Katherine Legge hints at future plans amid “disappointing” lack of female drivers

Katherine Legge is set to make her NASCAR Cup Series debut this weekend at the iconic Phoenix Raceway. 

The British driver will become the first woman to enter a Cup Series race since Danica Patrick in 2018. 

Speaking to the media ahead of her entry, the 44-year-old addressed the “disappointing” lack of women in motorsports and how she would love to help bring up the next era of female drivers when she retires from racing. She explained:

“It’s disappointing that there aren’t more women [in] like IndyCar and NASCAR, the Cup [Series], sports cars. Really, there’s been kind of like a gap, you know.

“There was Sarah Fisher and Danica and me and Simona [de Silvestro], and like a bunch of good drivers in that era. And then there’s been really like this gap and this lull.

“So when I stop racing or maybe alongside it but definitely focused on it when I stop racing, I’d love to bring up the next generation.

“Because I think that there’s only a handful of us that have those shared lived experiences, and I think that my experience might be valuable in helping them navigate it.”

Jack Harvey, Dale Coyne Racing Honda, Katherine Legge, Dale Coyne Racing Honda

Photo by: Geoffrey M. Miller / Motorsport Images

Going on to discuss her experience as a woman in motorsport, Legge continued:

“Everybody says, ‘What’s it like to be a girl in racing?’ and I don’t know. Because I only have my own experience. I don’t know what it’s like to be a boy in racing, right?

“So, I know what my journey has been, and I know that it’s gone for me and it’s gone against me. I know where the struggles are and I know mentally what you have to do to overcome those struggles.

“So, I think, to me it just is. I would much rather people just saw me as another race car driver on merit, but that’s not reality. I’m not immune to or blind to the fact that it has helped me in ways, too. So, I’m just going to go out there and be Katherine and do the very best that I can.”

There is currently a rise in female drivers in motorsports, especially with the F1 Academy series spearheaded by Susie Wolff. On top of this, in the stock car racing world there is the rise of drivers such as Toni Breidinger and Hailie Deegan, although the latter is entering her first year in the IndyNXT series.

The NASCAR Cup Series Shriners Children’s 500 will take place on Sunday, March 9, at Phoenix Raceway.