted almost entirely to Danica Patrick, the face of women in NASCAR, while Robbins faded from national view. And now, years later, fans are speaking up again. They are rightfully remembering the driver they believe still deserved her chance.

Fan frustrations over Johanna’s NASCAR career

As the Reddit thread gained traction, one sentiment kept rising to the top: Johanna Robbins didn’t just fade away. Instead, she was failed by the system. And fans aren’t shy about saying it. “Johanna Long never getting a shot in legit equipment, especially in the time period where NASCAR was starting their big Drive for Diversity push, never made sense to me,” one fan commented.

During the early 2010s, NASCAR was actively pushing for diversity – women, minorities, fresh faces. Yet somehow, Robbins was left on the outside looking in. She was already a winner, a real racer who made her mark. However, she never got the full-funding opportunity that others received under the same initiative.

Another fan pointed out what felt like a missed layup. “I am still amazed that Richard Childress never gave her a shot. There were persistent rumors that she was going to get a shot, but never did.” In the early 2010s, she was already driving cars with engines leased from Richard Childress Racing. Then, the garage buzzed with talk that RCR was eyeing Robbins. But the call never came.

And then there was the Danica Patrick comparison. “She frequently outran Danica in far inferior equipment,” one fan put it bluntly. The stats prove just that. For instance, in 2012, Danica Patrick had just one top-20 with an average start of 36.1 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, whereas Robbins managed eight top-20s and had a much better average start of 19.6 in the Nationwide Series.

The thread also turned reflective, pointing to others chewed up by the system. “How about Ray Evernham himself. Went from arguably the GOAT crew chief to failed owner pretty fast,” one fan commented. Another pointed out, “James Buescher won the 2012 Craftsman Championship and was a real estate agent 3 years later.”

Evernham is widely regarded as one of the greatest crew chiefs in NASCAR history. He won three Cup Series championships and 47 races with driver Jeff Gordon during the 1990s. In 1999, he became a team owner, leading Dodge’s return to NASCAR with moderate success. He won just 13 races from 2001-2007 before his team was sold.

The Reddit thread served as a reminder that in NASCAR, legends aren’t immune to the sport’s brutal economics, and talent doesn’t guarantee longevity.