One driver showed true grit in NASCAR’s 2025 season. No, it was not a usual American male who had risen through the ranks of stock car racing since childhood. It was instead a British female driver who had little idea about NASCAR or stock cars. And yet she bravely faced a grid filled with experienced veterans and carved out a name for herself. She is none other than Katherine Legge.

The 45-year-old veteran racer enlisted in 7 Cup Series starts throughout the 2025 NASCAR season. Ranging from disappointing lows to groundbreaking good results, Katherine Legge’s schedule was a medley of experiences. However, something common across all events – and it was particularly upsetting for Legge and other aspiring female racers.

Katherine Legge spills the beans on ‘boys’ exclusivity

Since its inception in 1949, NASCAR has always been male-dominated. The sprinkling of women racers over the decades has shown glimmers of hope, yet nothing has been groundbreaking. In fact, the exclusion of women is deep-rooted, as Katherine Legge recently divulged in a new episode of ‘Driven Minds with Josh Wise.’ “I’m still learning. I’ve got people who don’t call me directly; they’ll call my sponsor or whoever and talk to them, because it’s still a boys’ club to them. I want to be taken seriously, like, talk to me. I’m the one doing the deal.”

Over 2025, the roadblocks on Katherine Legge’s journey have not been few. On her Cup Series debut for Live Fast Motorsports at Phoenix Raceway, Legge’s No. 78 Chevy contacted Daniel Suarez’s car, ending the Trackhouse Racing driver’s chances. This sparked major controversy, which snowballed into a series of death threats and vulgar comments directed at Legge. She spoke up about this online abuse in late April, calling out all her anonymous detractors.

Katherine Legge finished remarkably at the Chicago Street Course with a 19th-place result. She improved that figure at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, finishing 17th at the prestigious Coca-Cola 600 race. Along with her 6 starts in the Xfinity Series, Legge truly showed doubting fans that she is worth a great deal. Nevertheless, the challenges did not cease there, as people also did not like her getting serious.

Katherine Legge continued that imitating her hard-nosed male teammates also did not fall in favor with some people. “When I was at a conference for Droplight, one of my main sponsors, they said somebody had told them in the IndyCar paddock that I was difficult to deal with. Difficult? I don’t think that I’m difficult. Then it got me thinking, okay. As a woman, if you’re hard, then you’re a bitch. If you’re a bloke and you’re driving around in a race car, you’re just dedicated, and you know what you want.”

Evidently, being a woman in the motorsports world is hard. Yet resilient stars like Katherine Legge are dedicated no matter what. So is another female driver in NASCAR.

Taking the challenges in stride

Katherine Legge competed in NASCAR as a part-time driver. There was another female driver who competed as a full-time driver in 2025. That was none other than Toni Breidinger, who drove the No. 5 Toyota for Tricon Garage in the Craftsman Trucks Series. In her first full-time effort, she posted two top-20 finishes and 13 top-25 efforts. Her best result of 18th came at Rockingham Speedway. Breidinger could not help but admit to the mountain of differences between her ARCA Menards career, where she collected 27 top ten finishes, and her novel Trucks entry.

“I didn’t really know what to expect, but I think it was more of a learning curve than what I was probably anticipating,” she said. Nevertheless, the transition from ARCA to Trucks is helping her settle down more, as Toni Breidinger has set lofty goals. She continued, “One of the biggest things I learned is that there were a lot of challenges, and I think the way that I was able to overcome them and get back up and get back up stronger is something I’ll really take away into next season.”

Evidently, there is no dearth of women’s efforts to make waves in NASCAR. With 2026 rolling into view, let’s wait and see how our bold stars fare in new challenges.