The Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway wasn't initially a part of Katherine Legge's plans with Live Fast Motorsports for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, but a few weeks ago, that changed.
And despite her disastrous oval debut at Phoenix Raceway in March, NASCAR made the decision to let Legge drive the No. 78 Chevrolet in this coming Sunday's 160-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Speedway, Indiana oval.
Though often overlooked as a "backmarker" team, Live Fast Motorsports have had more success this year than they are used to.
Team owner B.J. McLeod finished in 16th place at Atlanta Motor Speedway last month, marking the team's third-best finish in their five-year history, and Legge followed it up with a career-best 19th on the street of Chicago, giving the No. 78 car its first ever back-to-back set of top 20 finishes.
Katherine Legge back for Brickyard 400
While her 31st place finish at Sonoma Raceway the following weekend was nothing to write home about, similar to her 32nd place effort in her first career road course start at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez a few weeks prior, she once again kept it clean to wrap up the team's first stretch of three consecutive weekend appearances since selling their charter after the 2023 season.
Now, after skipping this past weekend's race at Dover Motor Speedway, Legge and the team are set to return at a track shes knows well, having made a total of four Indy 500 starts from 2012 to 2024.
Unlike at Chicago, when Legge was actually a popular pick to miss the race since there were 41 cars (five non-chartered cars) on the entry list for the first time since 2018 (outside of the Daytona 500), the No. 78 Chevrolet is locked into Sunday's race, as there are just three non-chartered (open) cars on this weekend's entry list, excluding the six 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports entries.
The other two are the No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet, which is set to be driven by Jesse Love, and the No. 66 Garage 66 Ford, which is set to be driven by Josh Bilicki.
Beyond this weekend, Live Fast Motorsports currently have two planned starts lined up for both Legge and McLeod. Legge is set to return for the road course race at Watkins Glen International in two weeks, as well as the playoff road course race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval in October.
McLeod is set to return for the regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway next month, plus the playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway in October.
As for the Brickyard 400, live coverage is set to be provided by TNT Sports beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, July 27.