Guthrie dropped from nominees for contributions to sport

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Janet Guthrie, the first woman to qualify and compete in both the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500, was dropped from the latest list of nominees for NASCAR’s Landmark Award that honors contribution to the sport.

With Guthrie off the list of five nominees, Anne B. France and Norma “Dusty” Brandel remain the only women officially recognized in the Hall of Fame for at least another year. France married NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. and was secretary and treasurer of both NASCAR and International Speedway Corp.

Anne France was among the 20 nominees for the Hall of Fame in 2013 and 2014 but was not elected despite lobbying in the voting room by her granddaughter, ISC CEO Lesa France Kennedy. The Landmark Award was created in 2015, Anne France was moved to that ballot and elected as the first recipient of an award designated to “honor significant contributions to the growth and esteem of NASCAR.”

Guthrie and Barney Hall, longtime anchor for the Motor Racing Network, were dropped from the Landmark Award nominees announced Wednesday night. Hall in 2013 was inducted into the Hall of Fame under a media award named for him, and Brandel made it last year on the same award as the first woman to report from inside the NASCAR garage in 1972.

Guthrie and Hall were replaced on the Landmark list of five nominees by Edsel Ford II of Ford Motor Co., Pocono Raceway founder Joseph Mattioli and Mike Helton, the first non-France family member to be named NASCAR president.

Her removal was a surprise to Guthrie, who turned 81 last week.

“Surely the nominees for 2020 haven’t been announced yet?” she replied in an email to The Associated Press. “I find that I was nominated for the Landmark Award of 2017 and 2018 as well as 2019.”