NASCAR Cup Series gets first female driver in seven years
The Cup Series grid hasn’t featured a female racer since 2018
Katherine Legge is set to become the first female driver since Danica Patrick to take part in a NASCAR Cup Series event.
Legge, 44, will drive Live Fast Motorsport’s #78 Chevrolet in the fourth round of the 2025 season at Phoenix Raceway on 9 March. Her car will be sponsored by investment strategy firm Droplight.
The Briton already has five starts in the Xfinity Series, most recently at Road America in 2023, but this will mark her first foray in the Cup Series. She will become only the 17th woman to take part in the top class of stock car racing, as well as the first born outside of the US.
"Entering the NASCAR Cup Series is a dream come true," she said. "Racing stock cars has been an incredibly fun and new challenge that's given me a renewed sense of vigor for this sport.
“As always, I'm grateful for the opportunity to do what I love and am inspired by all of the effort, preparation and behind the scenes work it takes to get here."
NASCAR’s flagship Cup Series has been without a female driver since Patrick made her final start in the 2018 Daytona 500. Wisconsin-born Patrick was a regular feature on the Cup grid and entered a total of 191 races over a seven-year period, achieving a best finish of fourth in an exhibition race in 2017.
Legge has become one of the most popular active female drivers in motorsport since Patrick’s retirement from racing at the end of 2017.
She has a versatile CV that has seen her compete in everything from single-seaters and sportscars to stock car racing.
In 2024, she completed a partial schedule in IndyCar with Dale Coyne Racing and combined that with a pair of outings in the IMSA SportsCar Championship. In all, she has racked up 47 starts in IndyCar and nearly 100 outings in the NASCAR-owned IMSA series. Her achievements in the latter championship includes four class wins in the GTD class at the wheel of an Acura NSX GT3.
Legge also has experience of racing in Formula E and the DTM, and tested a Formula 1 car for Minardi in 2005.
Ahead of her maiden appearance in the Cup Series, she took part in the opening round of the ARCA Menards Series at Daytona International Speedway, gaining valuable experience of stock car racing.
