In 2025, many NASCAR drivers smashed preconceived notions. Bubba Wallace, a 23XI Racing star, had heralded a difficult reputation for the past few years. However, he overturned fans’ perception with a jaw-dropping Brickyard 400 victory. Then, Ryan Preece rebounded from a miserable 2024 season to score some of the best finishes as a Ford driver. Similarly, Katherine Legge clenched her teeth to show the fans just how capable she is in the sport.

In taking up this challenge, the 45-year-old British racer also unearthed some bitter truths about NASCAR. In place since 1949, the stock car racing series is one of a kind. The reasons can be wheeling heavy stock cars, traditional oval racing, etc. But some of the reasons are not so pleasant as they seem from the surface, as Legge revealed.

Katherine Legge shows the harsh side of the sport

Having almost two decades of experience in racing, Katherine Legge knows a thing or two. She found success in sports cars, competing in multiple endurance classics, such as the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring. Legge also has experience in IndyCar, having made four career Indy 500 starts (2012, 2013, 2023, and 2024). Despite her expansive resume in other disciplines, Legge found NASCAR to be a different kettle of fish. Here, drivers power through 36 weekends of racing in a year, turning over long laps and hours in 3,400-pound stock cars. That is just the start, as drivers also consistently put up brilliance without which they would lose sponsorship and team faith.

In a recent episode of ‘Stacking Pennies’, Katherine Legge divulged some harsh truths about the sport. At first, the Live Fast Motorsports driver broached the extreme levels of competition. She compared NASCAR to other disciplines: “I think people realize it’s one of the most competitive championships in the world purely because of the strength in numbers. You can look at IndyCar, IMSA…there’s like 12-14 really good drivers there, and there’s like 20 really good drivers here…Then you look at Cup, if you’re not really good, it spits you out really fast. So there’s 35 really, really good drivers in the Cup Series.”

 

The grueling competition is accompanied by a grueling schedule. Katherine Legge undertook a part-time routine in 2025, entering select races since her debut in Phoenix. However, watching her peers rigorously perform every weekend makes her shudder: “Being on the outside looking in, one of the things was, ‘Holy crap. You guys race every single weekend, like how do you do that? How do you keep the motivation and not get completely burnt out?” Then Legge also smashed misconceptions about NASCAR’s garages. “I don’t think we all realize what happens behind the scenes. You have multiple cars, you have multiple teams, you have people back at the shop…I think the perception was that it wasn’t very technologically advanced…Then coming over here and realizing all the hanging of the body and how intricate that is, and how complicated it is to get through tech.”

While Katherine Legge proceeds to adapt to the unique challenges of NASCAR, she maintains her own discipline.

Taking care of essentials

Well, Katherine Legge took care of one essential thing in her NASCAR stint. That was to prove her doubters wrong. After Legge’s crashes affected Daniel Suarez during the Phoenix race, she received misogynist-fueled death threats and hate mail. But Legge has remained strong, enjoying the technical challenges involved with learning NASCAR racing. That is what resulted in her grabbing a pair of top ten finishes for the first time as a woman since Danica Patrick did in 2018. She finished 19th in the Chicago Street Race, and wheeled the No. 78 Chevrolet to a 17th-place finish in Indianapolis, beating heavyweights like Shane van Gisbergen and Chase Briscoe. While maintaining excellence on the track, Legge does not forget her homely routine.

Katherine Legge navigates this new experience by staying healthy—mentally and physically. Her support system involves her diet, training schedule, and self-care practices. She said in a recent interview with InStyle: “It’s things like taking your makeup off at night, it’s important. It’s easy to be so overwhelmed by all these new challenges that you don’t keep focus on all the little things that got you here, and then you just have to be incredibly disciplined about all the auxiliary stuff as well.” Legge added, “I make sure that I put the creams on my face that I want to, and the retinol and all the things. The little things add up to big things when it comes to self-care.”

Overall, Katherine Legge is preparing to face the final part of her 2025 NASCAR schedule this weekend. Let us see how she performs at Richmond Raceway.