Dale Earnhardt Jr. blames “poor car” for Katherine Legge’s disastrous NASCAR debut
NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. has shared his feelings about the controversial Cup debut of female racer Katherine Legge.
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Katherine Legge (Via IMAGO and @IndyCar/X)
The NASCAR Cup Series debut at Phoenix Raceway marked the elite division debut of female British racing driver Katherine Legge. She drove the No:78 Live Fast Motorsports at the iconic track that hosts the season finale at the age of 44. The debut didn’t pan out as expected with car being one of worst of the day ruining her chances.
Katherine Legge had multiple spins in the weekend, despite improved speed owing to lack of Cup experience and practice. Her last spin resulted in a wreck involving Daniel Suarez, resulting in demands from the racing community to make the race approval process better. Now Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. via his podcast shared his thoughts on the drama, highlighting the poor chevy she drove.
It does not help that she’s in such poor car. It’s a poor car. She’s in a car that doesn’t do a lot of things right, and we don’t have any practice. The lack of practice and the problems that creates is glaring, and it’s in our face every other week.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. said via Dale Jr. Download podcast.
He highlighted how the lack of practice sessions is having a negative effect on the sport, with the racers having a tough time to understand the tracks. Junior asserted that only the top-third of racers in the series are capable of racing well without the session.
But we kind of choose to ignore it because there’s a lot of drivers, namely guys that are in the top third of the field, that don’t need practice. They’d rather not have practice.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.
The Katherine Legge controversy reveals NASCAR’s inefficiency
The controversy surrounding the veteran female racer needs to be focused on the lack of efficient decision making from the side of NASCAR. Some fans only shifting the blame to the driver is just malicious and bad for the sport.
NASCAR should have done more to help debut racers get ready for certain events, by maybe keeping some standards such as minimum laps run at track or lap speed at the venue, by making the racers run at the lower divisions. At least make a rule that demands the racers to partake in a Truck, Xfinity or even ARCA race at the track before making the Cup debut.
Another way to address the situation is increasing the practise session length. Give the debutant drivers more time before the race to understand the track. This can be extended to even the rookie drivers. Enough practice or even letting then run with both the groups in the session.
Katherine Legge got the support from other NASCAR driver ahead of the race
Coming into the weekend Katherine Legge’s inexperience was evident and the Cup drivers didn’t hesitate to show their support to help her get better. They were friendly and supportive in the garage, according to Legge. This support made her heart very happy and gives more hopes about the future.
Everybody has been so friendly, so nice. It’s been such a really cool, supportive paddock, honestly. o many have been helping me this week. It’s made my heart very happy. I’m sure I’ll meet the other drivers, and hopefully, they’re receptive to me. I’m not sure what to expect, so there’s a certain level of apprehension that goes with that.
Katherine Legge said.
The comments from Katherine Legge shows she had the great support from the garage for her debut and it was the car that ruined the race. Live Fast hasn’t been strong over the last few seasons and that played a role in the poor performance as well. It would be interesting to see if Legge will get a chance at redemption.
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