While Shawna Robinson is trying to take baby steps, everyone else seems to be looking for something bigger from her.

Like any other rookie this year not named Jimmie Johnson or Ryan Newman, Robinson is in a ride that does not have a lot of funding. She does not have a sponsor or a lot of experience and the team has already had to deal with a crew chief change.

	Shawna Robinson is making small strides for the No. 49 BAM team.

All of these things put importance on small victories: making a race; qualifying higher than last time; learning enough about shocks to keep the race car feeling good for more than the first 10 or 15 laps.

But while Robinson and her No. 49 BAM Racing team take pride in these mini-strides, the rest of the world is sitting and waiting. As the only woman in stock car racing's highest stage, she is the torch bearer. Either she burns a trail for other women stock car racers to follow, or she sets the whole movement in flames for a while.

Which way the fire spells is a determination folks want to make quickly. But Robinson says she's not just a woman; she's a rookie and it's going to take more time than people are willing to give.

"I think that's there. That, 'She's not getting it done after six races' is there," Robinson said. "And that's not entirely fair. But what am I going to do, whine about it? Things are going a little slower than I'd like, but we're not a whole lot farther behind than we thought we'd be.

"If we could get a couple top 20s it would be nice. And, yeah, it's hard to say that because if I was running in another series, if I was in the Truck or Busch Series, I would be saying I need to be winning races. But in this Winston Cup deal, it's just different."

Robinson's whole situation is different. Women have raced in Winston Cup before, but not on a regular basis and none has ever had tremendous success. And here is Robinson, admittedly not prepared to be in such a competitive position, yet, and she has got the burden of proving that women belong.

"I've kind of put myself in position to be criticized by getting into this series before everything was really ready," she said. "But this is the deal we had. This was my only opportunity. ... It's not like I had an option of, 'Do you want to run Busch or Cup.' Because if I did, I probably would've run Busch and get more experience. I do feel like I'm letting people down when I don't run good, but I can't put that on my shoulders."

	“	It gets frustrating and you start really questioning yourself, and when you question yourself, it carries over to the team to where the team starts questioning you. I had to put a stop to that and say, 'Hey, there's no question I can do this.'”
		—Robinson

Robinson can only take care of her team, and hopefully, let the rest fall into place. Going into its last race, two weekends ago at California, the team felt like it had built some momentum. That was because it had placed importance on qualifying and after twice qualifying 36th, the team qualified 31st and 16th.

But at California, Robinson finished 42nd. That happens to be just one spot better than where she stands in points. And right now, these are the things she is judged upon. That, and the way she is talked about by other drivers -- like this more tame comment from Dale Earnhardt Jr. after she wrecked Junior at Texas: "They need to get her in a better race car so she can be competitive because it's hard dodging her every 15 laps."

It's hard for her when these are the things people see and notice; not qualifying improvement or successful shock adjustment.

"It gets frustrating and you start really questioning yourself," Robinson said. "And when you question yourself, it carries over to the team to where the team starts questioning you. I had to put a stop to that and say, 'Hey, there's no question I can do this.'"

But until she makes leaps, nobody seems to notice.

Rupen Fofaria is a beat writer for The Raleigh News & Observer.