Katherine Legge’s NASCAR Cup Series race in Mexico City on June 15, 2025, was one wild ride. The British racing vet, a seasoned pro from Champ Car, DTM, IMSA, and Formula E, was holding her own in the top 20 at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez when a freak issue hit.

The blistering heat inside her cockpit melted her racing shoe’s sole, gluing it to the throttle pedal. Radio chatter with her crew captured the chaos, with Legge saying it was “literally fused to the pedal.”

Her team pinned the problem on poor insulation around the pedal box, which warped the rubber. They freed her foot mid-race, but the damage was done, and compromised control of the car dropped her to 32nd. Five laps behind the winner, Shane van Gisbergen.

That wild race didn’t dampen Legge’s love for NASCAR’s raw energy. In an exclusive chat with EssentiallySports, she summed up what makes stock car racing stand out in five words: “Mortal Kombat on the track.”

Katherine Legge’s Love for NASCAR’s Raw, Burly Soul

In a sit-down with the team, Legge couldn’t stop raving about NASCAR’s unique vibe. “I love it so much. I was talking to Linton James about it… during the weekend and she’s like ‘Why do you love it so much?’ and she’s like ‘The cars there are big and burly and nasty’ and I am like Exactly. Exactly that. Everything that I love about Car Racing, it’s like a stock car version of the champ car,” she said.

Having raced featherweight Champ Cars at 1,550 pounds with loads of downforce and telemetry, Legge’s no stranger to precision. But NASCAR’s 3,200-pound beasts? They’re a different animal, bouncing through corners, rolling like tanks, and demanding a wrestling match to keep in check.

With a career built on high-tech machinery, Legge found NASCAR’s gritty, physical challenge a refreshing throwback. The heavy, unpolished stock cars, grueling heat, and lack of driver aids hooked her, even after a tough first race. It’s a world apart from the polished rides she’s used to, and she’s all in for the fight.

She went on to add, “You have to wrestle it, it’s not refined and some of the sports cars and prototypes that I have driven are very technologically advanced and they are very refined then you have to be really smooth and really precise and it’s tiny inputs and it’s all about what buttons you’re pushing and all the things whereas this there is no buttons, there is no pit lane speed limit button, there’s basically you and a H pattern gearbox in the Xfinity car or a sequential one in the cup car. And the race track and the tires go off, and it gets hot and it just feels like you’re racing, it feels like what racing used to feel back in the day. It’s just special!”

Her IMSA days driving tech-heavy rides like the Acura NSX GT3 and DeltaWing leaned on traction control and paddle shifters. NASCAR’s Next Gen cars, with their 5-speed sequential transmission since 2022, ditch those aids for raw driver input. NASCAR’s all about feel, not tech. There’s no push-button pit limiter; drivers gauge pit lane speed with RPM, spotters, and instinct. Xfinity’s old-school H-pattern 4-speed gearbox demands heel-toe shifters and manual rev-matching, a rarity in modern racing. Even Cup’s sequential box requires muscle, unlike F1’s automated paddles. Goodyear’s tires, built to wear out, force drivers to nurse grip, especially on road courses like Mexico City.

The heat’s brutal. Cockpit temps hit 120°F, pushing drivers to the brink of exhaustion, as Legge’s melted shoe proved. Open-wheel stars like Juan Pablo Montoya and Jenson Button have called NASCAR’s physicality a shock, and Legge’s right there with them.

Legge will have her work cut out for the Chicago Street Race

With seven Xfinity Series and five Cup Series races scheduled for 2025, Legge is looking to experience the thrill of NASCAR racing. But so far, she hasn’t been able to enjoy her time piloting the stock cars. Last weekend in Atlanta, Legge was looking to find her footing, but instead, she was mired in the Big One in the Xfinity Series race.

“I was having so much fun and I can’t catch a break,” she said after the crash. However, with a street course race next in Chicago, Legge is optimistic about turning the tide around. “My first race in North America was in Long Beach, and I won that one. I’m looking forward to seeing what Chicago is all about because I’ve never raced there.” But before Legge can navigate the twists and turns in the Windy City, she will need to clear the qualifying rounds.

A total of 41 entries are being listed for the Cup Series race in Chicago. Will Brown, Austin Hill, Josh Bilicki, Corey Heim, and Katherine Legge make up for the five open entries, and the field is going to set for 40 cars. 36 spots for the chartered entries and four open cars will make up the field. So one of the open drivers will have to head home without running a single lap this Sunday.