Don’t get all spun out over Katherine Legge’s NASCAR Cup Series debut

Katherine Legge called her NASCAR Cup Series debut a “baptism of fire.”

And the fire has continued in the days following her frustrating start at the one-mile Phoenix Raceway.

The 44-year-old Legge has competed in various forms of motorsports, from the Indianapolis 500 to Formula E to IMSA road racing. She had only four Xfinity starts and one ARCA start (where she got collected in a crash in the opening laps) as far as her main stock-car experience going into her Cup debut. 

She had a harmless spin in the opening laps at Phoenix but then spun on Lap 215, and Daniel Suarez crashed into her.

In his post-race vlog, Suarez said he didn’t have anything against Legge but questioned NASCAR’s approval process. He felt if anyone else was driving, they would have rolled to the bottom of the track instead of stopping more in the center of the track.

“I hope girls make it in this sport. There’s nothing wrong with her,” Suarez said. “What is wrong is NASCAR. You cannot allow somebody with no experience to run in the Cup Series. Plain and simple. … This is not a so slow place. I hit her and I was running 100 miles an hour, slowing down already.”

Legge is approved in Cup for road courses and tracks that are one mile and shorter. This is typically NASCAR’s beginning approval classification for a driver who has at least some oval experience in another series but not much stock car experience. 

NASCAR approved Helio Castroneves for the Daytona 500 based on his significant INDYCAR resume, including four Indy 500 victories. He also had some familiarity with Daytona in the Rolex 24 and in the International Race of Champions Series a couple of decades ago. That particular series pitted drivers from various forms of motorsports into equally prepared stock cars.

NASCAR didn’t approve veteran racer Mike Wallace for the Daytona 500 because it had been several years since he had done any significant amount of racing. It set up a plan for him to race at other tracks to be approved for Daytona next year.

Legge said she had no idea if she did enough at Phoenix to earn approval for any track bigger than a mile.

Despite her struggles, NASCAR did the right thing in approving Legge, and it has nothing to do with her gender. She ran seven INDYCAR races last year, including the Indy 500. She did the ARCA practice day in Daytona, and it wasn’t her fault that she got in a wreck in the race. She has experience stepping into several types of cars.

What more should NASCAR want in order to approve her for a short track (although arguably the short tracks can sometimes be more difficult than the faster tracks)? Would you say she needs to do a certain number of ovals in the trucks and Xfinity before Cup? Her only oval stock-car race was the 2018 Xfinity race at Richmond.

The argument against that would be that the next gen car drives differently than an Xfinity car. And we’ve seen drivers spin out on their own before at Phoenix and at other tracks. The only difference is that those drivers have resumes, and it could be argued that those incidents were mistakes, not from lack of experience. 

Yes, Legge was uncharacteristically slow at the start of her 45-minute practice session. But by qualifying, she was only a couple tenths of a second off the next-slowest car and certainly wasn’t trying to push it.

Legge was running about six laps down when she wrecked and collected Suarez. She was driving for BJ McLeod. In the Next Gen car, McLeod finished the 2022 Phoenix races eight laps down and five laps down. In the fall 2023 race, he was six laps down. 

So Legge, who likely would have finished eight to 10 laps down, wasn’t too far off the pace when compared to McLeod, who had extensive racing experience.

Legge’s overall racing history — including the fact that she has raced several types of cars in recent years and her proven record of showing satisfactory results in them and the ability to control them — made approval for her the right decision by NASCAR. Frankly, it would be hard to argue against anyone who has competed and finished the Indianapolis 500 to say they can’t run a short track in NASCAR.

When it comes to approvals, if there is any discussion when there is someone that might be borderline, what should make it a yes or a no? Should marketability and whether the racer’s presence promotes the sport come into play?

Sure. And that’s not just for groups that are underrepresented in the NASCAR driver pool. Having a known name from another series (most INDYCAR and sports car fans are familiar with Legge) helps the sport. 

And Legge’s presence did help the sport. Any girl younger than 12 likely doesn’t remember ever seeing a woman race a Cup car. Danica Patrick was the last to do it in 2018. If you don’t think that matters, you didn’t see the posts from parents of young girls on social platforms.

Legge noted that she wishes she could be viewed just like any other racecar driver. However, she also acknowledged the lack of women drivers at the top levels of most circuit racing national series.

There are no full-time women drivers in any of the three NASCAR national series now that Hailie Deegan never seemed to find the speed she needed. Toyota has a few women in its pipeline: Isabella Robusto is racing in ARCA this year and Jade Avedisian became the first woman to win a CARS Tour event when she captured the pro late model win a couple of weeks ago at New River All American Speedway.

Legge is hopeful for an Indianapolis 500 ride this year. She would be the only woman in the race. Gone are the days when Sarah Fisher and Simona de Silvestro and Patrick competed in the series.

There are two women in the Indy NXT developmental series — Deegan and Sophia Floersch, a German racer whose career includes her comeback from a broken spine in a wild 2018 crash in a Formula 3 car in Macau.

Floersch finished 12th and Deegan was 14th in the Indy NXT opener at St. Petersburg.

It appears both NASCAR and INDYCAR are years away from another full-time driver in their series. 

It was good for Legge to be in the race at Phoenix. She would like to do more, and despite the wreck, it would seem that she should at least continue to be approved for short tracks and road courses.

Does it suck that Suarez got taken out by a Legge spin? Sure. But NASCAR can’t predict when someone will spin. All the league can do is use its best judgment.

And the best judgment was that Legge would be able to handle herself in a Cup car. If she had five or 10 more races of Xfinity experience, would that really have kept her from spinning?

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.