Katherine Legge’s NASCAR Cup debut ends early after spin
The Briton only completed 210 laps at Phoenix after two separate incidents
Katherine Legge’s highly-anticipated debut in the NASCAR Cup Series at Phoenix Raceway ended in disappointment as she failed to make it to the chequered flag.
The 44-year-old was officially classified in 30th place after completing 210 of the planned 312 laps in Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500.
Starting from 37th and last, Legge suffered an early setback when she spun the #78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet of her own on lap 5, causing the first caution of the day.
She was later running in 28th place when contact with the #21 Wood Brothers Ford of Josh Berry at Turn 2 sent her spinning down the backstretch.
At this stage, Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez was running behind Legge and couldn’t avoid her spinning Chevrolet, with contact dealing severe damage to both their cars.
While Suarez still managed to continue the race and finish 23rd, Legge’s day came to a premature end as she headed to the garage for extensive repairs.
Her team couldn’t fix the car in time to send her back out again.
Speaking afterwards, Legge described her maiden outing in the NASCAR Cup Series as a “baptism of fire”.
“I think we were relatively quick compared to the field, so it wasn’t bad,” Legge told Fox Sports. “We were trying to find some pace, and we found it throughout the race, but it was a rough start.
“Baptism of fire. I think there’s a lot of positives to take from it. Obviously there were mistakes made, but I learned so much and hopefully I get to come back and do it again.”
Legge explained that the changes Live Fast Motorsports had made to the #78 Chevrolet on Saturday night had backfired, and the team spent much of Sunday trying to undo the changes so she could have a more stable car underneath her.
"It was really a rough start. We made some changes to the car overnight, and they were awful,” Legge told Bob Pockrass.
“I was hanging on like from the first stint, I was so loose, and then we kept making adjustments, so we kept making the car way more stable for me...I wish we hadn't made the changes.”
Sunday’s race made Legge the first female driver to contest a Cup race since Danica Patrick made her final start at Daytona 500 in 2018.
Legge is relatively inexperienced in stock car racing, having taken part in just five Xfinity races and made just one ARCA outing prior to her Cup Series foray last weekend.
