Katherine Legge will be the only woman on the grid when the 110th Indianapolis 500 rolls off on May 24, driving a Chevrolet-powered No. 11 entry stitched together from three very different racing operations. The deal, announced April 27, pairs AJ Foyt Racing with INDY NXT powerhouse HMD Motorsports and adds technical support from Team Penske for good measure.
It’s a patchwork effort, and that’s precisely what makes it interesting.
Legge, 44, has scraped and clawed her way into five Indy 500 fields now, and each time the path looks different. This year she swaps Honda power for Chevrolet, leaves behind the teams she’s previously run with, and lands under the tent of a Foyt operation that has been quietly rebuilding relevance through its junior formula partnership with HMD. That INDY NXT collaboration already produced a win this season when Alessandro de Tullio took the checkered flag at Barber Motorsports Park in March.
The money side tells its own story. E.l.f. Cosmetics returns as primary sponsor, a relationship that has followed Legge across multiple teams and series. The new wrinkle is what Racer.com described as “significant backing” from General Motors, a corporate investment that aligns neatly with Chevy’s push to maintain grid strength against Honda heading into a pivotal era for IndyCar’s engine formula.
Legge’s Indy résumé is modest on paper. Her best finish remains 22nd, set during her rookie outing in 2012. Last year, a mechanical failure parked her after just 22 laps.
But the raw speed has always been there. In 2023, she posted the fastest single-lap qualifying speed ever recorded by a woman at Indianapolis — 231.627 mph — and backed it up with a four-lap average of 231.070. She is one of only nine women to have ever raced in the 500.
The team structure around her this time is unusually layered. HMD Motorsports, led by president Mike Maurini, has built its reputation developing young talent in the ladder series, not preparing cars for the biggest race on the planet. AJ Foyt Racing carries decades of Brickyard history but has struggled to consistently challenge at the front of the IndyCar grid. And then there’s the Penske technical alliance, a lifeline that could make or break this program’s competitiveness during practice and qualifying.
Three organizations. Three different skill sets. One car.
Larry Foyt framed the arrangement as a natural extension of what’s already working in INDY NXT. “We’ve already seen what this partnership can do,” he said, citing poles and wins on the junior side. Maurini called it “something very special” and emphasized the assembled experience.
With 33 entries confirmed and no additional cars expected, Legge won’t face Bump Day drama. That removes one layer of stress from a month that generates plenty of it. Practice opens May 12 on the 2.5-mile oval, giving the cobbled-together team roughly two weeks to find speed and reliability before qualifying.
The broader picture is hard to ignore. Legge remains the sole female driver in this year’s field, a reality that has become numbingly familiar. Danica Patrick’s retirement in 2018 left a void that no pipeline has filled. Legge keeps showing up not because the doors are open but because she keeps kicking them down, one sponsor deal and one technical partnership at a time.
Whether the Foyt-HMD-Penske combination gives her equipment capable of a strong result is the open question. The pieces are there on paper. The Brickyard has a long history of rewarding unlikely alliances and an equally long history of exposing them.
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