Gentlemen -- and ladies -- start your engines.
Katherine Legge will make her debut in the NASCAR Cup Series on Sunday, becoming the first woman to compete in a Cup Series race since Danica Patrick at the 2018 Daytona 500.
Legge, a veteran sports car and open-wheel driver, will be behind the wheel of the No. 78 Chevrolet for Live Fast Motorsports in the Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix Raceway. She will be sponsored at Phoenix by venture studio DROPLight and Sherfick Companies, a real estate and construction development business.
We are thrilled to announce that @katherinelegge will be driving the No. 78 DROPLiGHT Chevy Camaro this week in Phoenix!
This will be Katherine’s debut in the NASCAR Cup series.#nascar #cupseries pic.twitter.com/w9zdc3clac
— Live Fast Motorsports (@teamlivefast) March 3, 2025
She called entering the Cup Series a "dream come true."
"Racing stock cars has been an incredibly fun and new challenge that’s given me a renewed sense of vigor for this sport," she said. "As always, I’m grateful for the opportunity to do what I love and am inspired by all of the effort, preparation and behind the scenes work it takes to get here.”
Legge has made five career starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, with a top finish of 14th at Road America in 2018.
Legge, in February, raced at Daytona International Speedway in the ARCA Series. She competed in the Ride The 'Dente 200, starting ninth, but did not finish the race after being involved in an early multi-car accident.
Legge, who ran a partial schedule in the 2024 IndyCar Series, has made four starts at the Indianapolis 500, including a 29th place finish in 2024 when she was the only woman in the field. She had career-best 12th-place finish in the event during her Indy 500 debut in 2012.
In 2023, she set two Indy 500 qualifying records, recording the fastest one-lap qualification (231.627 miles per hour) and fastest four-lap qualification (231.070 miles per hour).
Legge will become just the third woman to race in both the Indy 500 and in NASCAR's top division, joining Patrick and Janet Guthrie.
Legge also competed in IMSA for more than a decade, recording four class victories.
Now she'll add to her resume by getting behind the wheel of a NASCAR stock car, becoming the 17th woman to compete in a Cup race.
Who is Katherine Legge?
Katherine Legge is a veteran sports car and open-wheel driver who is set to make her NASCAR Cup Series debut.
How old is Katherine Legge?
Legge is 44 years old. She was born on July 12, 1980.
Where is Katherine Legge from?
Legge is a native of Guilford, England. She is set to become the first woman born outside of the United States to compete in the Cup Series since 1977, per motorsport.com.
Has Katherine Legge ever won a race?
Legge has four IMSA class victories as the driver of an Acura NSX GT3 in the GTD class, according to motorsport.com. She has competed in the Indianapolis 500 on four occasions, including a career-best 12th place finish in 2012.
Did Danica Patrick win a NASCAR race?
Patrick made 191 NASCAR Cup starts between 2012 and 2018, recording seven top-10 finishes. She had a fourth-place finish in a 2017 Advance Auto Parts Clash exhibition race and a sixth-place finish in 2014 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Patrick made history at the 2013 Daytona 500 by becoming the first woman to win the pole position in a Cup Series race. She became the first female to lead a lap under green-flag conditions in the iconic race and finished eighth, the best ever finish for a woman in the event.
Among her other career highlights, Patrick finished third in the 2009 Indianapolis 500, the highest ever finish for a woman in the race's history.
Has a woman ever won a NASCAR race?
Sara Christian, who in 1949 became the first female driver to compete in NASCAR's top division, finished fifth in her second career race, which was at Pittsburgh’s Heidelberg Raceway. It remains the only top-five finish by a woman in the NASCAR Cup Series.
