As a NASCAR veteran, Denny Hamlin was mightily impressed with how fast Katherine Legge was in qualifying for the Cup Series race in Phoenix last Sunday. She carried great speed despite having no prior experience in the Next Gen car.
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However, Hamlin is also aware that it is not a healthy practice to let such rookies debut in the Cup Series out of the blue. Legge struggled to handle her Live Fast Motorsports Next Gen car during the race and crashed out on Lap 215.
Daniel Suarez, originally set for a top-10 finish, was caught up in her spin and suffered extensive damage to his day. The outcome has led many to question NASCAR’s driver approval process over the week.
Following the likes of Kevin Harvick and Kyle Larson, Hamlin delivered his thoughts. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver said in Las Vegas, “I hate it for her. It’s probably not fair to her that she is getting the brunt of all the scrutiny. But it does open eyes. It should open eyes because NASCAR is like, ‘We are not very strict in who gets to run a Cup [Series] car.'”
Denny Hamlin, whose 23XI Racing team has brought in drivers from other disciplines to Cup, on the driver approval process and what had impressed him in practice about what Katherine Legge was doing. @NASCARONFOX pic.twitter.com/8EBk9AQ1Gz
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) March 15, 2025
He contended that people shouldn’t be able to just come in and race whenever they want in what is the most elite stock car racing series. He pondered on the idea of having a test for drivers with no stock car experience.
But then, he met himself with the counter-thought of who would pay for such a test. At the end of the day, he just wants things to be a tad bit more stringent.
“She got set for failure!”
Suarez was the driver most affected by Legge’s debut effort. His solid performance resulted in a lowly 23rd-place finish. However, he was mature enough not to blame Legge for the incident and lashed out against NASCAR for allowing her to race in the first place. Coming to Vegas for Sunday’s race, his opinion remained unchanged.
He told the press, “I was mad at the situation, and I believe that she got set for failure. It doesn’t matter if you’re a great driver or a bad driver. Regardless of that, if you are thrown into one of the most difficult series in the world to be competitive, it’s just not fair. That was the way I saw it.”
Suarez was also pleased that she made efforts to reach out to him and have the difficult conversation. Legge’s day in Phoenix might not have gone as she might have hoped it to. But every party had a strong lesson to take from it. Hopefully, she will gain more experience in stock cars and be back to racing in the Cup Series.
