Katherine Legge's eventful NASCAR Cup debut ends 100 laps shy of the finish

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Katherine Legge’s goal in her first-ever NASCAR Cup Series race was “to be respectful of the leaders and stay out of the way.” Driving the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet, she started from the rear of the 37-car field and planned to do just that.

Battling an unstable race car, the British racing driver spun early in the race, forcing the first caution flag to fly. Thankfully, she avoided both the outside and inside walls and managed to straighten the car out.

“Guys, sorry, I’m so tight,” she radioed to the team. “I have so much wheel in it that it got loose on exit.”

Katherine Legge, Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet

Photo by: Jonathan Bachman – Getty Images

After that, she quietly logged laps and steadily climbed up to 28th place in the running order. However, with just under 100 laps to go, she pushed up into the side of Josh Berry as he rapidly approached from the outside lane in Turn 2. The contact sent her spinning sideways down the backstretch in the same trouble spot as earlier. She locked it down, but unfortunatelyDaniel Suarez had nowhere to go but the side of the No. 78 Chevrolet, heavily damaging his car own while Legge suffered a broken left-rear toe-link.

Suarez managed to limp his way to a 23rd place finish, while Legge went to the garage for more extensive repairs. The team was unable to fix the car and her race came to a premature end after 210 of 312 laps.

Speaking to FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass after leaving the infield care center, she called the race “baptism of fire” and expressed a desire to run future Cup races. She explained how the team made changes overnight to the car that were the wrong direction, but they slowly got it closer to where it needed to be throughout the race.

Legge ended up finishing 30th in the high-attrition race, placing ahead of the seven drivers who were all eliminated in a separate mid-race pileup. She is officially the 17th woman in NASCAR history to compete in a Cup Series race.