Shirley Muldowney earned a reputation for being as tough as an engine block.

But she allowed herself to show her sentimental side Saturday afternoon as NHRA President Tom Compton announced that the Top Eliminator Club grandstand at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis has been renamed the Shirley "Cha Cha" Muldowney Grandstand.

Choking back tears, the three-time NHRA Top Fuel champion and winner of 18 NHRA national events said, "Igave hr a standing ovation it looks like I'll always have a place to sit.

Shirley Muldowney earned a reputation for being as tough as an engine block.

But she allowed herself to show her sentimental side Saturday afternoon as NHRA President Tom Compton announced that the Top Eliminator Club grandstand at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis has been renamed the Shirley "Cha Cha" Muldowney Grandstand.

Choking back tears, the three-time NHRA Top Fuel champion and winner of 18 NHRA national events said, "Igave hr a standing ovation it looks like I'll always have a place to sit.

"A lot of times, I'll go into the stands with a hat on, trying to be incognito, saying, 'Can we squeeze [in one more here]?' and thinking nobody will recognize me. That's amazing. Thank you so much to Tom Compton and NHRA for this wonderful moment."

Then she couldn't help being competitive, addressing John Force, who has a grandstand at Charlotte's zMAX Dragway named in his honor. "Hey, John Force," she called out, "you're not the only one. You've got some competition."

Fans in the newly named Shirley "Cha Cha" Muldowney Grandstand gave her a standing ovation with the announcement.

Saturday's honor marks only the third time in NHRA's history that a section of grandstand at an NHRA-owned and operated facility has been named for one of the sport's legends. The NHRA kicked off its 60th Anniversary celebration in February at the Winternationals by naming a section of grandstand at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona in California for Don "The Snake" Prudhomme. In March, Florida native "Big Daddy" Don Garlits was so honored at Gainesville Raceway during the Gatornationals.

"There is no doubt that Shirley Muldowney is not only one of the greatest drivers in NHRA, but she is also one of the most accomplished women athletes of her time," Compton said just before a temporary pink banner was unveiled. "It is truly fitting that we dedicate a section of grandstand at the most historic facilities in drag racing, to one of the most historic and popular figures in NHRA's history."

Muldowney, the 1997, 1980, and 1982 Top Fuel champion, was the first woman licensed to drive an NHRA dragster, the first woman to advance to a final round (Columbus, Ohio, 1976), to qualify No. 1 in a pro class (Columbus 1976), and the first driver of either gender to repeat a Top Fuel championship.

The only female driver to be named among the NHRA's Top 50 drivers in 2001, Muldowney also was the first of three women to win at the U.S. Nationals, preceding Angelle Sampey and Ashley Force Hood.

When she won the 1977 NHRA Top Fuel title, the U.S. House of Representatives presented her an Outstanding Achievement Award. Her special honors include the United States Sports Academy's Mildred "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias Courage Award, inclusion on Sports Illustrated for Women's top 100 athletes, and distinction from the New York State Senate as one of the Thirty Women of Distinction (a group that includes Susan B. Anthony and Eleanor Roosevelt).

It's all "overwhelming," she said, for an admittedly wild young lady who roamed the unsupervised streets of Schenectady, N.Y., drawn to fast cars and a measure of mayhem.

But in accepting the Mildred Marcum Pioneer Award this past Wednesday as guest of honor at the Lyn St. James-driven Women in the Winner's Circle Foundation ceremony at the Don Schumacher Racing headquarters, she said she owed her success to "my timing."

Said Muldowney, "I couldn't have done it without help. I couldn't have done it on my own. I'm living proof that it is not an easy route."

She asked no one's permission and got virtually no one's approval to do what she did, and she stood up for herself against the soldiers in that last bastion of "testostero-mania," the NHRA. In doing so, she inspired countless many women, changed the minds (however grudgingly in some cases), and rammed open the door of opportunity. Men grumbled, but they get over it, because she made them, because she beat them.

She told the Women in the Winner's Circle audience of the NHRA's willingness to become "the first sanctioning body in motorsports to accept women" and let them "go one-on-one with the boys -- and they didn't give any quarter."

Three-time Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon remembers his father (Larry Dixon Sr.)  racing against Muldowney, losing to Muldowney, and inviting Muldowney to stay in their home when she traveled to the West Coast. And she said, "The women today don't have to pick that fight, because did that for them."

And she won. And she said she wants to get back into a dragster and keep beating everybody -- men and the women whose way she paved.

Standing on the stage Saturday with Compton, she watched a video the NHRA prepared. Afterward, she said, "I want to do it again so bad. I've been stumbling along since 2003 [when she bid her driving days adieu]. I've tried to find something more exciting in this world, but it isn't there."

No, this is it, the ultimate rush, for the woman honored in Congress, fabled in Hollywood, and given her own grandstand in Indianapolis, the Motorsports Capital of the World. And Saturday the NHRA gave a place to sit down to the woman who stood up for herself. All that would make her life complete is to return to the track again in a competitive Top Fuel dragster.

"You never know -- I might get so broke I'll get a deal and show them how hard it was back then and how easy it is today," she said Wednesday night.

If she doesn't get that deal, she always has a place to sit at Indianapolis.