NTT INDYCAR SERIES NEWS CONFERENCE

May 22, 2026

Katherine Legge

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: As mentioned, great to have Katherine Legge with us, driver of the No. 11 e.l.f. Cosmetics Chevrolet for HMD Motorsports with AJ Foyt Racing, starts 26th on Sunday, fifth Indianapolis 500 for her. Final practice. Katherine, what did you think?

KATHERINE LEGGE: Have I got time to think?

THE MODERATOR: No, you don't. It's the month of May.

KATHERINE LEGGE: I think this week has been getting everything bad luck-wise out of the way early. We had a disaster traveling back from New York City. It took us like a day and a half. Then this morning's practice was -- if it could have gone wrong, it did go wrong.

Hopefully now we know, and we're in the clear travel-wise, car-wise, all the things. Get it out of the way today.

THE MODERATOR: Absolutely. Open it up for questions for Katherine.

Q. Katherine, I'll just ask about Kyle Busch. Wanted to know just how much you maybe got to know him over the last couple years you've been doing NASCAR?

KATHERINE LEGGE: I am devastated for Sam and the kids. You know, he and Samantha were two of the nicest drivers to me, welcoming me to the series. A lot of the drivers don't even say hi, but they kind of -- they took the time to get to know me and give me some help and advice, and I would class them as friends now.

So it's desperately sad. It's also one of those things where you try not to think about it or let it in because you've got so much to do, you can't let yourself get emotional. But honestly, racing has lost one of the greatest drivers, in my opinion, of all time. If you look back at the history and just -- you know, he was a legend. I think there's a lot of shock regarding it because he was so young and so healthy.

It's almost unbelievable, right? Like it just bangs home the fact that life is so unfair.

Q. Asking about Sunday, weather seems up in the air at both tracks you're supposed to race at. How much is that kind of consuming your mind over the next 48 hours about how everything could be shifted at both places?

KATHERINE LEGGE: You know what, I look at it, and I'm like: Don't look. Then don't go down that rabbit hole. It's changing all the time. So I'm trying to be like what will be will be and be relaxed about it. But it doesn't look great at the moment, I have to say.

I don't know what happens then, like it's out of our control. If it's bad at both places, do both get delayed and then the same amount? Does it get moved to Monday? Does it still count as doing the double if you do one race on Sunday and one race on Monday?

There's so many things that you have to just like put to the side and go it doesn't matter. It will be what it will be. I'll do my best with whatever situation is thrown at us, a bit like the last couple of days trying to get back from New York.

Q. Obviously with your travel woes, with the forecast, all the stuff you're saying, you're trying to filter a lot out. What do you let in as you're trying to process the day that you have ahead of you?

KATHERINE LEGGE: That's a good question. I don't know, I just keep telling myself, don't be grumpy, don't get grumpy. Everybody's working incredibly hard, and I have to remember how lucky I am and how grateful I am to be here, because I am.

So when all of these things keep coming in, you have to remember the positives, which is like I'm here. Like okay, we were stuck on the runway for 2 1/2 hours and we had a sinkhole, and we had all these things, but hey, I'm still going back to Indy to drive the Indy 500, right?

So you have to keep everything in, I guess, perspective. It's weird, though, because when you're trying to be numb to that, you're also numb to kind of the positives in what you let in. So you try not to be on the roller coaster of, yeah, it's awesome, and then, oh, no, the clutch isn't working or whatever it may be. Try to be kind of level-headed about it all and let it run off you like water off a duck's back.

It's not easy. It's come with years of practice.

Q. Guys like Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch, who have done this before, have talked about what went into their preparation for it. Like Tony Stewart collapsed on pit road when he -- after the 600.

KATHERINE LEGGE: Did he? Don't tell me that.

Q. Yeah, he was fine. He was fine.

THE MODERATOR: We need good vibes here for Katherine.

Q. Kurt Busch talked about getting IV fluids in between the 500 and 600. What's gone into your preparation for this race?

KATHERINE LEGGE: I've been drinking a lot of this new sports drink called Rip It, and I'm hoping it will get me through. In all reality, nothing different. I have spoken to a few people about what I should be hydrating with in regards to like electrolytes and IVs and things like that. So I'm going to do an IV when I finish the 500 in the plane on the way to the 600. I might need one after the 600. I don't know, I hope I don't collapse.

My biggest concern is how to get enough calories because it's probably 2,500 calories just doing Indy, maybe more, and it's another 3,000 calories plus in Charlotte. Which is a lot of energy that you're expending that you need to put back in. So I have Jim Leo who's given me a bunch of gels and bars and stuff like that and things I can eat.

I have to force myself to eat on the plane because once you get out of a race car after 500 miles, you don't want to eat. You feel sick. It's hot. It's brutal. You don't want to mess your stomach up. I'm thinking can I eat in the car during the 500? Someone told me that Tony did, but then he got protein bar all over his gloves, so that didn't work out so well for him.

So we were thinking maybe baby food. When I did Ironman a years ago, I did sweet potato mashed up in a bag, which is almost like baby food. So something that doesn't mess your stomach up. There's been a lot of thought into the actual day, and I've been trying things throughout the week.

With regard to fitness, I've not done much the last couple of weeks because we've been so busy. So I'm hoping that me training year-round is going to carry me through.

Q. One more. Now for the 500, you've had multiple days of multiple hours of practice, but with the 600 tomorrow, you're only going to have 25 minutes of practice.

KATHERINE LEGGE: Maybe.

Q. And that's assuming the weather cooperates.

KATHERINE LEGGE: Maybe, yeah.

Q. What challenge does that present you?

KATHERINE LEGGE: I am praying to all of the weather gods at the moment that we get practice. I desperately need practice in the Cup car. It's going to be my second mile and a half, I think, and maybe my fifth or sixth Cup start. I do not want to turn into turn one after the green without having driven Charlotte in a car I don't know that well.

So there is a concern that it will rain tomorrow, and if practice and qualifying gets rained out, I've been frantically asking everybody, okay, what happens then? Can we run practice on Sunday? It would be the O'Reilly race on Sunday instead. So they said no.

Yeah, it's less than ideal. Obviously that doesn't fill me with warm and fuzzies, but again, it is what it is. We committed to doing this thing, and we're not going to not do it because I don't feel ready. I mean, it's too late for that.

Q. Obviously a lot of people are going to be spending the next couple of days preparing for the race, whether it's strategy or what they do at the start, et cetera. As you said, you've got limited time for NASCAR and have to focus on that. How do you balance preparing for this race the last couple of days but also focus on what you're doing for Charlotte?

KATHERINE LEGGE: It's been quite a bit hectic with all the travel woes, honestly. I wanted to sit down and watch last year's 600 and last year's 500 and switch between the two and get my head in the game and spend time with my engineers. I haven't had that luxury, so it feels like we're on our back foot a little bit.

In all honesty, it's not that much to do in Charlotte. I would have loved the opportunity to go over there and drive the sim again in preparation. Unfortunately, again, with travel and everything else, that didn't happen. So we will do our best, and I don't know when I'm going to get the chance now because we've got a pretty packed schedule.

I'll figure it out. It's either that or sleeping. It's preparation or sleep. So there's got to be a compromise in there somewhere.

THE MODERATOR: Hopefully it's smooth sailing from here on out for you. Thanks for coming out. Good luck this weekend.

After the pit stop competition, hopefully there is one, weather permitting, we'll bring out the champion team. That will be the next opportunity news conference-wise here a little bit later this afternoon.