$110M-worth Kevin Harvick demands ‘accountability’ after Katherine Legge’s inexperienced NASCAR Cup debut: “She was thrown to the wolves”

NASCAR legend Kevin Harvick recently commented about Katherine Legge’s NASCAR Cup Series debut at Phoenix Raceway. He voiced strong concerns about her maiden Cup outing, calling for accountability in how drivers from other racing series without NASCAR experience are approved to compete in the sport.

The 44-year-old Legge is a sports car race winner and former Indianapolis 500 starter. Driving the #78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet, she spun off on Lap 216 from 28th position last Sunday and collected Daniel Suarez to bring out the caution. She finished 30th in the 37-car field to become the eighth woman in NASCAR’s modern era to compete in the sport’s top-tier series.

In his latest episode of the “Happy Hour” podcast, Kevin Harvick discussed Legge’s Cup debut, stating she was put in an extremely difficult position. He pointed out that the British driver drove one of the worst cars without NextGen car experience and also mentioned the importance of ensuring drivers from non-NASCAR backgrounds are properly prepared before stepping into the Cup car.

Demanding accountability after Legge’s inexperienced Cup debut, the 2014 NASCAR Cup champion, who has a net worth of $110 million (according to Celebrity Net Worth), said:

“She was really thrown to the wolves in this situation. She's in the worst car, and she went up to Phoenix in a Cup car that she's never driven. Not a lot of NASCAR experience, and I know that we want people from different series to be able to come into the Cup Series.”

“But we've got to get back to some accountability of making sure that the people that are driving these cup cars are properly prepared to go out on the racetrack and do the things that they need to do.”

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Kevin Harvick believes that NextGen cars are hard to drive for other racing discipline drivers

Katherine Legge has had select starts in NASCAR before her Phoenix Cup debut, and Kevin Harvick feels that her struggles at Phoenix weren’t due to her lack of experience in stock cars but rather her lack of preparation and familiarity with NextGen cars.

Further in the podcast, Kevin Harvick discussed the challenges other racing discipline drivers face while transitioning to the NASCAR Cup Series.

Harvick said:

“These cup cars are hard to drive; you can't just let everybody drive it… On this particular day with somebody that wasn't properly prepared to be on the racetrack, not because of her experience or anything else, the Cup car is hard to drive, and you need some sort of stock car experience to just jump right into a Cup car and be ready for some of the things that happen in the car.”

With the recent failure of several other series drivers in NASCAR, it will be interesting to see if the governing body changes its approval process for these moving forward.