“They set her up for failure”: Bubba Wallace’s spotter pulls no punches on NASCAR’s controversial Katherine Legge call

British motorsports athlete Katherine Legge made history after appearing in the NASCAR Cup Series Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix Raceway last Sunday. She became the first woman since Danica Patrick (the 2018 Daytona 500) to compete in a Cup Series rce. Recently, 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace's spotter, Freddie Kraft, made his candid feelings known on NASCAR's decision to allow Legge to run the race despite her brief career in stock car racing.

Legge's last appearance in NASCAR was in this year's Ride the Dente 200 at Daytona International Speedway, where she piloted the #23 Chevrolet for Sigma Performance Services. Before that, the four-time IMSA race winner had competed in 5 Xfinity Series races (four in 2018 and one in 2023), where she secured a career-best P14 finish in the Johnsonville 180 at Road America.

Recently, veteran spotter Freddie Kraft expressed his thoughts on NASCAR's decision that put Katherine Legge in a position to not 'succeed.' (via YouTube channel Door Bumper Clear):

"Katherine (Legge) made her mistakes, whatever it is, I'm not going to harp on her because I feel like they put her in a position where she wasn't going to succeed you know, they set her up for failure because she should have never been approved to run this race," said Kraft. [42:40 onwards]

"She ran two stock car ovals in her career. One of them she was eight laps down at Richmond in 2018 and the other, one she ran three laps at Daytona, the show we just had in February. So for me, how does that possibly qualify you to run in the premier stock car series in the world?" he added.

The debate has now reportedly extended to NASCAR’s new Owner Exemption Provisional (OEP) rule. The key question being raised is how a veteran like Mike Wallace, with nearly 200 Cup Series starts, was denied a Daytona 500 entry, while Katherine Legge was allowed to make her Cup Series debut despite her limited stock car racing experience.

Katherine Legge voices frustration over ‘awful’ car in Cup debut: “I wish we hadn’t made the changes”

Katherine Legge piloted the #78 Chevrolet for Live Fast Motorsports in the Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix. Although she faced issues early on, the British driver recovered before spinning off early in stage three. However, this time, Cup Series driver Daniel Suarez crashed into her Chevy, ending her day at Phoenix.

Following the end of the race, Legge, who has previously raced in several motorsport disciplines, made her feelings known on her Cup Series debut driving an 'awful' car that went through last-minute changes.

"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," Katherine Legge told Bob Pockrass' X.

Meanwhile, the Cup Series will return to Las Vegas Motor Speedway this coming Sunday for the Pennzoil 400. Catch the race live on FOX Sports 1, PRN, and SiriusXM's NASCAR channel