INDIANAPOLIS — Veteran driver Katherine Legge has been entered by HMD Motorsports with AJ Foyt Racing for the one hundred and tenth Operating of the Indianapolis 500.
As the one lady entered on this 12 months’s 500-mile race, Legge continues a legacy that traces again to trailblazer Janet Guthrie — and uniquely, to four-time Indy 500 winner and crew proprietor A.J. Foyt.
Practically 50 years in the past in Could 1976, Guthrie fought to earn her place on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS). After going through skepticism and extraordinary scrutiny, Guthrie was given a pivotal alternative when A.J. Foyt allowed her to check one in every of his backup vehicles — a second extensively credited with altering perceptions of what girls might obtain in motorsport.
One 12 months later, Guthrie turned the primary lady to qualify for and compete within the Indy 500, the identical race through which Foyt gained his record-setting fourth 500. Now, in a full-circle second, Foyt’s crew will area Legge’s entry — marking a strong continuation of that legacy.
Legge is seeking to make her fifth Indy 500 begin within the No. 11 e.l.f. Cosmetics Chevrolet, after turning into simply the ninth lady to qualify for the race in 2012. In 2023, she turned the quickest lady to ever qualify for the race, posting a median velocity of 231.07 mph.
She stays one of the vital completed feminine drivers in international motorsport—together with being the primary lady to win a significant open-wheel race in North America, the primary to steer laps in Champ Automotive, and the primary to steer the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
“We labored extremely exhausting to be again at this 12 months’s Indianapolis 500, and I don’t take a single second of it without any consideration,” Legge stated. “I’m past grateful to e.l.f. Cosmetics for believing that girls should take up area in each enviornment—together with this one. Collectively, we’re proving that while you put money into a girl’s dream, there’s no restrict to what she will obtain. It actually appears like Christmas being again on the 500.
“Each time I return, I acquire a deeper appreciation for what it takes—not simply to compete right here, however to earn the chance to be right here within the first place. I’m reminded that I’m a small a part of this enormously storied occasion. To the AJ Foyt Racing group, HMD, Chevrolet, IndyCar, and my crew at BRANDed Administration—thanks for preventing tirelessly to make this potential.”
The British driver enters the 2026 race following a 2025 marketing campaign in NASCAR, the place she turned the primary lady to qualify for a NASCAR Cup Sequence race since Danica Patrick’s 2012 debut, and the primary lady in seven years to begin a Cup race.
Throughout 14 occasions spanning ARCA, the Xfinity Sequence (now O’Reilly), and the Cup Sequence, Legge recorded two top-20 finishes on the Cup degree and the very best ending place amongst rookie drivers in her debut race.
Foyt’s partnership with HMD Motorsports started in 2025 within the junior system ranks, fielding a number of entries within the Indy NXT by Firestone championship. Since getting into the sequence in 2019, HMD has established itself as a powerhouse program—incomes a crew championship, two driver titles, a number of Rookie of the 12 months honors, and advancing a number of drivers to the NTT IndyCar Sequence.
“AJ Foyt Racing has at all times been about giving racers an actual shot,” stated Larry Foyt, president of A.J. Foyt Racing. “The collaboration with our companions at HMD and e.l.f. Cosmetics has helped deliver this program to the grid. Katherine has earned this chance, and we’re dedicated to giving her a powerful, aggressive platform.”
