NASCAR’s latest race at Phoenix saw the highly anticipated debut of British female racer Katherine Legge. However, Legge’s first outing was anything but a dream, as her race ended early after she spun out in the middle of the track. Dale Earnhardt Jr., a NASCAR legend, blamed her subpar vehicle for her struggles on the track.
During her first NASCAR race, Legge seemed unsure of her car from the start. She began the race at a slower pace and spun early on but managed to recover quickly. The major setback came on Lap 215 when she lost control of her Next Gen car and spun out in the middle of the track. This led to Daniel Suárez crashing into her at high speed, taking her out of the race and severely damaging his own car.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Blames Bad Car for Katherine Legge’s Phoenix Mishap
Bringing up the topic during the “Dale Jr. Download” podcast, Earnhardt said, “I gotta say this, man. It does not help that she’s in such a poor car. It’s a poor car. She’s in a car that doesn’t do a lot of things right, and we don’t have any practice.
“The lack of practice and the problems that creates is glaring, and it’s in our face every other week. But we choose to ignore it because there’s a lot of drivers, namely guys that are in the top third of the field, that don’t need practice. They’d rather not have practice.”
What should have been a milestone in Legge’s motorsports career was overshadowed by an accident caused by a lack of practice and the limitations of her vehicle. In her own words, she called it her “baptism of fire.”
Earnhardt added, “I think that she absolutely gets the opportunity to come compete based off her experience. But she’s in a bad car that doesn’t do anything right. She doesn’t know what it needs to do. What I mean by that is when you get in a race car and a new car you really haven’t drove before, you really don’t know what it’s supposed to do.
“So she’s out there driving it going, ‘I don’t know whether it can do things better or not.’ They are at such a disadvantage because of her inexperience in the car, the lack of the car’s ability, and the lack of track time.”
Earnhardt stressed that NASCAR needs to do more to help debut drivers prepare for major events, possibly by increasing practice session lengths and providing more opportunities to adjust to the car.