The Open Exemption Policy is taking a toll not just on the sport, but also on the external drivers who are participating in the sport for the first time. Taking Helio Castroneves to exemplify, he is a 4-time IndyCar Champion! The man knows his way around tracks, championships, and everything… but, in an open-wheel car. There is a clear reason why Tim Brown, the 53-year-old seasoned modified veteran finished at the Clash in the ‘Madhouse’ but, Castroneves did not finish the Daytona 500 race! And the same went true for Katherine Legge at Phoenix.
British racing driver Katherine Legge made her NASCAR Cup Series debut in the Shriners Children’s 500. However, her dreams to win the race ended soon when the 44-year-old Live Fast Motorsports driver suddenly spun on the 4th lap of the race after constant complaints about her steering being tight. It only got worse when she spun again on lap 215 and took out Trackhouse Racing driver Daniel Suarez. The Mexican star did not blame her too much but pinned most of it on NASCAR. But, now as the situation escalates, we can’t help but think Kevin Harvick was absolutely right!
“She [Legge] was really thrown to the wolves in this situation. She was in the worst car and showing up to Phoenix in a Cup car that she has never driven, (and) not a lot of NASCAR experience. And I know that we want people from different series to be able to come into the cup series but, we gotta get back to some accountability of making sure that the people that are driving these cup cars are properly prepared to go out on the race track and do the things that they need to do,” Harvick said. The entire garage was concerned about Legge’s race outcome. But, let’s just say she has a different way of looking at things.
Just a rough day in the office for Legge
Katherine Legge told the Racing Writer’s Podcast, “I love NASCAR. I had so much fun doing it and driving the car. The way that the schedule is in the weekend, the camaraderie in the paddock, and the people were so great. I mean, the other teams, RCR helped me, Chevy have been amazing, folks have helped me. It was really nice, BJ and the whole Live Fast team couldn’t have been more supportive, they were great. It’s definitely something I want to do.” This shows how the competition on the surface does not take away the familial feeling the sport carries. The fact that a racer from a different discipline feels this about NASCAR is a thumbs-up to the sport. However, her crash does not impact her the way all suspected it to.
However, these concerns reached Legge through a fellow competing team member she does not mention. She said, “I had somebody from another team call me today and say, ‘Part of me thought you were going to say, ‘Okay I don’t want to do this anymore. This isn’t for me.’ I was like, ‘Hell no! You don’t know me well, but what all this does is make me dig my heels in deeper and go. You know what, I’m going to prove everybody wrong. I know that I’m a good race car driver and this was just a blip in the matrix.’” Katherine sure seems positive knowing it was just a cloudy day. But, the impact the crash had on her, has it faded away?
MONTEREY, CA – SEPTEMBER 08: Katherine Legge, of Great Britain, smiles after winning the GTD class pole position for the American Tire 250 IMSA WeatherTechSeries race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on September 8, 2018 in Monterey, California. (Photo by Brian Cleary/Getty Images)
As it turns out, yes. In addition to that, she is looking forward to her second shot in the game! “I absolutely want to do it, I love it so much and I’ve had such a good experience in every other part of it. We’ll focus on the positives because that’s all you can do and it honestly just drives me to want to prove myself to myself,” Legge said. Fortunately, the British driver was made of sterner stuff, so she wanted to prove any doubters wrong. Maybe she did not perform her best on the NASCAR tracks, but her illustrious racing career cannot be put behind. After all, Katherine is the “best girl driver” we’ll ever see.
The British driver has quite an extensive racing resume
Legge’s racing career began in 2000 with the Formula Ford Great Britain and other smaller series. From there, she moved up to Formula Renault 2.0 UK for two seasons from 2001 onwards. A year later, she finished 3rd in the BWRDC Monoposto Trophy championship. Similarly, Legge finished 3rd in the 2005 Atlantic Championship. In the same year, the Briton became a Minardi test driver in Formula One, the closest she ever got to the big leagues.
However, in 2006 she began to turn her attention overseas, to the Champ Car World Series, IndyCar’s predecessor. A year later, Katherine Legge decided to expand her repertoire with the Rolex Sports Car Series. Then in 2008, she joined the DTM Series, where she stayed for 3 years before going back to IndyCar in 2012. Over the next couple of years, she raced in IndyCar and in the Rolex Sports Car Series.
The 2014-15 season saw Legge create history by competing in the inaugural Formula E season. She was one of three female drivers who raced there, alongside Brazilian driver Simona de Silvestro and Italy’s Michela Cerruti. Sadly, her career only lasted for two races. From there, she mostly plied her trade in endurance racing, but her first tryst with NASCAR came in 2018 in the Xfinity Series. In that series, she only raced a handful of times but recorded a best finish of 14th at Road America. Legge did not return to the Xfinity scene until 2023 at Road America once again.
The post “You Don’t Know Me”- Katherine Legge Shuts Down Cup Garage’s Delusion With Bold Claim appeared first on EssentiallySports.