Bob Pockrass
FOX Motorsports Insider
LAS VEGAS — When commenting on the NASCAR approval process over the last week, almost every driver added a caveat: It’s not about Katherine Legge.
They said it out of respect for Legge’s lengthy career and racing resume. Those advocating for change after Legge’s two-spin Cup debut at Phoenix a week ago were advocating for it out of respect for their quest to be NASCAR Cup Series champions.
NASCAR approved the 44-year-old Legge to run road courses and ovals one mile or shorter on the basis of her INDYCAR experience, which includes four Indy 500s and seven races in the series last year. Also considered were her extensive sports-car experience and recent Daytona ARCA experience.
She spun twice at Phoenix, including once into Daniel Suarez, which ruined his day.
The incident brought NASCAR’s approval process for Cup into the spotlight.
“I believe that I’m one of the best racing drivers in a stock car in the world,” Suarez said Saturday. “And if I want to run Formula 1 tomorrow or Formula 2, I can’t. I’m not qualified to do that.
“And I shouldn’t. … I believe that the process to allow somebody to run in the Cup Series should be a little bit harder for respect to the driver that is trying, to respect the fans and to respect the drivers and teams that are running full time because we work very hard to get into silly accidents like the one from last week.”
Suarez had a right to be angry, said three-time Cup champion Joey Logano.
“I would consider Phoenix a fairly high-speed oval. know it’s only a mile, but you’re carrying some good speed around there, and there’s a lot of potential to get in trouble,” Logano said. “And, we’ve seen two cautions last week that unfortunately ruined Suarez’s day and not his fault. If I was him, I’d be very upset. Very upset.
“What do you do?”
That’s the question. Legge called Suarez this week and Suarez feels NASCAR is to blame for putting drivers who come from other disciplines in a bad position on ovals with limited practice time.
“She got set for failure,” Suarez said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a great driver or a bad driver. If you are thrown in one of the most difficult series in the world to be competitive, is just not fair.
“That’s the way I saw it. I was more disappointed in NASCAR than her. And I mentioned that to her, and I hope that she gets another opportunity. … It’s nothing wrong with her, just the process. The process has to be so much better.”
Suarez considers approval for road courses totally different than ovals. That was proven by his teammate Shane van Gisbergen, who in 2023 won his Cup debut in his first NASCAR race of any kind as the three-time Supercars champion captured the victory at the inaugural Chicago street race.
To get approved to race, van Gisbergen said he had to do a test day at the Charlotte road course with NASCAR’s Brett Bodine observing him. Bodine used to handle the NASCAR approval process, but that is now done by Chad Little. Both are former drivers, as is Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer, who has input on decisions.
Kyle Busch advocated for current drivers to be part of the process.
“Being an owner [previously] in the Truck Series and seeing some young drivers get opportunities at different tracks versus my drivers that I was trying to get them opportunities at some of those same tracks getting denied — I was very confused, and probably I’m even more confused now on how it all works,” Busch said.
“I think it’s broken. There’s a lot of work that could be done to make it better. I also do feel as though it shouldn’t be ‘suit and ties’ making the decisions. … I do feel like there needs to be [drivers who wear] firesuits involved in some of those decision-making processes on those that need to be approved or not approved for various activities.”
NASCAR wouldn’t approve Mike Wallace for the Daytona 500 (on the two-and-a-half-mile Daytona International Speedway) because he had not raced in several years despite him being a solid restrictor-plate racer in his day. They did approve Casey Mears, who has also not raced in several years, for tracks mile-and-a-half and shorter. And Mears will return to Cup racing later this month at Martinsville.
As far as Daytona, NASCAR approved four-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves for the 500, and he had a rough weekend.
“He is a rock star and I believe that he could not have prepared better himself for the Daytona 500,” Suarez said. “He had a test. He had simulator time. He got months of preparation. The ARCA race, the duels.
“And if you ask me, once he was in the Daytona 500, he still had a lot to learn, … If you ask me, ‘Hey, do you think Helio was 100 percent ready?’ I don’t think so, even though he’s a world-class driver.”
The difference in equipment also can’t be ignored. Castroneves was driving for Trackhouse, one of the top teams in NASCAR. Legge was driving for the part-time Live Fast Racing.
“I feel bad for Katherine because I told Kyle Larson at the drivers’ meeting, ‘How impressive is it? She’s only a second off in that [underfunded] car and never running in this type of series,'” Denny Hamlin said.
“That’s really, really, really impressive. … But it does open eyes and it should open eyes to NASCAR that we’re not very strict in who gets to run Cup cars. It should be the most elite series and you shouldn’t be able to come in whenever you want.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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