Katherine Legge was excited to make her NASCAR Cup Series debut at Phoenix Raceway and even called it a “baptism of fire”. But it ended with frustration for her and the surrounding drivers. You see, after a harmless spin in the opening laps, she once again spun on lap 215 and Daniel Suarez crashed into her. Though the driver stated in his post-race vlog that he didn’t have against Legge, he sure was unhappy with NASCAR’s approval process. What did he say?

He stated, “I hope girls make it in this sport. There’s nothing wrong with her. What is wrong is NASCAR. You cannot allow somebody with no experience to run in the Cup Series. Plain and simple. … This is not a so slow place. I hit her and I was running 100 miles an hour, slowing down already.”

Katherine Legge was approved in Cup for road courses and tracks that are one mile and shorter. This is the usual beginning approval classification for a driver by NASCAR for drivers who have some oval experience in other series but not in stock car experience. Now, Legge has participated in several forms of motorsports, including Indianapolis 500, Formula E, and IMSA road racing. She also had four Xfinity starts and one ARCA start when it came to stock-car experience. That being said, Suarez isn’t the only one annoyed by what took place. Chase Elliott, the 2020 Cup Series champion, has now joined the chorus of discontent. In an interview with ‘NASCAR on FOX’, he stated:

“This is the pinnacle of NASCAR, right? This is supposed to be the very top tier of what NASCAR has to offer within their sport and within this discipline,” Elliott further said eight important words that NASCAR needs to hear. “I do think that we need to make sure that everyone is ready to go… the same way that myself and everyone else had to go run ARCA races at Daytona right before we ran our first Truck or Xfinity race.”

Elliott’s stance aligns with Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, and Suarez himself—five of the sport’s most prominent drivers who have now publicly questioned NASCAR’s standards. Busch, with 62 Cup Series wins to his name, was particularly blunt when he was asked about it at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway media center: “I feel like I’ve questioned the approval process for a long, long time… there’s a lot of work that could be done to make it better. I don’t think suits and ties should be making that.”

“Certainly, there can be some that need to be involved but I do feel like there needs to be firesuits involved in some of those decision-making processes on those that need to be approved or not approved for various activities. I’ll even go as far to say too I feel the same way on driver penalties.”

The drivers’ criticism comes with concrete examples of disparities between NASCAR and other racing series. Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner, pointed to IndyCar’s structured approach: “In Indy, there’s a testing process. I don’t think we have a testing process. You just have to enter, right? So it’s just, come one, come all.” Legge’s Phoenix debut came after just 45 minutes of practice—her second-ever NASCAR oval race—compared to the month-long preparation period that Indianapolis 500 rookies receive.

Logano, the 2018 and 2022 Cup champion, reinforced this point by referencing Hendrick Motorsports star Kyle Larson’s ongoing preparation for the Indy 500: “He has a whole month of May up there, and he had to get approved for one, but then he also had a lot of laps to get comfortable with the race car… 20 minutes of practice is really tough to say, ‘That’s good,’ and go jump in and go racing.”

So for Suarez, who worked his way up through NASCAR’s developmental ladder after moving from Mexico, the issue is deeply personal. “I give her a lot of credit for reaching out a couple of times, and it’s good… My position didn’t change. I was mad at the situation and I believe that she got set for failure. It doesn’t matter if you’re a great driver or a bad driver. Regardless of that, if you are thrown in one of the most difficult series in the world to be competitive, it’s just not fair. That was the way I saw it.”

Suarez further stated, “I believe I’m one of the best racing drivers in a stock car in the world, and if I wanted to run Formula 1 or Formula 2, I can’t. I’m not qualified to do that, and I shouldn’t because I don’t know the car and I don’t know the tracks.” His comparison points to Formula 1’s Super License system, which requires drivers to accumulate points through success in junior formulas before being approved for the top level.

NASCAR’s history of driver approval controversies!

This current controversy highlights a consistent issue in NASCAR’s approach to driver approval. Earlier this season, four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves struggled in his Daytona 500 debut with Trackhouse Racing’s Project 91 program, despite having simulator time and a NASCAR test session. He failed to qualify on speed and finished 39th after an early crash. Had it not been for the controversial Open Provisional, the four-time Indy 500 winner wouldn’t be able to race at Daytona.

In fact, Jimmie Johnson and Truex weren’t considered for that spot, which left them confused.

Regardless, one name who has successfully jumped from open-wheel racing to NASCAR’s Cup Series and won races was Juan Pablo Montoya. Then let us not forget about Kyle Larson, who has several open-wheel short-track victories and also won the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series championship. But most drivers spend considerable time in lower series before moving up—Danica Patrick competed in 61 Xfinity races over two seasons before her full-time Cup debut, while Montoya ran 7 Xfinity races before his Cup transition.

The pressure mounts on the sanctioning body to address these concerns. The united front from Elliott, Busch, Hamlin, Logano, Larson, and Suarez—representing 15 Cup Series championships between them—suggests this isn’t merely a passing controversy but a fundamental issue that strikes at the heart of NASCAR’s competitive integrity and safety standards. What do you think?