Folks, women in the NASCAR Cup Series are a rarity. It’s no secret that since the beginning of the sport, there have only been 16. The last one was Danica Patrick 7 years ago. Her last race was the 2018 Daytona 500. And 12 years before Patrick debuted, it was Shawna Robinson in 2001. The point is to show how few women have reached the topmost division of NASCAR. And now we finally have the 17th and Patrick’s successor: Katherine Legge! The SportsCar regular is making her Cup debut at the upcoming Phoenix race. And it’s great to see how the whole Chevy faction is getting her up to speed.

The 44-year-old is a motorsports veteran and has raced everything from IndyCar to Formula E to Midgets. But the next-gen car is a whole different beast. And on top of that, the added challenge of a high-speed 1-mile track like the Phoenix Raceway. This can seem daunting for a rookie like that, but not when NASCAR’s most successful team owner is helping you prep for the race.

Katherine Legge has got the best of Chevy in her corner

We cannot call Legge a NASCAR newbie, to be fair, as she has run five Xfinity races in the past – four in 2018 and one in 2023. However, four out of the five were road courses (ROVAL, two-time Road America, and Mid-Ohio). Naturally, road courses are a staple for her. So it was manageable. However, she’s got limited experience within the oval. Legge ran Richmond in 2018, and, well, it was commendable that she managed a P28 finish and not a DNF.

But still, Phoenix can be tricky, and she needs to get her preparations right. Moreover, the UK native is piloting the #78 Chevy of Live Fast Motorsports.

And it’s kind of an unsaid thing that Rick Hendrick and HMS are always there to aid you if you are a Chevy driver. Not just Mr.H, even Richard Childress offered to help. That’s why Katherine Legge is feeling confident heading into Phoenix.

In the pre-race press conference, she opened up about all the help she has received so far: “Very happy to be here, very happy that B. J. (McLeod) and Live Fast gave me the opportunity. And I’ve spent the majority of the week in North Carolina driving the simulator. So, RCR were kind enough to let me on their static Sim, and Chevy were kind enough to put me in the motion Sim. And Hendricks were really cool, and they let me do Pit Stop practice… So I feel like super well supported and as prepared as I possibly can be.”

So apparently, the talks of her NASCAR debut started in Atlanta. Then she got NASCAR’s approval, following which she had just two weeks to prepare. She obviously needed all the help that she could get. So the simulators at RCR are static simulators. Those drivers normally use it to get a basic understanding of the track. But they don’t give you the feel of the actual beast. So, after Katherine Legge spent some time at RCR, she went to the Chevy training center to get some time on the motion simulators.

The seat moves in these ones, giving the driver the feel of a racetrack. But neither is the real thing. So, she finally drove a car during Hendrick Motorsports’ pit stop practice this week. You know, to get used to how a Cup car stops and launches.

And getting both on and off-track practice was important given she’s never driven the next-gen car. “Having never never driven on an oval like this. A car, you know, next-gen car. I’ve done a handful of stock car races in my in my career, so I feel like I’m either going to sink or swim, but um, everybody’s given me the best possible opportunity to go out there and do a good job,” she added.

Also, thanks to everyone at Chevy, the road course pro is probably no longer doubting her choice of an intermediate track over a road course. However, she did not really have a choice in the first place.

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Why did Katherine not debut on a road course?

When NASCAR and Legge sat down for a discussion at Atlanta, they presented her with two choices – either COTA or Phoenix.

A road course was always on the table and the most sensible choice, given all her SportsCar and IndyCar experience. But she’s also run Richmond and has made four starts in the Indy 500. Even last year, she was part of the race. So, technically, she qualified for an oval, too. But naturally, she jumped on the idea of a debut in COTA. Unfortunately, it did not go through, and she was stuck with Phoenix.

Speaking about the same, she said, “Yes, I think I would have felt a whole other level of comfort if I had been at COTA past weekend. And we spoke about it was just really tough to get it done in the time frame. So we’re in Atlanta, and NASCAR sai,d well you could do COTA or Phoenix, and I’m like COTA would be great. But there was just no way to get everything done and get the car ready for COTA. So, unfortunately, that didn’t happen. But fortunately, here I am at Phoenix.”

One reason could be the little prep time between the Atlanta and COTA weekends. But still, it is fun to imagine her at COTA. She could have been a top-10 contender. Remember the 2023 Road America race in the Xfinity Series? Katherine Legge finished P14 there.

And there might still be some hope to see her run a road course in the Cup Series. B. J. McLeod fields the #78 car for multiple races every year. They did 5 last season. So maybe he can get Legge for another race. Maybe at the Chicago Street Course or Sonoma Raceway? Well, only time will tell!

Folks, what do you think of Katherine Legge running Phoenix? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.