CNN
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Katherine Legge accomplished something no woman has done in seven years.
Compete in the NASCAR Cup Series.
The 44-year-old English driver made her Cup Series debut on Sunday at the Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway in Arizona, before being involved in a crash that ended her day early.
She was running in 28th place on lap 216 when her car spun out after making contact with another driver. As her car spun, it collided with Daniel Suárez, who was running in sixth place at the time.
Legge, who piloted the No. 78 Chevrolet for Live Fast Motorsports, became the 17th woman to compete at NASCAR’s top-level and the first since Danica Patrick in 2018.
The 42-year-old Patrick last raced in the 2018 running of the Daytona 500.
Legge also spun out early in the race but regained control of the car.
She called it a “rough start” but commended the adjustments the team made throughout the race.
“I think we were relatively quick compared to the field, so it wasn’t bad,” Legge told Fox Sports. “We were trying to find some pace, and we found it throughout the race, but it was a rough start.”
On her first Cup Series start, Legge found positives to look back on.
“Baptism of fire. I think there’s a lot of positives to take from it. Obviously there were mistakes made, but I learned so much and hopefully I get to come back and do it again,” Legge said.
Legge, who is from Guildford, England, has previously raced in multiple series including seven IndyCar Series starts last year. She also has four career starts in the Indianapolis 500 and in 2023 set a record for fastest qualifying time by a woman.
Ahead of the race, Legge told reporters about her experiences as a women in the racing world while also hoping to see more in the future.
“It’s disappointing that there aren’t more women in IndyCar, NASCAR Cup, sports cars,” Legge said Friday. “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. So I know what my journey has been, and I know that it’s gone for me and it’s gone against me, and I know where the struggles are. And I know mentally what you have to do to overcome those struggles.”
Legge added it would “awesome” to get future opportunities to race in the Cup Series.
“I would love to do that,” Legge said. “I don’t think that we have any expectations that we’re going to go out and be competitive. I think if we finish anything but last, that would be a win for us honestly because I don’t have the experience that any of these guys have. I don’t have the car at the moment that’s capable of going and running up in front, so hopefully we can develop me and the car and everything else at the same time and we can get there.”
Christopher Bell took the checkered flag to win his third race in a row with Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson rounding out the top three.
With his third straight victory, Bell becomes only the 29th driver to accomplish the feat in the NASCAR Cup Series’ modern era (post-1972), according to NASCAR. He is the first to do so since Larson accomplished it in 2021.
The NASCAR Cup Series schedule continues on next weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.