"I'm not from a wealthy family": Katherine Legge reveals hardships of climbing the motorsports ladder

Katherine Legge is a revered female driver in the motorsports world. The British driver revealed how she had to combat financial struggles in her junior racing career and how his family made sacrifices to help her pursue her racing dream.

Legge has raced in various championships over the years, including the elusive Indy 500 with Dale Coyne Racing last year. She made her NASCAR Cup Series debut in Phoenix a few weeks back.

Despite the 44-year-old often soaring headlines and having a knack for driving racecars, Legge's early climb in the motorsports ladder did not come off easily. Owing to her financial background, she did not have the best equipment in comparison to her rivals in the junior categories.

This urged her family to make sacrifices to help the young Briton continue on her racing dream, as Katherine Legge revealed (via NASCAR):

"If you've had it hard, and you've had to work for it, then you appreciate it more. And that's kind of been my story a little bit; I'm not from a wealthy family... he could not afford to put me with the best teams and the best equipment all the way through my career." (2:52 onwards)

"So we did what we could, and he gave up smoking to be able to pay for go-kart tires for me. Things like that, which is really cool," she added.

Legge's debut in Phoenix did not go as planned as she spun on lap 216 and came in the path of a charging Daniel Suarez, who ended her race prematurely.

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Katherine Legge reflected on her debut NASCAR Cup Series weekend

Katherine Legge at the NASCAR: ARCA Series - Practice - Source: USA Today

While the crash was a racing incident as Suarez tried to take evasive action, Katherine Legge did not have luck on her side as the two collided. Though some reckoned that the No. 78 car's rear happiness was usual due to her inexperience, the British driver later revealed how she was not comfortable with her car itself.

Opening up on her first venture behind a Cup Series car and how LFM's overnight changes to get her to grips with the car made matters worse, as she said (via X/@bobpockrass):

"It was really a rough start. We made some changes to the car overnight, and they were awful. I was hanging on like from the first stint, I was so loose, and then we kept making adjustments, so we kept making the car way more stable for me...I wish we hadn't made the changes, but we are trying to find some pace, and we found it around the race but it was a rough start."

On the other hand, Christopher Bell won his third race in succession at Phoenix and led the most laps of the 312-lap race.