The numbers behind Katherine Legge’s Double Duty attempt

Photo by Brad Barmore on Unsplash

There are few challenges quite like the Indy 500. For a driver to stand any chance of joining the embossed faces of previous winners on the Borg-Warner Trophy, they must have their wits about them for 500 miles, across 200 laps, around the two-and-a-half-mile rectangular circuit which features 9.2-degree banking in each of its four turns, racing in speeds comfortably in excess of 220mph.

It is a challenge few are called for and even fewer succeed in — and even fewer choose to add to that challenge by trying to compete in NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 as well later that day.

Between 1994 and 2004, and then from 2011 to the present day when the schedules align just right, only five drivers had attempted what is known as Double Duty. This year, Britain’s Katherine Legge will become the sixth, as well as the first woman and first non-American, to join that list.

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And as if racing 1,100 miles in one day for a total of around seven hours in two entirely different motorsport disciplines is not enough, there is also the small matter of trying to make what would be a near-on 580-mile, nine-and-a-half-hour trip by road from Indianapolis Motor Speedway to Charlotte Motor Speedway via a combination of helicopters, private jet and golf buggies between one finishing and the other starting.

“It’s a problem that’s above my pay-grade, luckily,” Legge told Fox Sports when asked about the planning which goes into a Double Duty attempt.

“The logistics of going from the chequered flag [at Indianapolis] to a golf cart, to a helicopter, to a plane, to a helicopter, to a golf cart, to drivers’ introductions and getting in the car [at Charlotte] is like a military operation.

“You have to have it down to minute-by-minute. I will just go where they tell me to go.

“I’m just really enjoying the opportunity to drive as many difference race-cars as I can.”

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For the first 50 years of its existence, the Indy 500 had Memorial Day to itself. Then, in 1961, NASCAR inaugurated the World 600, with both being scheduled for roughly the same day and time from 1974 onwards.

Yet the installation of floodlights at Charlotte coupled with the desire from fans for the race to start later in an effort to avoid the often-oppressive North Carolina heat saw the start time for what had become one of stock-car racing’s crown jewels bumped back to 6pm opened the window for the brave — or maybe foolhardy — to tackle a unique endurance feat.

John Andretti, nephew of former Indy 500 winner and 1978 Formula One world champion Mario Andretti, was the first to attempt the feat in 1994. He finished 10th at Indy, but dropped out after 220 laps at Charlotte due to engine failure.

Of the other four, only four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart has managed to complete the full 1,100-mile distance — doing so on his second attempt in 2001 when he finished sixth in the Indy 500 and on the podium in the Coca-Cola 600.

Only fellow open-wheel-turned-stock car racer Robby Gordon has come close to matching that on the one of his five attempts which was not hampered by rain delays, missing out by one lap in 2002 after suffering from handling problems and leg cramp in the Charlotte leg en route to a 16th-place finish, having come home sixth at Indy.

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Former NASCAR Cup Series champion Kurt Busch equalled both Stewart and Gordon in finishing sixth in the Indy 500 in 2014, but suffered a mid-race engine failure. Kyle Larson, meanwhile, suffered due to rain at both Indianapolis and Charlotte in 2024, and then earned a dubious place in history last year by recording the first Double Duty DNF.

Assuming no rain delays or red flags this coming weekend, Legge’s attempt will start when the flag drops for the 110th running of the Indianapolis 500 at 12pm EDT and finish around three-and-a-half hours later.

From there, the Guildford racer will be taken from the pits to a helicopter waiting in the infield area and then be flown to Indianapolis International Airport, where a private jet will be waiting to take off at 4.30pm.

While making the 430-mile, 55-minute flight, Legge will be checked over by a doctor and administered IV fluids. Then, on landing, she will have to quickly get changed and take another helicopter to Charlotte Motor Speedway.

All being well, she will then be ready to start from the back of the grid in the №78 Live Fast Motorsports car when the green flag waves at Charlotte at 6pm EDT and finishing four hours later after 400 laps of the 1.5-mile quad oval speedway which has 24-degree banking in the turns and five degrees on the straights.

The fact only Stewart has managed to complete the full distance of 1,100 miles in one day shows just how much is out of the hands of anyone attempting Double Duty, yet Legge remains undeterred.

“I don’t think an opportunity like this comes around more than once, so of course I jumped at it,” Legge, who has qualified the №11 AJ Foyt Racing car on the ninth row of the grid for her fifth appearance in the self-styled ‘Greatest Spectacle in Racing’ said.

“I was very grateful just to be back at the Indy 500 — not many people get to do this race.

“Just to be able to do this is incredible, but to be able to do both on the same day is kind of crazy.

“But it’s also awesome.”