Katherine Legge is too busy breaking barriers to worry about what her haters have to say.
Legge, 44, will be behind the wheel of the e.l.f. Cosmetics No. 32 Chevy at the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ BetMGM 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday, May 24. In March, Legge became the first woman driver in a NASCAR Cup series race since Danica Patrick retired in 2018.
In a sport that continues to be dominated by men, the British driver exclusively told Us Weekly that she’s not interested in fitting into any boxes.
“If you’re a certain way to somebody, that says more about them than it does about you,” she said. “As you get older, you just kind of accept it and you don’t care anymore. It’s not really my problem if if you think I’m wearing too much mascara.”
During her transition from IndyCar to NASCAR, Legge said not all of the other drivers on the circuit have been overly hospitable.
“Most of them don’t know me,” she explained. “It’s been a very mixed bag of who’s reached out, who’s been kind, who’s not been so kind. I don’t know, I think, maybe, it’s just the insecure ones that are not really nice.”
When it comes to the lack of women in motorsports, Legge explained that it’s simply because “it hasn’t happened successfully before.”
“I think people are reluctant to see change,” she acknowledged. “But if I was out there winning all the time, then maybe people would be like, ‘OK, the girls can do it.’ I think you have to see it to believe it to a certain extent. Hopefully the more people that can break through that outer shell to be part of it and are tough enough to stick with it to learn and progress, then I think you’ll see times changing.”
While Legge admits to being at the forefront of that change, she said the burden of it is “not on my mind” as much as you might think.
“I just want to be the best race car driver I can be,” Legge explained. “I don’t care what the race car driver looks like. The car doesn’t know the difference.”
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She continued, “I’m not immune to the responsibility because you do have a lot of young girls who come up to you at the racetrack who look up to you. So, you have that in the background. I want to honor that and I don’t want to play into the fact that I’m female. I want to do it the professional, proper way and be seen as a legit race car driver.”
To further benefit her young fans, Legge recently published a children’s book called “Kat’s Magic Helmet.”
“I want it to inspire the next generation and it be the story of the things that I went through,” Legge said of the book. “I was really shy as a kid. I got bullied some of the time in racing and there was a whole underlying story I wanted to share to help the young people of tomorrow.”
“Kat’s Magic Helmet” is available now. The NASCAR Xfinity Series’ BetMGM 300 airs live Saturday, May 24 at 4:30 p.m. ET on The CW.
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