Katherine Legge confesses she is “embarrassed” over NASCAR Cup debut race

Famale racer Katherine Legge shared her feelings about the ruined NASCAR Cup Series debut race at Phoenix Raceway.


Katherine Legge confesses she is “embarrassed” over NASCAR Cup debut race

Katherine Legge (Via @IndyCar/X)

The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway last Sunday marked history as it featured female driver, Katherine Legge, for the first time since 2018. The veteran racer didn’t have a weekend she expected, with the mix of poor performance from the car and the lack of experience at the top tier ruined her goals for the debut.

The incident that ended her hopes of finishing the race happened late in the race were Katherine Legge spun out and collected Daniel Saurez who was running P6. It was a mistake from the racer that caused the incident and in a recent interview talking about the comments from the community over her performance, Legge admitted that she is embarrassed by how her race ended.

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I take everything seriously, and I definitely took this seriously…I was embarrassed by the way that it ended because I made a mistake, and nobody likes to make mistakes.

Katherine Legge told RACER.

Further talking about the point, the part-time IndyCar racer explained that she was under the spotlight the whole day and knew that a mistake would attracts negative comments. She racer respectfully with everyone before the mistake made things go south.

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Everybody does make mistakes, but I was definitely under the spotlight, and I was trying my best not to make mistakes. I was giving everybody so much room and so much respect, and trying to do everything right, and that mistakes obviously got me a lot of negative attention.

Katherine Legge added.

What was Katherine Legge’s goal coming to the weekend?

Talking about her goals coming into the race, Legge pointed out that she wanted to prove she is capable to race at the top level and belonged alongside the athletes. She also had the pressure securing these goals owning to the pressure expectations from a female racer.

Katherine Legge (Credits: Autoracing1.com)
Katherine Legge (Credits: Autoracing1.com)

Yeah, I was embarrassed because I didn’t want to make a mistake. I wanted to show I was competent and that I belonged, and I knew as soon as it happened that everybody would attach to that, and that was what I would be remembered for.

Katherine Legge said.

The veteran racer would have been able to achieve these goals, if she had enough time to understand the car as well as the track. Dale Earnhardt Jr. made the argument as the poor car and lack of practice time ruined her race.

Katherine Legge made a phone call to Daniel Saurez to fix the issues

The female racing superstar showed character owning up to her mistakes and she didn’t stop their as she called the likes of Daniel Suarez to bury the hatchet. In the interview, she recalled the conversation with the Trackhouse Chevy driver and pointed out that he was understanding of her situation.

Katherine Legge and Daniel Suarez
Katherine Legge and Daniel Suarez (Via @indycar and @Trackhouse/X)

I made lots of phone calls. Daniel was very sweet, actually, very kind and understanding. He was like, ‘Listen, I don’t blame you.

Katherine Legge said.

The comments and efforts from Legge show she deserved a chance to clear things in the Cup series. If a good team is able to field car for her, in a track where she has previously raced, fans can expect a redemption run and maybe something that will inspire the female racing prodigies.