NASCAR is facing criticism for letting British driver Katherine Legge compete in Sunday’s Cup Series race at Phoenix despite having no prior experience in the sport’s lower-tier series. Legge was involved in two crashes during the race, with the second incident taking out Daniel Suarez, who was running in the top 10 and contending for a win.
At 44, Legge is highly experienced in motorsports, having made 19 IndyCar Series starts, including four Indianapolis 500 appearances, and winning four races in the GT Daytona class of the IMSA SportsCar Championship. However, she had never driven a NASCAR Cup Series car before Sunday’s event.
Before the race, Legge, who was driving for a lower-tier team, stated her goal was to finish all the laps without impacting the race’s outcome. However, just 10 laps in, she lost control and spun, bringing out an early caution.
She managed to regain her composure but later, with 97 laps remaining, she tried to avoid contact with Josh Berry as he lapped her. In doing so, she spun again, this time collecting Suarez. Frustrated, Suarez vented over the radio, blaming backmarkers.
After the race, Legge explained that overnight adjustments to the car made handling difficult, causing her to struggle early on. She acknowledged her mistakes but felt she learned a lot from the experience.
NASCAR fans were quick to criticize the decision to let Legge race, arguing she lacked the necessary experience. One fan mocked the situation, joking that realizing Legge was allowed to compete made them feel intelligent by comparison.
The controversy follows a similar situation with Helio Castroneves, a four-time Indy 500 winner, who was allowed to race in the Daytona 500 despite having no prior NASCAR Cup Series experience. He crashed in both his qualifying race and the main event.
