{"id":681548,"date":"2026-05-20T09:01:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T09:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/681548\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T09:01:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T09:01:23","slug":"breaking-barriers-katherine-legge-set-to-attempt-the-double-indy-500-and-coca-cola-600-races-features","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/681548\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking Barriers, Katherine Legge set to attempt \u2018the double\u2019 Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 races | Features"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Breaking<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Photo by Lavdrim Mustafi, Pexels. <\/p>\n

In 1977, Janet Guthrie left her mark on the bricks as the first woman to race in the Indianapolis 500, finishing 29th before placing ninth the following year. With 11 Indy races under her belt, she marked a turning point in a sport which had been dominated by men for decades.<\/p>\n

Awarded the Landmark Award in 2024, her career consisted of NASCAR Cup Series, full female teams, and an induction in the International Women\u2019s Sports Hall of Fame. Guthrie began a legacy, one that didn\u2019t get surpassed until nearly three decades later by Danica Patrick, the first woman to win an IndyCar series race.<\/p>\n

Before Guthrie, women were excluded from racing or having pit access.<\/p>\n

But Guthrie wasn\u2019t a sidelines photographer, she wasn\u2019t a driver\u2019s wife, she wasn\u2019t handing out tickets\u2014Guthrie was a racer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since Guthrie\u2019s debut, only nine women have started the race.<\/p>\n

Katherine Legge<\/a> is one of these women, having begun her IndyCar career in 2006. Since her debut, she\u2019s qualified for four 500s. Before racing in the United States, this British driver was redefining the possibilities for women in the United Kingdom, competing in a variety of Formula series and exceeding expectations in open-wheel racing.<\/p>\n

After moving to North America, she became the first woman to win a major open-wheel race, alongside holding the women\u2019s record for the fastest qualifying effort in Indy 500 history.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, these accolades are not what\u2019s motivating Legge.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t want to just be a female driver for the sake of ticking a diversity box,\u201d Legge told\u00a0The Arizona Republic<\/a> last year, \u201cI want to be there on merit, and I want to be a good example for everybody that\u2019s coming up behind me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"More<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Fans at Indianapolis Motor Speedway cheer the drivers speaking at the Public Drivers Meeting on Legends Day in May 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo by Hannah Johnson, TheStatehouseFile.com.<\/p>\n

Now, during the 110th running of the Indy 500 on Sunday, May 24, Legge will not only be racing, but attempting to compete in NASCAR\u2019s Coca-Cola 600 on the same day\u2014a combined 1,100 miles in two different states back-to-back with vastly different racing styles.<\/p>\n

For long-time race fan and avid 500 Festival Mini-Marathon participant, Liz Miner, Legge\u2019s return to the Indianapolis track is a show of mental toughness you don\u2019t see every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows determination, resilience, and confidence at the highest level of motorsports,\u201d said Miner, \u201cIt\u2019s inspiring to see a woman continue to push boundaries in a sport that has traditionally been male dominated.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Legge, this isn\u2019t just about headlines, but a lifelong dream as she\u2019d be the sixth driver to ever compete in both races.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Logo by Sydney Byerly, TheStatehouseFile.com.<\/p>\n

Legge told\u00a0NASCAR.com<\/a> on May 15 that she had considered putting it off, to gain more NASCAR and IndyCar experience. However, she ultimately decided this is not an opportunity she easily could pass up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really cool that we can show all these young people, not just young women, that barriers can just be in your head and you can do it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t just fans ready to see what Legge can do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kyle Larson, the most recent driver to attempt this \u2018double,\u2019 has been open about his confidence and support.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think she\u2019s an amazing ambassador for the sport and especially women in racing,\u201d Larson told NASCAR.com<\/a>, \u201cI think with her experience, she will handle it all very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

This Memorial Day weekend, Legge will cross the same bricks Guthrie did nearly 50 years ago, just with an extra 600 miles under her belt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo by Lavdrim Mustafi, Pexels. In 1977, Janet Guthrie left her mark on the bricks as the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,133558,719,6973,3844,102772,19117,250104,138834,4386,250105,98541,634,82],"class_list":["post-681548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-coca-cola-600","tag-danica-patrick","tag-driver","tag-indianapolis","tag-indianapolis-500","tag-indycar-series","tag-janet-guthrie","tag-katherine-legge","tag-kyle-larson","tag-liz-miner","tag-memorial-day","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681548","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=681548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}