CONCORD, N.C. (AP) — Katherine Legge arrived at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Coca-Cola 600 looking to salvage a disappointing day with a strong finish at NASCAR's longest race of the season.
Legge's quest to become the first woman to complete “The Double” — racing 1,100 miles spread out over two tracks on one day — ended quickly Sunday when she crashed out in the Indianapolis 500.
The English driver completed just 17 of the scheduled 200 laps at
Indianapolis Motor Speedway's iconic 2.5-mile oval before she ran into the car of Ryan Hunter-Reay, knocking both cars out of the race. Hunter-Reay started spinning in the second turn and braked hard to keep his car off the wall, and the trailing Legge steered inside to try to avoid the 2013 Indy 500 winner. But as smoke emerge from both braking cars, Legge's car hit the inside wall.
“I’m fine, just gutted more than anything,” she said after being checked and released at the track's infield medical center. “Ryan spun in front of me, I think he was battling his car for a minute, I was just chilling, trying to save fuel and he spun down the track and started coming up the track, so I tried to go low and just didn’t make it.”
She said she needed an “attitude adjustment” before flying to CMS.
Legge was the sixth driver ever to attempt “The Double,” paring the Indy 500 with NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 in North Carolina, but the only one to complete it is three-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart in 2001.
It's been a week full of bad luck for Legge. Her flight from New York to Indianapolis was delayed, causing her to miss Indy's annual media day. Then she had communications trouble in Friday's final 500 practice, and after flying to Charlotte on Saturday, Coca-Cola 600 qualifying was rained out.
“Hopefully, we get all of the travel woes out of the way now before the weekend, and this weekend goes smoothly,” Legge told The Associated Press on Thursday. “My management has been speaking with Kyle’s management about how to get the logistics sorted out, how they did it and we’re trying our best to copy and paste what they had and they’re just keeping me in the loop.”
Her fortunes briefly looked like they might have changed when the speedway dodged the predicted prerace rain, allowing the race to begin on time. Then came the tangle with Hunter-Reay, who was also was checked and released by IndyCar's medical team.
“It was super tough out there,” Hunter-Reay said. “The whole time I was trying to keep it off the wall. Just super disappointing. That’s the busiest I’ve been around here in 16 years. I was trying to keep it off the wall the whole time and finally, one of those wiggles didn't come back in Turn 2.”
At the 500, crashes and bad weather have been a theme in each of the last three “Double” attempts. A rain-delayed Indy start prevented two-time NASCAR champion Kyle Larson from making it to Charlotte in time for the start in 2024, and Larson crashed out of both races last year after another rain-delayed start in Indy.
But Legge was hoping to avoid all of it.
“She’ll stay here throughout,” her father, Derek Legge, said before the first race while texting from a golf cart outside her garage. “We’re keeping an eye on the weather. It might even be delayed here an hour at a time.”
By then, Legge’s car was already on the Brickyard as the sold-out grandstands filled in and hundreds of people surrounded the cars on the track.
The English driver started from the No. 26 spot, the middle of the ninth row, at Indy, where she drove for HMD Motorsports with A.J. Foyt Racing team.
The other five drivers who previously tried "The Double” had months to prepare, but Legge's teams didn't announce her attempt until last week. Since then, those behind the scenes helped Legge line up the helicopter ride she planned to take from the speedway to Indianapolis International Airport and the private jet that would take her to Charlotte.
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