By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
When the XFINITY Series rolled into Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Katherine Legge was there to officially begin her NASCAR experience.
With no prior testing or on-track time, the 38-year-old sports car veteran was ready to tackle the new challenge in the rawest of circumstances.
Not only would it be her first stock car race but it came with a small team in the series, JD Motorsports, who gave her a two-race shot in the No. 15 Chevrolet for Mid-Ohio and Road America. With Richmond Raceway now in her back pocket, Legge now has a deeper understanding for the power and necessary skillsets for these cars as she approaches the Charlotte ROVAL, her fourth NASCAR start this weekend.
“It’s so much fun. I have a massive grin on my face any time I drive it,” Legge told Kickin’ The Tires. “The first time I drove one on an oval, any kind of stock car at all, the first reaction was that I didn’t blink for the opening 10 laps.”
Standing in “awe” of the car, Legge’s debut unfortunately came to an end with 10 laps to go when she blew a motor and finished 30th. She came back at Road America to contend in the top 10 before finishing 14th.
She got a hang of it quick on the road courses.
“I was just in awe of everything,” she said of the debut. “How good these guys are, the car, how much power it has. It is so much different than a sports car, Indy car or anything I have ever driven. It is a very neat experience, one I will remember forever.”
Indeed, Legge is no stranger to powerful machines. Running the Indianapolis 500 in 2012 and ’13, she ran a total of 11 Verizon IndyCar Series races those seasons before jumping to Formula E and Weathertech SportsCar Championship in 2014.
Additionally, the England native tested Formula 1 with Minardi F1 Team in 2005 and was in prime position to become a full-time open-wheel driver for years to come.
“When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a Formula 1 driver,” she said. “I came over here [to the United States] and I wanted to do IndyCar, and I did that. Then, I’ve been all over the place.
“I’ve driven some really cool stuff: I got to drive DTM, I did drive a Formula 1 car on a test day. The Delta Wing, Indy car, Champ Car, sports car, prototypes, DP cars, Formula E. I’m sort of diverse. Not many people can say they have driven what I’ve driven and that’s really, really cool.
“I will be eternally grateful for the life and career I’ve had.”
Legge’s journey to NASCAR has been filled with rough rides, successful races and disappointment. Running the majority of the IndyCar season in 2012 for Dragon Racing, Legge was set for an IndyCar ride in 2013 until plans fell through.
“It was going to be [my next big thing],” she said of IndyCar. “That was my plan, I wanted to do IndyCar, that’s where 100 percent of my focus was at the time.
“I got screwed over at the end of the day. I found a big sponsor we were going to go IndyCar racing with and it didn’t work out. It left a bad taste in my mouth from that whole thing.”
With support from the late Donald Panoz, Legge found her way into sports cars, earning now four wins and 10 podiums since 2017. IndyCar, however, is still on her mind if an opportunity would come about.
“I still want to do the [Indy] 500 and I would do IndyCar if I was given the right opportunity,” she said. “I miss the 500. I made some good friends over there and yes, I love driving those cars.”
Good times, however, sometimes take the back road when funding starts to dissipate. For Legge, this has been a prolonged issue throughout her career, which has kept her appreciative of the opportunities she does get in racing.
“It’s all about money now and I don’t have any of that,” she said. “I never had the big sponsor behind me or a rich family that funded me. I just have gone where the opportunities have gone and I’ve had to go with them.”
With such a background across the world of racing, Legge’s next chapter would come after friends and fellow cross-over drivers AJ Allmendinger, Andy Lally and Justin Marks praised NASCAR as a valuable opportunity to race.
I’m so lucky I have talented friends who help and support me 😊 Thanks @AndyLally 🙏🏽 https://t.co/SotNh6kdey
— Katherine Legge (@katherinelegge) September 20, 2018
“I have been wanting to drive in a stock car for a long time,” she said. “My teammates Justin Marks and Andy Lally, a good friend and teammate, both say how amazing it is. I have a friend who races Cup, AJ Allmendinger, but I don’t really know that many people, who the teams are, who the players are.
“I’m just fortunate I have good friends like Andy, who obviously knew Johnny Davis and hooked us up. I had been to a couple Cup races with AJ. I loved to watch him and it looks really cool to try.
“It’s just one of those things that was on my bucket list. But not until they started talking about it as passionately as they did. That was when I felt like I got to get into one of these and see what it’s all about. I can’t imagine doing it without them.”
Making her starts with the underfunded JD Motorsports team, Legge has learned the reality of NASCAR’s underdog side and has embraced it since her debut in August. Even still, her goal is to be competitive any time she’s on track.
“Having the opportunity with Michael Shank Racing and Acura, that has told me the importance of being in top-notch equipment,” she said. “The most important thing now is being competitive. There were a lot of people wondering if I could do it and didn’t really rate me until recently. That’s because I’ve had top-notch equipment and I can get the job done.
“I don’t think I’ve changed that much as a driver, it’s just that if you’re in a good car, it’s easy. It’s the guys who are struggling at the back who are actually good and working hard.”
The small four-car team has been a “great place” for Legge to learn the ropes in stock car racing.
“I can’t say enough good things about the team,” she said. “They’ve given me a great chance. We should have finished in the top 10 at Road America, we really should have. That’s just a testament to these guys. They do so much with not as much as the big teams. They’ve got heart and I love that.”
After finishing 28th in her oval debut, Legge will return to the No. 15 at the Charlotte ROVAL. From there, she is hard at work to secure funding for more races in the future.
“You evaluate everything that comes across the board,” she said. “I’m working on everything right now. I don’t have a big sponsor, yet [laughs] or a big benefactor behind me so we can’t pick and choose where we go. We just push for different things and this is something I’m pushing really hard for.
“Honestly, everyone has been super friendly and I’ve loved it. You can walk up to anybody and they will help you out. I’ve definitely enjoyed that aspect of it. There doesn’t seem to be that much politics, everyone is just really cool.”
Tough day yesterday, it was a steep learning curve in a stock car on an oval but I had a blast!.. Feeling very fortunate to have the opportunities and some great people behind me… onto the Roval!
— Katherine Legge (@katherinelegge) September 22, 2018
(Below is a video capture of our conversation with Katherine Legge)
