It has been a challenging introduction to NASCAR oval racing for Katherine Legge with crashes in the ARCA race at Daytona, in her Cup debut at Phoenix and in her return to the Xfinity Series at Rockingham on Saturday.
The 44-year-old is a decades long veteran of Sports Cars and Indy Cars but that hasn’t quickly translated to this kind of racing in her sporadic appearances. It hasn’t helped that she failed to qualify into the race on Saturday but her sponsored paid for JJ Yeley to drop out of the car he put into the show so Legge could race only to spin again while being lapped and getting run into by William Sawalich.
Legge, speaking on her ‘Throttle Therapy’ podcast on Tuesday says fans have threatened her in alarming and uncomfortable ways since spending time in NASCAR circles.
“Being a woman racing in NASCAR comes with an incredible sense of pride. And obviously it comes with a level of scrutiny and harassment,” Legge said. “The hate mail, the death threats, and the inappropriate sexual comments that I’ve received aren’t just disturbing, they’re unacceptable. Let me very clear: I’m here to race and I’m here to compete and I won’t tolerate any of these threats to my safety or to my dignity, whether that’s on track or off of it.
“Racing is a passionate sport and I understand fans have strong opinions. And honestly, I love that, and I respect that. Constructive criticism is part of the game. I’m always open to learning and improving, I will always take accountability for the mistakes that I make. However, what I think people need to understand is there’s a very thin line between feedback and personal attacks. It’s really disappointing for me to see how often that line gets crossed.
“The level of hate that myself and my team are experiencing at the moment is part of a broader issue that I believe women specifically face in male-dominated spaces. … We can’t normalize this issue. There’s nothing normal about it. It’s totally unacceptable. I have earned my seat on that racetrack. I’ve worked just as hard as any of the other drivers out there, and I’ve been racing professionally for the last 20 years. I’m 100 percent sure that the OEMs and the teams that employed me — without me bringing any sponsorship money for the majority of those 20 years — did not do so as a DEI hire, or a gimmick, or anything else. It’s because I can drive a racecar.”
Two of Legge’s crashes occurred while she was being lapped and was the result of a car taking air off her left rear spoiler but she says there was more to the incident on Saturday.
“I gave him [Sawalich] a lane and the reason the closing pace looks so high isn’t because I braked mid-corner. I didn’t. I stayed on my line, stayed doing my speed, which obviously isn’t the speed of the leaders because they’re passing me … and he charged in a bit too hard, which is the speed difference you see. He understeered up a lane and into me, which spun me around and Kasey Kahne was an unfortunate recipient.”
