Katherine Legge becomes the first woman to drive NASCAR’s Next Gen car and the first in the Cup Series since Danica Patrick in 2018. (Photo by Giuliano Moller/Cronkite News)
AVONDALE – Despite spinning out twice and leaving after 210 laps, Katherine Legge made history at Phoenix Raceway during the Shriners Children’s 500 Sunday.
Legge, a 44-year-old British driver, is the first woman to race in NASCAR’s Next Gen car and the first woman to race in any NASCAR Cup Series race since Danica Patrick drove in the 2018 Daytona 500.
Patrick was also the last woman to drive in a Cup race at Phoenix Raceway, competing there twice during the 2017 season and finishing 24th in her most recent start.
Christopher Bell held off Denny Hamlin in a side-by-side race to the checkered flag for his third straight Cup Series victory, but racing fans were also eager to see Legge’s first career start in the series.
Legge has an extensive racing resume that stretches all across the globe. However, she received late notice that she would be competing on Phoenix Raceway’s tricky 1-mile tri-oval track.
“It’s been a very intense lead up,” Legge said before the race. “I’ve literally known about doing this race for about 10 days, maybe.”
Going into the race, Legge said she had three things she hoped to accomplish behind the wheel of the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet. She aimed to complete all 312 laps, avoid finishing last and make as few mistakes as possible.
Her third goal lasted only two laps into the race as Legge made an early error and spun out on her own. However, as the race progressed, Legge got more and more comfortable in the car, clicking off some competitive lap times before running into trouble again.
About 100 laps from the finish, Legge made contact with Josh Berry and crashed into the inside wall, ending a Cup Series debut that saw her make strides in a short amount of time.
While Legge may not have checked off all of the boxes on her goals list, she loved the experience of running in NASCAR.
“I think there’s a lot of positives to take from it,” she said. “Obviously there were mistakes made, but I learned so much and hopefully I get to come back and do it again.”
It would be unwise to bet against her.
Over a nearly 25-year racing career, Legge has raced in the Formula E – an electric car series – Formula One, IndyCar, midget cars on dirt tracks, and NASCAR’s second-level Xfinity Series – where many of the Cup Series drivers also compete. And now she has added NASCAR’s Next Gen car, which was introduced in 2022.
Along the way, Legge has ticked off a list of firsts for women in racing. In 2001, she became the first woman to win the pole position in a race in the Ford Zetec Series. Patrick later won the pole at the 2013 Daytona 500.
Then in 2005, Legge was the first woman to win a developmental open-wheel race in North America. In that same year, she was the first woman since Sarah Fisher in 2002 to drive a Formula One car, although that was during testing. Still, it led to more opportunities down the road.
Katherine Legge poses next to her No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet before her NASCAR Cup Series debut at Phoenix Raceway. (Photo by Kevin Abele/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Quite possibly Legge’s biggest achievement in her motorsports career came in 2023, when, 10 years after her first attempt, she turned in the highest qualifying speed by a woman at the Indianapolis 500, 231 miles per hour.
Unfortunately for Legge, she had a mechanical problem and was forced to retire from that race on lap 41. Still, despite having raced on some of the biggest stages across motorsports, Legge had always wanted to race in the NASCAR Cup Series.
“I’ve driven so many different forms of racing, I feel like this is the one that I really wanted to do that’s eluded me,” she said as she was preparing to race at Phoenix. “I just love it. It’s in my blood.”
She had a sprinkling of races with three different teams in the Xfinity Series, which she likened to Triple-A in baseball.
“I’ve done a handful of stock car races in my career,” Legge said.
Legge had six previous stock car starts. She raced four times in 2018, running for JD Motorsports, and once in 2023 for SS Green Light Racing in the Xfinity Series. She also had a start this year in the ARCA Menards Series, running for SPS Racing at Daytona.
In all but one of those races, Legge finished outside of the top 25, but her finishing position isn’t her end goal. Legge said that it’s to “help bring up the next generation (of female drivers) because there are only a few of us with those shared, lived experiences.”
As for her NASCAR Cup Series debut, Legge had to drink from a firehose to prepare for the Shriners at Phoenix Raceway. Just a few short weeks ago in Atlanta, Legge sat down with NASCAR to ask how she could get licensed to run. Per NASCAR rules, all rookies must start at a short track and then make their way up the ladder.
For Legge, she said that given her racing experience she would have loved to start on a road course like Circuit of the Americas, which NASCAR visited just last week. However, that didn’t happen.
“I think I would have felt a whole other level of comfort if I had been at COTA this past weekend, and we spoke about it, but it was just tough to get it done,” Legge said.
After not being able to run COTA last week, Legge only had 10 days to prepare to run at Phoenix.
That might seem like plenty of time for an experienced driver, but for Legge, this type of car and series are completely foreign. Luckily for her, several teams and drivers stepped up to help her out.
“I’ve spent the majority of the week in North Carolina driving the simulator,” she said before the race. “RCR were kind enough to let me on their static simulator. Chevy was kind enough to put me in the full motion simulator. Hendrick let me do pit stop practice, and Kaulig has been awesome.
“I feel super well supported and as prepared as I possibly can being that I’ve never driven on an oval like this.”
