Katherine Legge was the first woman in racing history to attempt the vaunted double at the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600. She was actually more successful than Kyle Larson.
The numbers do not lie!
Although it was not the day that she had hoped, the 45-year-old female race car driver finished more total laps than the most recent attempts from her male counterpart. Legge should be proud of the effort.
Katherine Legge attempted the double.
Legge, who set the record for the fastest qualifying effort for a woman at the Indianapolis 500 in 2023, became the first woman to race in both the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 in the same day on Sunday. She was hoping to complete 1,100 miles on two different tracks in two different states in less than ~12 hours.
“I don’t want to be like the first woman, because at the end of the day, I always say I just want to be a race car driver. It doesn’t matter whether I’m Black, White, female, male, whatever it may be. I think I’m probably getting the opportunity to do this because I’m female, so that does not escape me, and I’m very grateful for it. I think being the first to do anything is cool. Being one of the very few who gets to attempt to race at Indy and at Charlotte and then do both on the same day, like looking back in 10, 20 years, like yeah.”
Legge ran practice at the Brickyard on Friday, flew down to Charlotte Motor Speedway for practice on Saturday, and then flew back to Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday night. She started 26th on Sunday morning, which was her best position on the grid in four previous Indy 500 starts.
Unfortunately, her first race of the day did not last long. Legge could not avoid contact when Ryan Hunter-Reay spun at the exit of Turn 2 and crashed out after only 17 laps. It would’ve been a lot worse if she did not swerve. We avoided disaster.
Catch a second look at the accident involving Ryan Hunter-Reay and Katherine Legge. pic.twitter.com/7ZmWfH9GY4
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) May 24, 2026
It was a huge bummer. She was “pissed.”
Katherine Legge is disappointed and says she needs an “attitude adjustment” before NASCAR tonight because she’s pissed off right now. pic.twitter.com/gBHoFJ95xt
— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) May 24, 2026
And then Katherine Legge flew down to Charlotte for her second race of the day.
The cross-series driver started 37th at the Coca-Cola 600. She ultimately finished in 31st, about 12 laps down. One of her tires got loose. It forced her to limp back to the pit on only three wheels.
Here is a look at the 78 team’s pit stop just a few moments before:
Caution is out as Katherine Legge had a right front wheel fall off of her car. This was the 78 team's pit stop from before that occurred
— Steven Taranto (@STaranto92) May 25, 2026
The first half of the Coke 600 had gone fairly trouble-free for Legge. A decided improvement from her unfortunately short Indy 500 pic.twitter.com/YB8wVHkyb2
It was not the day that Legge or her team had hoped.
She was still extremely grateful for the opportunity.
Kyle Larson completed less total laps at the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600.
John Andretti, Tony Stewart, Robby Gordon, Kurt Busch and Kyle Larson were the only other drivers in history to attempt the double. Katherine Legge was the sixth.
She actually did much better in her first attempt than both of Larson’s two attempts.
Legge ran 17 laps at the Indy 500 and 361 laps at the Coca-Cola 600 for a total of 585 miles between the two races. Again, it was not what she had hoped. The goal was to go all 1,100 miles (even though the NASCAR race finished 27 laps short due to rain).
“That was kind of a calamity of errors. At the end of the day, I don’t think I made too many mistakes so there’s positives to take from it too.”
My the numbers, Legge out-paced Larson. Larson never got in the car at the Coca-Cola 600 during his first attempt at the double in 2024. And then crashed out of the Indy 500 on Lap 92 in 2025 and later crashed out of the Coca-Cola 600 after 245 laps.
Do the math! Katherine Legge completed more total laps in her first attempt at the double than Larson in both of his attempts. The numbers don’t lie.