{"id":36257,"date":"2025-07-31T06:32:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T06:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/36257\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T06:32:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T06:32:10","slug":"katherine-legge-continues-nascar-progress-with-impressive-indy-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/36257\/","title":{"rendered":"Katherine Legge continues NASCAR progress with impressive Indy run"},"content":{"rendered":"

SPEEDWAY, Ind. \u2014 Katherine Legge garnered praise from the likes of Denny Hamlin and others after an impressive run in Sunday\u2019s Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo: Karl Zemlin\/IndyCar Media<\/p>\n

Katherine Legge stayed on the lead lap most of the day and finished 17th in double overtime of one of the crown jewel races of NASCAR.<\/p>\n

However, Legge\u2019s weekend didn\u2019t start that well. She practiced 4.3 seconds off the pace and qualifying 7.8 seconds off.<\/p>\n

In Legge\u2019s only other oval Cup race, her series debut at Phoenix Raceway, she had minimal practice with the NextGen car and learned the car on the fly. As a result, Legge spun multiple times in the race.<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo by Dominic Aragon\/TRE<\/p>\n

The final spin was a race-ending crash with top-10 contender Daniel Suarez that ultimately put a bad taste in the mouths of many who began to worry about her in the Brickyard 400 after seeing her struggle in practice and qualifying.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Legge did much better in the race. In fact, she stayed on the lead lap throughout the race. She even led briefly before pitting late in the race.<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo: Dominic Aragon\/TRE<\/p>\n

After pitting, Legge stayed on the lead lap. Eventually she went a lap down but she fought hard and received the free pass during a caution for rain with a few laps to go.<\/p>\n

After the timely caution, Legge geared up for overtime. During the second overtime attempt, she raced and passed drivers who usually outpace her, like Shane van Gisbergen and Chase Briscoe.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Legge finished 17th. She earned her best career finish in the NASCAR Cup Series and B.J. McLeod his best non-superspeedway oval lead-lap finish as a Cup team owner. McLeod\u2019s previous-best was 22nd, at Auto Club Speedway in February 2022 and Texas Motor Speedway in September 2023.<\/p>\n

NASCAR industry members gave praise to Legge, including Denny Hamlin who commented on her Brickyard 400 run. <\/p>\n

\u201cVery noteworthy. I mean, I just feel as though \u2014 wow \u2014 she is getting a lot out of that car. Now, in practice, I would\u2019ve said, \u2018Whoa. Holy cow. Danger, danger\u2019 you know? \u201978 car\u2019,\u201d Hamlin said.<\/p>\n

Hamlin acknowledged the lack of resources of the No. 78 team has in regard to how impressive Legge was at Indy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t have any testing or data or anything like that so when they hit the racetrack for the very first time, who knows where their travels are at? Are they hitting the track? Are they not? They\u2019re one of those teams that puts their thumb in the air and is like, \u2018I think we need to be here this weekend.\u2019,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cIt can\u2019t be stated how impressive she\u2019s been. Staying on the lead lap, it\u2019s not like she\u2019s been getting five lucky dogs and squeaking out finishes. She\u2019s staying on the lead lap at these race tracks and battling some of our better drivers with a car that\u2019s clearly not up to snuff..\u201d<\/p>\n

On social media, Legge then revealed she did it all with a failed cool suit. In essence, she had warm, near-scalding water hanging on her. Yet, she finished 11 positions better than her average finish coming into the race.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Katherine Legge reflected on the race on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.<\/p>\n

B.J. McLeod will have Legge in more races later this season.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"\"\t\t<\/p>\n

Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.<\/p>\n

A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.<\/p>\n

Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick’s final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen’s stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years \u2013 as well as up-and-coming drivers’ stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.<\/p>\n

Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPEEDWAY, Ind. \u2014 Katherine Legge garnered praise from the likes of Denny Hamlin and others after an impressive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-36257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}