Female NASCAR driver Katherine Legge has admitted she is still struggling to be taken seriously by some in the sport.
Legge was the only female driver to race in the Cup Series in 2025 - the first female driver to do so since Danica Patrick in 2018.
However, despite that being progress, the British racer admits that sometimes she is avoided by those behind the scenes due to the sport remaining somewhat of a 'boys club'.
Legge: NASCAR still a boys club to some
"I’m still learning. I’ve got people who don’t call me directly," Legge explained on her Throttle Therapy podcast.
"They’ll call my sponsor or whoever and talk to them, because it’s still a boys’ club to them.
"I want to be taken seriously, like talk to me. I’m the one doing the deal."
Discussing the sexism she faces further, Legge revealed that she had once been told she was 'difficult' to deal with, something she feels would not have necessarily been said to a male in the same scenario.
"When I was at a conference for Droplight, one of my main sponsors, they said somebody had told them in the IndyCar paddock that I was difficult to deal with," Legge continued. "Difficult? I don’t think that I’m difficult.
"Then it got me thinking, okay, as a woman, if you’re hard, then you’re a b****. If you’re a bloke and you’re driving around in a race car, you’re just dedicated, and you know what you want."
Disgusting death threats
Unfortunately, it isn't just with sponsors that Legge faces these challenges, with NASCAR fans having hit her with vile abuse after she was involved in multiple wrecks earlier this season.
Faced with social media abuse and death threats, Legge said the following back in April: "First of all, I want to say that being a woman racing in NASCAR, it comes with an incredible sense of pride, and obviously, it comes with a level of scrutiny and harassment.
"Let me be very clear," she added. "I'm here to race and I'm here to compete and I won't tolerate any of these threats to my safety or to my dignity, whether that's on track or off of it."
Women facing abuse in male-dominated spaces
"The level of hate that myself and my team are experiencing at the moment is part of a broader issue that I believe women specifically face in male-dominated spaces," Legge explained.
"The FIA, the sport's [motorsport's] governing body, has come out with a document about it because its so bad in Europe and around the rest of the world as well, it's not just a USA thing.
"We can't normalize this issue, in my opinion. There's nothing normal about it. It's totally unacceptable.
"I have earned my seat on that race track. I've worked just as hard as any of the other drivers out there, and I've been racing professionally for the last 20 years.
"I'm 100% sure that the OEMs and the teams that employed me, without me bringing any sponsorship money for the majority of that 20 years, did not do so as a DEI hire, or a gimmick, or anything else.
"It's because I can drive a race car."
