Katherine Legge talks about NASCAR the way some people talk about skydiving, mountain climbing, or adopting a pet tiger.
It’s terrifying. Slightly irrational. Probably unhealthy.
And she absolutely cannot wait to do it again.
Legge returned to Watkins Glen this weekend for her first NASCAR Cup Series start of the season, climbing back into the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet at a track she genuinely adores. Which is fortunate, because Watkins Glen in the rain feels a bit like trying to wrestle a shopping cart down a water slide while somebody throws firecrackers at you.
Naturally, she seemed thrilled about the whole thing.
“I really wanted to make a career in NASCAR,” Legge said Saturday. “I loved last year so much, and the challenge and the driving the car and the people.”
That’s the fascinating thing about Legge’s NASCAR adventure. This isn’t some celebrity cameo or bucket-list exercise. She talks about stock car racing with the obsession of somebody who accidentally discovered a new addiction and has fully accepted there’s no cure.
Which is remarkable considering she has already driven practically everything on earth with four wheels and an engine.
Sports cars. IndyCar. Endurance racing. IMSA. The Indianapolis 500.
And yet NASCAR — chaotic, bruising, gloriously unrefined NASCAR — is the thing currently keeping her awake at night.
“I have this newfound passion for NASCAR,” she admitted. “It’s the thing that makes me want to get up in the morning.”
Of course, Watkins Glen also happens to be one of the few places on the schedule where Legge arrives with decades of experience. She’s raced sports cars there for years and speaks about the track less like a racetrack and more like an old friend with entertaining stories and questionable habits.
She loves the history. Loves the old road course stories. Loves hiking the gorge nearby. Basically, if Watkins Glen sold souvenir dirt in mason jars, she’d probably buy three.
But don’t mistake familiarity for comfort.
Legge made it very clear Saturday that driving a NASCAR Cup car around Watkins Glen bears almost no resemblance to driving an IMSA car there.
“A lot of people say the Next Gen car drives like a GT3 car,” she said. “It doesn’t, at all.”
According to Legge, the Cup car moves around more, has far less downforce, and generally behaves with the elegance of a refrigerator being kicked down a staircase compared to the precision of a GT machine.
Still, she wants more of it.
A lot more.
Legge openly discussed her desire to continue building a NASCAR career, ideally running Cup, O’Reilly and even Trucks whenever opportunities arise. She even admitted she’d love to attempt “The Double” someday — racing both the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend.
Which, frankly, sounds like the sort of idea somebody invents after dehydration and heatstroke.
Legge even joked she might “need a psychiatrist” after climbing back into an IndyCar recently and wondering why she continues signing up for things that could rearrange her internal organs at 230 mph.
But underneath the humor sits a driver who genuinely believes she hasn’t reached her ceiling in stock cars yet.
“I feel like I haven’t shown my potential yet,” she said. “And I want to.”
The challenge Sunday, however, will be substantial. Legge qualified 38th and will start dead last in the field, meaning her return to NASCAR Cup competition will involve spending much of the afternoon trying to survive traffic while wrestling a notoriously difficult car around one of America’s fastest road courses.
Then again, judging by the way she talks about NASCAR these days, that probably sounds less like a problem and more like exactly the sort of madness she was hoping for.
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.