Katherine Legge entered Phoenix Raceway with one goal—earn respect. As the first woman in seven years to compete in a NASCAR Cup Series race, she knew the spotlight would be on her. With years of experience in open-wheel racing and sports cars, she had the skills. But stock cars were a different beast. Despite that, Legge was confident and had her goals clear: “If I can really focus on minimizing mistakes… be respectful, earn respect, and finish the race, I think that’ll be a success.” But things didn’t go as planned.
Four laps into her highly anticipated debut, Legge lost control of her car. She spun, coming out of Turn 2, bringing out the first caution of the day. Though her car wasn’t damaged, the moment was embarrassing. But that wasn’t the end of her troubles. With 98 laps to go, she lost control again and collected Trakchouse Racing #99 Daniel Suárez, ruining…
