Don't get all spun out over Katherine Legge's NASCAR Cup Series debut

Katherine Legge called her NASCAR Cup Series debut a "baptism of fire."

And the fire has continued in the days following her frustrating start at the one-mile Phoenix Raceway.

The 44-year-old Legge has competed in various forms of motorsports, from the Indianapolis 500 to Formula E to IMSA road racing. She had only four Xfinity starts and one ARCA start (where she got collected in a crash in the opening laps) as far as her main stock-car experience going into her Cup debut. 

She had a harmless spin in the opening laps at Phoenix but then spun on Lap 215, and Daniel Suarez crashed into her.

In his post-race vlog, Suarez said he didn’t have anything against Legge but questioned NASCAR’s approval process. He felt if anyone else was driving, they would have rolled to the bottom of the track instead of stopping more in the center of the track.

"I hope girls make it in this sport. There’s nothing wrong with her," Suarez said. "What is wrong is NASCAR. You cannot allow somebody with no experience to run in the Cup Series. Plain and simple. ... This is not a so slow place. I hit her and I was running 100 miles an hour, slowing down already."

Legge is approved in Cup for road courses and tracks that are one mile and shorter. This is typically NASCAR’s beginning approval classification for a driver who has at least some oval experience in another series but not much stock car experience. 

NASCAR approved Helio Castroneves for the Daytona 500 based on his significant INDYCAR resume, including four Indy 500 victories. He also had some familiarity with Daytona in the Rolex 24 and in the International Race of Champions Series a couple of decades ago. That particular series pitted drivers from various forms of motorsports into equally