Katherine Legge crashed at Phoenix Raceway in her first NASCAR Cup Series race and collected Daniel Suarez
On Sunday, NASCAR raced at Phoenix Raceway. Katherine Legge became this first female to race in the NASCAR Cup Series since Danica Patrick in 2018.
Last season, Legge ran 7 Indycar Series races. She also had 2 starts in IMSA. Legge has previously completed in 5 NASCAR Xfinity Series races, dating back to 2018.
Early in the race, Legge spun on her own. She avoided contact with the wall and other cars as she was running at the tail of the field.
However, she was involved in another accident later in the race. On lap 215 of 312, Legge and Josh Berry made contact off turn two.
Legge spun and Daniel Suarez came into the scene with nowhere to go, driving right into her door.
Suarez and Legge both picked up heavy damage.
Suarez stated on the team radio, “(expletive) lappers, man.”
After the race, Suarez had more to say on the incident. His issue isn’t with the driver herself but instead he blames NASCAR directly.
Daniel Suarez comments on the incident with Katherine Legge
“There’s nothing wrong with her,” Daniel Suarez stated via his own vlog.
“What is wrong with NASCAR? They cannot allow somebody with no experience to run in the Cup Series. It is that simple.”
“You go to Las Vegas, to a fast track, it’s (expletive) dangerous. You cannot do that.”
“Here honestly, this is not a slow race. I hit her and I was running 100mph.”
Phoenix Results: March 9, 2025 (NASCAR Cup Series)
Kevin Harvick mirrors comments from Suarez
“She was really thrown to the wolves in this situation,” Kevin Harvick stated via the Happy Hour Podcast.
“She is the worst car and showing up to Phoenix in a Cup car that she’s never driven. Not a lot of NASCAR experience.”
“We want people from different series to be able to come into the Cup Series. But, we gotta get back to some accountability of making sure that the people that are driving these cup cars are properly prepared to go out on the racetrack.”
“These Cup cars are hard to drive. You can’t just let everybody drive it.”
“We saw Helio do this at Daytona. He smashed up into the wall and then floored it like a hundred miles an hour and crashed again for no reason. Just because they don’t know the car.”
“On this particular day, with somebody that wasn’t properly prepared to be on the racetrack. Not because of her experience. The Cup car is hard to drive and you need some sort of stock car experience to just jump right in.”
“In this case, it took Daniel Suarez out of the race, running 6th.”
“We saw the approval process with Mike Wallace getting denied. He didn’t need to be in a Cup car either.”
NASCAR blocks Mike Wallace from racing in the Daytona 500
Daniel Suarez on Katherine Legge
Katherine Legge crash video
Links
Daniel Suarez | Katherine Legge | Phoenix Raceway | NASCAR
