Suárez Calls Out NASCAR Approval Process After Phoenix Run-In with Legge
Daniel Suárez was in a prime position to pick up his first top-10 finish of the season in last Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix Raceway, as he found himself in the sixth position as the race was beginning to draw to a close.
However, the good run came undone as Suárez suffered a crash after Katherine Legge, who was making her NASCAR Cup Series debut, spun out ahead of him after making contact with fifth-place runner Josh Berry. Legge's No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet remained in the high lane as the driver continued her spin, and as a result, Suárez had nowhere to go and collided with the left rear quarterpanel of her car.
The impact caused significant damage to Suárez's car, and ended the day for Legge.
After the contact with Legge, Suárez tore into lapped cars.
"[Expletive] lappers, man. That is unbelievable." Suárez stated in disappointment to his team on the in-car communication system as he attempted to make it back to pit road to receive repairs.
The frustration was palpable, and for good reason. Suárez, who was running inside the top-10 two races ago at Circuit of the Americas, clipped the dirt in Turn 19, which sent him spinning. Suárez's day would come to an end after Connor Zilisch, who was making his NASCAR Cup Series debut, slammed into his spun-out No. 99 car, which was hidden in a cloud of smoke.
Sunday, at Phoenix, another good run was dashed. However, Suárez would soldier on at Phoenix to finish 23rd, but it was hardly a consolation prize as he was four laps off the pace. Aside from a 13th-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500, Suárez, who has had top-10 speed virtually every race this season, has had nothing but sub-20th-place finishes to show for his efforts.
In a make-or-break season, where he is on a one-year contract with Trackhouse Racing, Suárez is mired 29th in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings after four races.
While Suárez's initial frustration on the team radio was seemingly with Legge, his competitor, who was several laps down at the time of the crash, the driver expanded upon things in an off-the-cuff conversation in the eighth episode of his VLOG series on his YouTube channel.
In the vlog, the driver reiterates that he is a proponent of female racers getting chances in the NASCAR Cup Series. He just wants them to be prepared to do so when they get the opportunities. And it's in that spirit that Suárez indicated he was more frustrated with NASCAR, and its NASCAR Cup Series driver approval system than he was with Legge for the incident.
"Nothing against her, you know completely how I am. I hope girls can get into the sport, I hope. The problem is there's nothing wrong with her. What is wrong is NASCAR," Suárez explained. "They cannot allow somebody with no experience to run in the Cup Series, plain and simple. Plain and simple."
The 44-year-old Legge is a well-renowned racer in the IndyCar, and sportscar ranks, but prior to Sunday's race at Phoenix Raceway, her stock car racing experience consisted of just five NASCAR Xfinity Series starts, four of which came during the 2018 season, and a start in the 2025 ARCA Menards Series season-opener at Daytona International Speedway, which ended after a Lap 3 crash.
Suárez notes that the sanctioning body wouldn't approve a relatively inexperienced stock car driver for a NASCAR Cup Series debut at an intermediate track like this week's race venue, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he questions why they even allow a driver to make a NASCAR Cup Series debut at all without being properly experienced in the stock car ranks.
"You go to Las Vegas, to a fast track, it's [expletive] dangerous. You cannot do that. And then here, honestly, this is not a slow place. Like, I hit her, and I was running 100 miles-per-hour, slowing down already," Suárez stated.
In fairness to NASCAR, the driver approval system in the National Series Ranks has notably become more, and more stringent in recent years. Several drivers have been denied running events in several series, some of which would raise eyebrows. And Legge, had it not been for the race-ending crash, would have likely been rated as having an overall decent NASCAR Cup Series debut.
The racer found herself in a difficult situation of competing for a part-time "Open" entry, and at a track like Phoenix, where equipment is a very crucial component.
Not only that, but Legge didn't know she would be competing at Phoenix until 10 days before the event, and she had not had a chance to have any type of orientation testing in a Next Gen car prior to getting behind the wheel for NASCAR Cup Series practice last Friday.
All things considered, Legge competed about as admirably as could be expected given the circumstances attached to her debut race, but at the end of the day, like the 23rd-place finish he received, that is all of little consolation to Suárez.
Suárez, the driver of the No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet will look to right the ship on his 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season in Sunday's Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The native of Mexico City finished third at the track last Fall, which is his best career finish, to date, at the 1.5-mile speedway.
The NASCAR Cup Series Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is set for Sunday, March 16. The event will be televised on FS1, and broadcast coverage of the race will kick off at 3:30 PM ET (Click here for the full weekend viewing schedule).
Recommended Articles
Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.