September 30, 2025 • 40 mins
On this episode of Throttle Therapy, we stalked Katherine’s comments to answer all your burning questions. She shares the grossest aspects of being a race car driver, the details of her workout routine, and what she wants to be when she grows up.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Throttle Therapy with Catherine Legg is an iHeart women's sports
production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You
can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts. Hey you, guys, and welcome
(00:21):
to this week's episode of Throttle Therapy with Me Catherine.
And this week we're going to do something a little
bit different because I'm not racing until Vegas, and I'm
not sure we've even announced that I'm doing Vegas. So
here you are, folks, you heard it here first. I'll
be doing Vegas in a cup car with Desnuda Tequila
(00:43):
as the primary sponsor, and of course ELF on board
as well, very much looking forward to that. I am
going to North Carolina in a couple of days because
we've got a ton of meetings in advance of next
year and I've got to do this for Vegas. And
it's been a minute. It feels like I'm completely out
(01:04):
of touch with the racing world, even though it's only
been a couple of weeks. So I'm heading up there
hopefully to get a bunch of things sorted and do
some B to B and what kinds of fun stuff,
visit the NASCAR production facility, get merchandise sorted, you name it.
We're on it. So heading up there later this week,
and as such, I have no racing to talk about,
(01:25):
per se. We have some exciting interviews coming up. But Grace,
my wonderful producer, said that we had a lot of
questions come in on different forums about things that we're
doing on Throttle Therapy and about catherine everyday life, about
racing whatever. However, she has compiled a list of all
(01:46):
of your questions and we are going to do a
Q and A because I encourage you all to ask
questions and it would be remiss of me to then
not address them. So this week we are doing Questions
Answer with Catherine and Grace.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Hi, Catherine, Hi, Gracie. This is so exciting. I'm really
excited to.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Be on the pod. She's normally behind the scenes, folks,
and now she's front and center.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, look at us. Okay, so let's go to do
some of these questions. The first one is what are
the gross realities of being a driver that people don't
talk about?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Gross, isn't you?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I guess?
Speaker 1 (02:27):
So? Yeah, gross realities of being a driver. Okay, I
can tell you the first one that graces me out.
So boys are typically way worse. Obviously it is a generalization.
I am aware there are lots of very hygienic boys
out there, but for the most part, the teammates I've
had have not been. And you wear fireproof underwear, race suits,
(02:53):
et cetera, et cetera, and ballet clava and to me,
once I've worn a ballet clava once, it's dead. To me,
it needs to be washed, and it needs to be
like properly washed as well. I'm not talking like quickwashed.
I'm talking about all of my race gear goes through
like the extended high And I don't know whether this
(03:13):
is good for the fireproofness. Is that even a word
fire retardent abilities? I don't know how to say that,
but definitely grass me out that I have to put
a race warm ballet clover on my face, so I
never do that. Also, something I've not really ever talked
about is because you're wearing a ballet clava and a
(03:34):
helmet all the time, it destroys your hair. And so
I have a bit of a complex about having really
thin hair. And I'm sure convinced that wearing a helmet
all these years has been kind of going against growing
a thick mane. But yeah, most of the time, it's
how sweaty you are. And then when you get out
(03:55):
of the car and you've done a race and you
have to get on an airplane, you don't have time
for a shower. You're literally standing there. And I don't
think the boys do this either. But I have these
like giant size wipes, you know, like that you get
in the hospital, and I buy them in bulk on Amazon,
and so I like do an Italian shower and just
(04:17):
wipe myself down, and you've got like face wipes and
body wipes, and I just I feel like that's pretty gross.
I think also, I've never done this either, when you
have to go to the toilet in the race car.
I was very early in my career and I was
driving Champ car INDYCA for Jimmy Vassa, and he said,
you got to learn to let go, Like, how why
(04:41):
I'm never gonna need to But apparently if you crash
with a full bladder, it's really really dangerous. You can
rupture your organs get stepsist like it's a big deal.
So he told me that I had to learn how
to pee in a race car, and I have needed
to two or three times. Normally you're so sweaty you
don't need to, but on the two or three times
I've needed to, I've tried, and I cannot do it.
(05:03):
I have spent a lot of years training myself not
to be my pants, so to actually try and do
it when you're moving is I think it's impossible. But
I will say even more gross than that is when
you're a sports car racing and you're sharing a car and
therefore sharing a seat. A lot of times I have
(05:25):
had teammates who pee in the seat and don't have
a problem with it, and then you're getting in and
it's wet and disgusting, not just from their sweat, but
you're sitting literally in their sweaty pea, and you can't
think about it. Otherwise it would you never you never
race again?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Do you like I have to wear a diaper or
just like goes into the suit like a standard.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
It just goes in a suit and evaporates.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
I guess it is.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Hot, yeah, But then I feel really bad for the
crew guys as well, because they have the ones who
have to get it out and clean it up. Oh god,
that's what I could never That's why I always have
a safety pee before I get in the car, and
then I don't need to deal with it.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
That's insane. Are you able to put your suit just
like in a washing machine or how do you wash
a suit?
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I do a lot of drivers. They dry clean their
suits or have the teams do it. But I am
so particular about it because you know, if you wear
gym gear day in, day out, and even if you
wash it, it gets like a funk to it after
a while. Like I have all kinds of special detergents
and stain removers, and like I also have really sensitive skin.
(06:31):
I'm going to get so much stick for this podcast.
But I can't use some detergents. I have to use
other ones, Like I can't use some of the free
and clear ones either, And so I just do it
myself because I want to know that everything is done
the way I like it done, not that I'm OCD
or a control freak or anything. Cough coff.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
I would not have thought that you could just put
it in the washing machine, But that's sick.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I don't put it in the dryer. I hang out Okay,
got it, Which is why I get scared out of
my brain sometimes because I'll hang it in a doorway
so it's got air flow, you know, to dry it
quicker and make it not funky, and I'll get up
in the middle of the night and I'll see it
and I'll scare the naming daylights out on myself.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Oh you like, think it's a person.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
It's like a ghost.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Oh God, I can picture it. Which GTD or GT
three was the worst to drive?
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Ooh? Which GTD? I mean? It honestly depends on who
is the team and who's setting it up and who's
doing what we're and when. The Porsche was the most
unique in that you had to drive it differently to
the other GT three cars, like the NSX or the
Lambeau or the Ferrari. So I think I struggled the
(07:48):
most with the Porsche because it has a very small
window of getting it right. But they all they The
thing is they beop and for those of you who
don't know what BOP is, its balance of performance, not power.
So they make us all relatively the same lap time.
Although that is a job I would not want for
all the tea in China because you can never really
(08:10):
get it like race on race basis dead nuts, but
they try and make it even right. So some cars
have more talk, some cars a turbocharge, some cars have
more weight, some cars have more downfalls. You're never going
to get it exactly how you know to keep everybody happy,
because there's always going to be fast cars and slow cars,
and there's a lot of messing around the guys with that.
(08:31):
So I don't know when when you're fast because of
a good bop, the car could still be a bit
of a handful, but you're fast, and therefore you think, ah,
this car is great because we're p one. But I
would say the nuances the Porsche was probably mid engined
instead of being rear engined reil World drive. It was
(08:52):
just a little bit tricky to get the hangoff.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Over the course of your career so far, what's been
the greatest invention it's improved your life as a driver?
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Ooh. I will say the hands device came in pretty
early when I was go carding. I don't know whether
I did any car races without it. Maybe I did.
I'm aging myself right now, but that's obviously saved a
lot of lives. And was implemented after Dale Earnhardt. I know,
save for barrier, one safer barrier that has made impacts
(09:26):
and crashes. Touch wood as I'm touching my table a
lot more, a lot more palatable, a lot less rigid,
So that has to definitely be one of them. But
everything is moving forward at such like great rates. We
test everything in the race cars, so that in the
road car the development's already done. We have the crash
(09:47):
test dummies, so and that goes for everything, right, engine, power,
chassy stuff, air stuff. Like the OEMs implement what they
learn on the race teams, which is why racing is
so important to them, not just to advertise their wares
to the general public, but to develop stuff too. So
(10:07):
with that development, with that competition and development, comes a
lot of new ideas and a lot of safety stuff,
and it's it's getting better and better. Racing is inherently dangerous,
it always will be, you know, the risks that you're
taking going in. But I like, you know, the windscreen
in an IndyCar. I think that's relatively new and that's
(10:31):
obviously a good development for safety. So there's been so
many of them in the last couple of decades that
it would be hard to just call out a few
of them.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Is there anything that you want to be invented or
you wish existed?
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Good question. I don't know. I think the thing that
scares me most is fire, and so we wear a
lot of fireproof fire retardant stuff. But I think my
fear comes from back in the day when we use
ethanol fuel and you couldn't see it when it was
on fire. When it was burning, it was like a
(11:05):
clear haze. All you could see was the haze, and
from then it just I don't know, it just scared
me a lot. So maybe it would be really cool
if we had like no fire, no fuel that could
catch on fire or something like that. There you go, guys,
it's the next greatest thing you heard here first I
got it.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
So would you be interested in then, in like racing
electric cars? Not that those can't catch on fire.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
I have raced electric cars, Oh when those things can
bust by the way, they do catch on fire, and
it is by sure, sure, But it's funny because we
had to have a whole other safety training with the
Formula E stuff where you have to jump away from
the car because you can't be grounded because then you
get electric uted. Oh my god. So that's a whole
other thing to be scared of. But I mean, as
(11:52):
long as you follow the safety protocol with those, you
should be okay jumping away from the car. But yeah,
you see all these testas and and electric cars that
are reported on the news to just combust, and that's
still scary. I was at my spa a few months ago.
Now I'm one of the girls. BMW's just caught fire,
just decided to go up in flames, and nobody knows why,
(12:15):
obviously from the engine department, department compartment. And yeah, so
I was at Timeless Esthetics and in the car park
this BMW just spontaneously combusted and went up in flames.
And I think that's terrifying. I don't know why it happened.
(12:37):
And can you imagine being in it? No, it'd be awful.
So how do you feel about actually racing electric cars?
Does it feel different? It feels very different because it
takes away one of your senses. Oh so when you're
race an electric car, there's no noise, there's no engine noise. Ah,
so you hear is the world of the transmission, and
(12:57):
so it is bananas. You get used to it. You
have a lot of talk, so you have a lot
of power straight away, but it also uses a lot
of batteries. So when I first started racing electric cars, gosh,
I can't even remember, it must be like ten years ago.
We had to change cars mid race. So we did
like fifteen minutes on one car, and then we'd have
to jump out and jump into another car because, yeah,
(13:19):
because they didn't have the technology to be able to
do more than fifteen minutes going relatively slowly as well,
oh my god, because they're really heavy too. And now
obviously the technology has moved on and it's such where
they can do full length races, but they're still there's
still very much like fuel saving racism. By fuel, I
mean you're rejourning to the battery. You're a strategist as
(13:43):
much as anything else, and you've got all the bells
and whistles that you have to play with.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
We had some people ask when your merch store goes
back up?
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Okay, so merchandise is not an easy process if you
have to be licensed to buy the different entities. So
for example, the team NASCAR, you yourself are a licensed
entity and it's obviously across NASCAR and across the IndyCar
(14:19):
So I'm in the process of working all of that
out at the moment so that we have some really
cool stuff starting at the beginning of next year. It
will be at the track and it will be online,
and there won't be anything on my website until then
because I want it to be really cool and I
want people to love it, and I don't want to
(14:40):
half ask anything if I'm going to do it properly.
If I'm going to do it, I'm going to do
it properly. So it will probably be January and it
will be awesome.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
How much input do you get into the most design
A lot.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Well, as much as you want, so it can be
done by the teams, it can be done by the sponsor,
it can be done by you, it can be done
by NASCAR, it can be done by the companies that
produce the merch. So it's really as much or as
little as you want. I think it's more important than
(15:14):
just putting a name and a number on a T
shirt is to have something that's authentically you and that
you are proud of. So I am going to sit
with the folks at drop light, and we're going to
come up with some really cool design stuff that I'm
proud of and that I would want to buy myself. Therefore,
(15:36):
I would like my fans to have access.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
To Okay, So do you typically reach out to potential
sponsors or do they reach out to you sponsorship?
Speaker 1 (15:47):
The age old question, So both. When you are starting
out in your career, it is one of the hardest
things to do, and it is a numbers game, and
you have to send out proposal of proposal, and it's
more to do with who you know than what you know,
and it's more to do with how much value they
get than what it's costing you to race. And I
(16:11):
am not a salesperson in any way, shape or form.
So there are agents and agencies out there who do
try and find sponsorship on people's behalfs. The teams do too,
and really it just kind of happens through one of
those channels. So agents, yourself, who you know, teams, series,
(16:34):
et cetera, et cetera. I think again, it's more you
get introduced to somebody who introduces you to somebody else,
and that company thinks that it's a great idea to
put their name on the side of race car and
do B to B because sponsorship is not about how
many eyeballs. I mean, it is to a certain extent,
but it's more to do with the activation and the
(16:56):
B to B and the impact that you have. You
can put your name on the side of my racecar
for Vegas and nobody would give the monkeys. It would
get a certain number of eyeballs on TV unless you
are there and you're meeting people, and people know what
the product is and there's weekend in weekend out recognition
of that name. That's where the value comes. And so
(17:20):
to prove ROI to all the sponsors is a tricky
prospect when it's immeasurable in a lot of ways. You know,
for example, there's Neuded tequila being on my car, that's great.
A lot of people will go and buy Doesnuda because
they're like, oh, they sponsor NASCAR, they must be really cool.
They are go buy Dosnuda. But the same with Elf. Right,
(17:42):
a lot of people see Elf on the side of
my race car and they think that's really cool. I'm
going to buy ELF. But where you really get them
buying in is when you do stuff at the racetrack
and when you do stuff behind the scenes, and so
I'll do a big activation every year. Does Neuter doing
a ton of activations at the moment, And so when
it's like repeatedly seen in different places and it's on
(18:07):
the car, like you can do it once and get
forgotten about. If you're on the car every weekend or
every other weekend, or like ten times a year, then
it's that fan loyalty that you are building. It's also
about being at the track and meeting other people. So
does New to Concel tequila to Kroger for example, Right,
Like if the Kroger people are there on a car
(18:28):
and we're there on a car, and then they think
it's a great idea to put Disney drink Kroger. That's
kind of immeasurable as to how much impact you've had
that weekend through all the different channels. But it's sometimes good,
sometimes bad. There's a lot of there's a lot of value.
Especially in NASCAR, you have a lot of eyeballs, a
lot of people watch it, and racing fans tend to
(18:51):
be the most loyal. So they see a brand in
like Bubba Wallace has Columbia, for example, and they're going
skiing and they're like, oh, look Columbia because of Bubba,
then they are going to buy that over something else
because it's your favorite driver and they're a lot more loyal.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
What kind of qualities do you look for in a
sponsor when you're deciding who to work with?
Speaker 1 (19:16):
So money fair, I mean, there is a lot of
that that happens, especially early on in your career. You're
taking every opportunity that gets placed in front of you,
and it depends on which situation you are, Like, I
am not from money. I didn't have a opportunity with
(19:38):
a Penske, Organathi or somebody big early on in my career,
so I had to scramble and I had to scratch
and fight and do it all. So typically the teams
will have the sponsors and you'll be representing those sponsors
that the teams have. But if it's a sponsor that
is you that you're taking to a team like an
(19:59):
l then I think it's incredibly important that it is
a good fit and it's authentic because what you don't
want to do is it for it to be a
one hit wonder. So you don't want them to feel
like it did nothing for them, and you don't want
to feel like it's a product that you can't represent
because you don't know anything about it. Like it would
(20:21):
be like me trying to sell viagra. I mean that
might work. I don't know. That might be a good one. Actually,
now i'm thinking about it. That could be interesting because
everybody would laugh. But it's like Elf is very authentically
me because I use their products. I can relate to
their products. You know, drop Light have a bunch of
(20:42):
different companies underneath them that are very authentic. You got
Desnudat during tequila. Who doesn't Who doesn't love tequila? Got
I call water love love the electrolyte water. You've got
cool sign the watch is really cool, like plane inspired
arrow inspired watches. You've got coal plunge. You use a
(21:05):
cold plunge. So it's really easy then to be like,
this is super cool and if you're in the market
for X, Y and Z, then why not do this
as opposed to one of the other competitors. So I
think if you're looking at it and you get excited
about it yourself, then it is a win wind for everybody.
(21:26):
And if you don't if it's me trying to sell wheelbarrows,
I don't know, I don't know how excited I could
be about wheelbear actually, having said that, I did break
mine the other day, so maybe i'd be excited about it.
Who knows.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
What are you using a wheelbarrow for a little bit
of landscaping?
Speaker 1 (21:42):
I have a couple of days where I was trying
to get sorted around my house and my dad is
not here. I have a daddy to do list because
my dad's a builder, and so I have a list
laundry list of things that I like him to do.
And I haven't been racing, so he hasn't been out
to visit me's so I had to do it myself,
which is very depressing. I moved four tons of stone wheelbarrow. Yeah,
(22:06):
it's good work out.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Though, Oh my god, that's good.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
I like doing things myself. I like to feel like
empowered by being able to achieve these things myself rather
than getting somebody else in to do it. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I'm also very stubborn kind of. On that note, What
are your favorite lake activities?
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Oh, that's an easy one to talk about. So I
love living on the lake so much. It's my refuge,
it's my peace away from the races. Honestly, it can
be a little bleak in the winter because a lot
of people have seasonal property up here, and so there's
not that much to do when you can't be on
the water, although being in Georgia means that it doesn't
(22:46):
normally get that cold for very many days, and so
you can normally be on the water in some capacity.
I'm not don't. I don't spend that much time. I
probably average would say I get on the water maybe
twenty to thirty days out of the year. That's it.
But I love it. I have a bunch of toys.
(23:07):
I've got obviously, a wakesurft boat, jet skis, kayaks, a motorcycle,
and I just love you have motorcycles, Yeah, ride motorcycles,
do you what I love? Yeah, I'm very careful on
them if my mom is listening. And I just love
being in the woods in the mountains, on the lake.
(23:29):
I love wakesurfing. I honestly like floating. I like hanging
out on my dock with my friends, like I love
a good dock party. We move the fridge down there.
We just kind of like bob around the dock in
the water on the lily pad and cute then we'll
jet ski your pel computes and get a frozen ugarita
or something, and it's just it's super nice in the
(23:49):
summer to be able to do that.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Do you race on your jet ski?
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Not really me. I don't have anybody who wants to
race me. Unfortunately, otherwise I probably will.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
What do you think has been the fairest and least
fair criticism you received this season?
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Oh? All right. I think least fair was Rockingham when
I got taken out of Rockingham and I got the
blame for that by a lot of fans who obviously
didn't understand how passing works. And I think that was
because it was coming off the back of Phoenix, where
(24:38):
I spun and took out squares. And I think that
criticism was fair. I think it was harsh because I
think if you looked at the weekend as a whole,
we weren't slow. It was compared to a lot of
other drivers first time forays into Cup racing. I don't
think it was as bad as all that. I think
(25:00):
it was fine, apart from a couple of mistakes that
I made that were very public and disappointing. And I
still stand by the apology that I said to Daniel,
And you know, like, yes, that was fair ish, but
the rocky am one't absolutely not. I guess that's fair
and unfair. I guess we'll go with those two.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
There you go perfect. What is the fastest you ever driven?
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Fustest I've ever driven is probably Indy IndyCar two hundred
and forty something whilst an hour on the street.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
That's crazy. Does your neck hurt a lot?
Speaker 1 (25:33):
No, You are sandwiched inn there, so your neck is
padded out so that if you hit anything, obviously your
neck compbounds around, your head combounce around, so you don't
have to hold your head up through all those two forces.
You just kind of relax and let it lean. Although
I'm pretty sure nobody actually does that, and I'm pretty
sure we will hold our heads up. We're just used
(25:54):
to it.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
What part of your body gets hurt the most while
you're racing.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Back, probably depending on the seat. I've had comfortable seats,
and I've had uncomfortable seats, and I've had seats, especially
in sportscar racing when you're in the car for three hours.
My lower back when I'm in somebody else's seat was
like a little sore after the weekend. But I'm pretty
lucky and I'm pretty resilient, even after all these years.
(26:21):
I think you put your body through so much abuse
you kind of get used to it.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
That makes sense. I'man. I feel like everybody's back hurts
when they're driving for a while.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
This is just.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Obviously different, just a little bit different. Okay, what's dating
like as a race car driver?
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Dating is a race card driver is impossible? I don't know.
I'm talking from my own personal experience. I know a
lot of female drivers that are happily married and coupled up.
I don't know whether it's as a race car driver
or whether it's just individuals or not. But it's tough.
It's really tough because I eat sleepa racing like, racing
(27:02):
is life. Basically, I need to get that stick. Amy
didn't I and I decided a couple of years ago
that I am not dating anybody else. I'm racing ever
again because I did didn't end well for me, And
it's tough. It's tough because outside of racing, you have
(27:23):
to be in racing to understand racing, So you have
to have somebody that's very tolerant of you being away
every weekend and you being away with thousands of men
and you having a cooler job than they do. So
it takes like a really strong strong man to deal
(27:43):
with that. And then you know the fact that racing
comes first and everything is also tough. There are no
concessions made. It's not like, hey, babe, I've got this
Christmas party that I need to go and do. Are
you coming well? No, I've got this race to go
and do. Well. You can miss that one. No, you can't,
there's no way. Always amazes me how female drivers have
(28:03):
kids as well, because like then you have somebody else
that's dependent on you, and I just maybe I am
too single minded about racing. Maybe there's a happy medium,
but I really think that in order to be successful,
you do need to want that more than anything else
in your life. So you need to want it more
(28:23):
than you want to have kids, more than you want
to have a relationship. It has to be the singular
and most important thing. Otherwise you're leaving something on the
table because a lot of guys do. But I think
the guys have it easier. And the reason I think
the guys have it easier is because there's a lot
more support that comes from being a guy driver, and
(28:46):
you can have the You can have a wife that
takes care of everything at home, looks after the kids,
does everything for you. Like I want a wife, I
want somebody to take care of all the home stuff
for me. But then I would not I'm not attracted
to somebody who's not alpha male, so therefore I wouldn't
want somebody taken care of all of those things for
(29:07):
me because it'd be weird because I still want to
be the girl. So I know that delves into a
lot of issues with traditional roles, and I don't want
to go down that route and piss anybody off. But
I feel like I'm in this very weird space. It's
been honest, and I wonder what's going to happen when
I stop racing, because I wonder what kind of person
I will then morph into.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Yeah, what do you see yourself doing when you get
out of racing? When I grow up?
Speaker 1 (29:34):
When I grow up, I want to be I guess
I've trained myself over the years to be a bit
of an adrenaline junkie. Whether that was meant or I
think it was already intrinsically in me. But I think
I need to get my kicks somehow right, Like I
need that competition, I need that adrenaline. I need that
(29:54):
goal oriented like thing that drives me. I'm sorry, pun
non intended, and I spoke to Christina about this. Actually
I need to get that itch scratched. And so I
also want to leave a legacy and I want to
have had a positive impact because so many people have
helped me and I wouldn't be here without them, and
(30:19):
I feel like I need to do the same moving forward.
And so with Chevy and GM, we have identified a
few female drivers that we are going to help and
support and hopefully they can learn from my mistakes and
I can mentor them and walk them through this crazy
(30:41):
racing life and hopefully then hand over the baton to
them and then their success will feel like my success
and we can win together. So I think that would
be an important next step in my journey. Or I'm
going to hold up in my cabin in the woods
(31:01):
on the lake and just walk my dog every day.
I don't know one of the others.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
What is your dream car for daily driving?
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Dreamcar for daily driving would be the nine to eleven Tobo.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Yeah, that's my dad's My dad has that car really yeah,
lagoon green or something. I don't know. I'll send you
a photo.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Last couple ones are like about workout kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Cool. I can talk about working out all day, every day.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Perfect. What's your typical workout schedule slash routine?
Speaker 1 (31:33):
My typical workout has transitioned over the years. It's morphed
because when you first get into driving, you are not
conditioned for the abuse that your body takes and you're
making your way up through the ranks, especially on open
wheel because open wheel is the most physical, aggressive cars
that you can drive. So you have to literally have
(31:55):
somebody do a plan for you, like Jim Leo at Pitfit,
for example, who is spoken to on the pod, will
come up with two days that you need to go
and do in the gym to get your cardio where
it needs to be and to get your strength and
resilience to where it needs to be. So you spend
the first few years of your racing career doing that,
(32:17):
and then you get to the point where racing kind
of takes over and you are fit enough and strong
enough to drive the race card just purely by racing
right with a little bit less gym work a little
bit more maintenance. I would say that being strong and
fit enables you to take that out the equation and
(32:38):
you've got more capacity to endure. You also get used
to it, so you start off in racing where you're
doing twenty minute races, and then you build up and
then by the IndyCar Champ Card days you like two
three hours in the car, so it's kind of like
you step up into it. Then you get really bored
going to the gym all the time, and you find
(32:59):
things that you like to do a lot of driver's
cycle a lot I did. I got burnt out. I
haven't touched my bike for a couple of years, really
my mountain bike. I have my road bike, I haven't
And then I needed to find things to challenge myself.
So I decided to do an iron Man and see
whether I could do that. So the training for the
iron Man was also the endurance training that I needed
(33:21):
for racing. So it killed two birds of one stone
and it gave me a goal. I did that and
then I decided that was cool, great, but it wasn't.
I'm not a very strong swimmer and it wasn't for me.
I have run on and off, you know, three to
(33:42):
twelve miles a day, three to five times a week
since I was a teenager, and that for me is
the only thing that keeps weight off me is running.
If I don't run, I get chubby really quick. And
it's important as well to be light. But I have
found in more recent years I've run less and less
(34:04):
because it also running can like use muscle as well,
so you lose muscle by running it off. A couple
of years ago, I found CrossFit, and I love it
because it's a community and it's not racing orientated, but
it keeps me fit enough and strong enough. You have
to do things in the heat to be able to
(34:25):
take the heat, so I do a lot of stuff
outside to be able to drive the race cars. And
I live in Georgia, so in the summer that's really
easy to do because it's one hundred degrees and one
hundred percent humidity. But I do. I love CrossFit, so
I combine CrossFit and gym workouts and runs at the moment,
and I have done that for the last two or
three years. And I think it's easy to monitor how
(34:48):
you're doing because we have in body machines that measure
your body fat and your muscle mass, and you know,
you lose a couple of pounds of muscle mass and
it's the end of the world. And yeah, we were
all very competitive about how much body fat we've got
and how much muscle that we've got. And it's it's
good because it's also a little bit of competition. And
I know the things that I'm good at and the
(35:08):
things that I'm not good at. And there's some really
strong people in the gym, and I like the community aspect.
You know. I'm always on the go, though. I think
it's really important just to move. So whether that's wakesurfing
or mountain biking, or walking the dog or whatever. However
I they're skiing, there is hiking. There's never a dull moment,
(35:30):
and I think that that activity is one of the
most important things that people can do.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
What is your strongest left.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
So I've got a bum shoulder at the moment, and
I've got an MRI this week on it. I tore
my rotator cuff in two thousand and six, so twenty
years ago, and I never got it fixed because racing
and I've been able to deal with it, and so
sometimes it flares up, and sometimes it doesn't. I would
say bench was my strongest stuff. What do you bench
(36:03):
at the moment? Probably not much. I don't want to say.
I don't want to say because people will judge me
one way or another. No way, I would say, at
the moment, it's probably I'm terrible with lower body, like
my overhead squats, like with my shoulder. I was like
just with the bar saying my name's Jeff. Though, yeah,
(36:28):
I should absolutely do more flexibility work. And I have
a friend called Lauri who owns a bunch of yoga
and pilate studios in the area. And I need to
do it because I think it would help. But the
problem is like finding the time when you're working out
already at least once a day, sometimes twice a day,
five times a week or more like then to do
(36:49):
the flexibility stuff on top is sometimes hard. So sometimes
I'll go and I'll see all these you know, twenty
thirty something women doing their little pulses on the reform machine,
and there's me him. I'm there shaking. I'm like, come on,
let's see how much you can deadlift. I bet you
can't deadlift two hundred pound. Let's go straight up, straight up.
(37:11):
How do you work out on the road in between races?
A lot of times we don't, and a lot of
times if we have time or we go in early,
we will go and find a CrossFit gym, or we'll
go and find a Barrie's or a burn boot camp
or something like that. Like when I go up to Charlotte,
I'll alternate through a few things and try and do
(37:31):
it with friends and just try and mix it up
and make it interesting again, just so you're moving. It's
like the gains are made when you're home and when
you're you're in a routine, because routine is so tough
on the road, and eating is so tough on the
road as well, so nutrition as well. So I bring
a lot of my own food and snacks and try
(37:51):
and eat as clean as possible. But it's not easy.
I mean it's also not easy at the racetrack when
there's a lot of naught food and snacks that a
lot of the teams put out that are tempting you.
And as soon as you go down that road, it's
hard to bring yourself back. So you just have to
like not and just stick to the protein bars or
(38:12):
whatever it is that you bought with you. It's not easy,
but you get used to it.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
You did a cooking class in Nashville, right, I didn't,
what were you cooking?
Speaker 1 (38:21):
So in Nashville we were at a Disney DA event
and they had a professional chef there, Garrett, and he said,
what is a traditional English meal that your mum used
to make that gives you the warm fuzzies and sign?
And so I was thinking about it, and I was like,
bang is a mash? Let's do bang is a mash cute?
(38:44):
We did a lot of like English food gets a
bad rep. Let's be honest. I love it, obviously it does.
But everybody loved bang is a mash? So I think
it was a win win cute. Okay, Catherine, That's all
I got. So you guys, have you got any questions?
If you have, post them somewhere that we can see them,
(39:05):
where Grace can see them, so she can she can
put another compilation list. And if you like this episode,
let us know because we will do another Q and
A later on this year, and I will speak to
you all next week in advance of Hell Las a Vegas.
Thanks for listening to Throttle Therapy. We'll be back next
(39:26):
week with more updates and more overtakes, and we want
to hear from you. Leave us a review in Apple
Podcasts and tell us what you want to talk about.
It might just be the topic for our next show.
Throttle Therapy is hosted by Katherine Legg. Our executive producer
is Jesse Katz, and our supervising producer is Grace Fuse.
Listen to Throttle Therapy on America's number one podcast network, iHeart.
(39:50):
Open your free iHeart app and search throttle Therapy with
Katherine Legg and start listening
Throttle Therapy with Catherine Legg is an iHeart women's sports
production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You
can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts. Hey you, guys, and welcome
(00:21):
to this week's episode of Throttle Therapy with Me Catherine.
And this week we're going to do something a little
bit different because I'm not racing until Vegas, and I'm
not sure we've even announced that I'm doing Vegas. So
here you are, folks, you heard it here first. I'll
be doing Vegas in a cup car with Desnuda Tequila
(00:43):
as the primary sponsor, and of course ELF on board
as well, very much looking forward to that. I am
going to North Carolina in a couple of days because
we've got a ton of meetings in advance of next
year and I've got to do this for Vegas. And
it's been a minute. It feels like I'm completely out
(01:04):
of touch with the racing world, even though it's only
been a couple of weeks. So I'm heading up there
hopefully to get a bunch of things sorted and do
some B to B and what kinds of fun stuff,
visit the NASCAR production facility, get merchandise sorted, you name it.
We're on it. So heading up there later this week,
and as such, I have no racing to talk about,
(01:25):
per se. We have some exciting interviews coming up. But Grace,
my wonderful producer, said that we had a lot of
questions come in on different forums about things that we're
doing on Throttle Therapy and about catherine everyday life, about
racing whatever. However, she has compiled a list of all
(01:46):
of your questions and we are going to do a
Q and A because I encourage you all to ask
questions and it would be remiss of me to then
not address them. So this week we are doing Questions
Answer with Catherine and Grace.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Hi, Catherine, Hi, Gracie. This is so exciting. I'm really
excited to.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Be on the pod. She's normally behind the scenes, folks,
and now she's front and center.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, look at us. Okay, so let's go to do
some of these questions. The first one is what are
the gross realities of being a driver that people don't
talk about?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Gross, isn't you?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I guess?
Speaker 1 (02:27):
So? Yeah, gross realities of being a driver. Okay, I
can tell you the first one that graces me out.
So boys are typically way worse. Obviously it is a generalization.
I am aware there are lots of very hygienic boys
out there, but for the most part, the teammates I've
had have not been. And you wear fireproof underwear, race suits,
(02:53):
et cetera, et cetera, and ballet clava and to me,
once I've worn a ballet clava once, it's dead. To me,
it needs to be washed, and it needs to be
like properly washed as well. I'm not talking like quickwashed.
I'm talking about all of my race gear goes through
like the extended high And I don't know whether this
(03:13):
is good for the fireproofness. Is that even a word
fire retardent abilities? I don't know how to say that,
but definitely grass me out that I have to put
a race warm ballet clover on my face, so I
never do that. Also, something I've not really ever talked
about is because you're wearing a ballet clava and a
(03:34):
helmet all the time, it destroys your hair. And so
I have a bit of a complex about having really
thin hair. And I'm sure convinced that wearing a helmet
all these years has been kind of going against growing
a thick mane. But yeah, most of the time, it's
how sweaty you are. And then when you get out
(03:55):
of the car and you've done a race and you
have to get on an airplane, you don't have time
for a shower. You're literally standing there. And I don't
think the boys do this either. But I have these
like giant size wipes, you know, like that you get
in the hospital, and I buy them in bulk on Amazon,
and so I like do an Italian shower and just
(04:17):
wipe myself down, and you've got like face wipes and
body wipes, and I just I feel like that's pretty gross.
I think also, I've never done this either, when you
have to go to the toilet in the race car.
I was very early in my career and I was
driving Champ car INDYCA for Jimmy Vassa, and he said,
you got to learn to let go, Like, how why
(04:41):
I'm never gonna need to But apparently if you crash
with a full bladder, it's really really dangerous. You can
rupture your organs get stepsist like it's a big deal.
So he told me that I had to learn how
to pee in a race car, and I have needed
to two or three times. Normally you're so sweaty you
don't need to, but on the two or three times
I've needed to, I've tried, and I cannot do it.
(05:03):
I have spent a lot of years training myself not
to be my pants, so to actually try and do
it when you're moving is I think it's impossible. But
I will say even more gross than that is when
you're a sports car racing and you're sharing a car and
therefore sharing a seat. A lot of times I have
(05:25):
had teammates who pee in the seat and don't have
a problem with it, and then you're getting in and
it's wet and disgusting, not just from their sweat, but
you're sitting literally in their sweaty pea, and you can't
think about it. Otherwise it would you never you never
race again?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Do you like I have to wear a diaper or
just like goes into the suit like a standard.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
It just goes in a suit and evaporates.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
I guess it is.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Hot, yeah, But then I feel really bad for the
crew guys as well, because they have the ones who
have to get it out and clean it up. Oh god,
that's what I could never That's why I always have
a safety pee before I get in the car, and
then I don't need to deal with it.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
That's insane. Are you able to put your suit just
like in a washing machine or how do you wash
a suit?
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I do a lot of drivers. They dry clean their
suits or have the teams do it. But I am
so particular about it because you know, if you wear
gym gear day in, day out, and even if you
wash it, it gets like a funk to it after
a while. Like I have all kinds of special detergents
and stain removers, and like I also have really sensitive skin.
(06:31):
I'm going to get so much stick for this podcast.
But I can't use some detergents. I have to use
other ones, Like I can't use some of the free
and clear ones either, And so I just do it
myself because I want to know that everything is done
the way I like it done, not that I'm OCD
or a control freak or anything. Cough coff.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
I would not have thought that you could just put
it in the washing machine, But that's sick.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I don't put it in the dryer. I hang out Okay,
got it, Which is why I get scared out of
my brain sometimes because I'll hang it in a doorway
so it's got air flow, you know, to dry it
quicker and make it not funky, and I'll get up
in the middle of the night and I'll see it
and I'll scare the naming daylights out on myself.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Oh you like, think it's a person.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
It's like a ghost.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Oh God, I can picture it. Which GTD or GT
three was the worst to drive?
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Ooh? Which GTD? I mean? It honestly depends on who
is the team and who's setting it up and who's
doing what we're and when. The Porsche was the most
unique in that you had to drive it differently to
the other GT three cars, like the NSX or the
Lambeau or the Ferrari. So I think I struggled the
(07:48):
most with the Porsche because it has a very small
window of getting it right. But they all they The
thing is they beop and for those of you who
don't know what BOP is, its balance of performance, not power.
So they make us all relatively the same lap time.
Although that is a job I would not want for
all the tea in China because you can never really
(08:10):
get it like race on race basis dead nuts, but
they try and make it even right. So some cars
have more talk, some cars a turbocharge, some cars have
more weight, some cars have more downfalls. You're never going
to get it exactly how you know to keep everybody happy,
because there's always going to be fast cars and slow cars,
and there's a lot of messing around the guys with that.
(08:31):
So I don't know when when you're fast because of
a good bop, the car could still be a bit
of a handful, but you're fast, and therefore you think, ah,
this car is great because we're p one. But I
would say the nuances the Porsche was probably mid engined
instead of being rear engined reil World drive. It was
(08:52):
just a little bit tricky to get the hangoff.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Over the course of your career so far, what's been
the greatest invention it's improved your life as a driver?
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Ooh. I will say the hands device came in pretty
early when I was go carding. I don't know whether
I did any car races without it. Maybe I did.
I'm aging myself right now, but that's obviously saved a
lot of lives. And was implemented after Dale Earnhardt. I know,
save for barrier, one safer barrier that has made impacts
(09:26):
and crashes. Touch wood as I'm touching my table a
lot more, a lot more palatable, a lot less rigid,
So that has to definitely be one of them. But
everything is moving forward at such like great rates. We
test everything in the race cars, so that in the
road car the development's already done. We have the crash
(09:47):
test dummies, so and that goes for everything, right, engine, power,
chassy stuff, air stuff. Like the OEMs implement what they
learn on the race teams, which is why racing is
so important to them, not just to advertise their wares
to the general public, but to develop stuff too. So
(10:07):
with that development, with that competition and development, comes a
lot of new ideas and a lot of safety stuff,
and it's it's getting better and better. Racing is inherently dangerous,
it always will be, you know, the risks that you're
taking going in. But I like, you know, the windscreen
in an IndyCar. I think that's relatively new and that's
(10:31):
obviously a good development for safety. So there's been so
many of them in the last couple of decades that
it would be hard to just call out a few
of them.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Is there anything that you want to be invented or
you wish existed?
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Good question. I don't know. I think the thing that
scares me most is fire, and so we wear a
lot of fireproof fire retardant stuff. But I think my
fear comes from back in the day when we use
ethanol fuel and you couldn't see it when it was
on fire. When it was burning, it was like a
(11:05):
clear haze. All you could see was the haze, and
from then it just I don't know, it just scared
me a lot. So maybe it would be really cool
if we had like no fire, no fuel that could
catch on fire or something like that. There you go, guys,
it's the next greatest thing you heard here first I
got it.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
So would you be interested in then, in like racing
electric cars? Not that those can't catch on fire.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
I have raced electric cars, Oh when those things can
bust by the way, they do catch on fire, and
it is by sure, sure, But it's funny because we
had to have a whole other safety training with the
Formula E stuff where you have to jump away from
the car because you can't be grounded because then you
get electric uted. Oh my god. So that's a whole
other thing to be scared of. But I mean, as
(11:52):
long as you follow the safety protocol with those, you
should be okay jumping away from the car. But yeah,
you see all these testas and and electric cars that
are reported on the news to just combust, and that's
still scary. I was at my spa a few months ago.
Now I'm one of the girls. BMW's just caught fire,
just decided to go up in flames, and nobody knows why,
(12:15):
obviously from the engine department, department compartment. And yeah, so
I was at Timeless Esthetics and in the car park
this BMW just spontaneously combusted and went up in flames.
And I think that's terrifying. I don't know why it happened.
(12:37):
And can you imagine being in it? No, it'd be awful.
So how do you feel about actually racing electric cars?
Does it feel different? It feels very different because it
takes away one of your senses. Oh so when you're
race an electric car, there's no noise, there's no engine noise. Ah,
so you hear is the world of the transmission, and
(12:57):
so it is bananas. You get used to it. You
have a lot of talk, so you have a lot
of power straight away, but it also uses a lot
of batteries. So when I first started racing electric cars, gosh,
I can't even remember, it must be like ten years ago.
We had to change cars mid race. So we did
like fifteen minutes on one car, and then we'd have
to jump out and jump into another car because, yeah,
(13:19):
because they didn't have the technology to be able to
do more than fifteen minutes going relatively slowly as well,
oh my god, because they're really heavy too. And now
obviously the technology has moved on and it's such where
they can do full length races, but they're still there's
still very much like fuel saving racism. By fuel, I
mean you're rejourning to the battery. You're a strategist as
(13:43):
much as anything else, and you've got all the bells
and whistles that you have to play with.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
We had some people ask when your merch store goes
back up?
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Okay, so merchandise is not an easy process if you
have to be licensed to buy the different entities. So
for example, the team NASCAR, you yourself are a licensed
entity and it's obviously across NASCAR and across the IndyCar
(14:19):
So I'm in the process of working all of that
out at the moment so that we have some really
cool stuff starting at the beginning of next year. It
will be at the track and it will be online,
and there won't be anything on my website until then
because I want it to be really cool and I
want people to love it, and I don't want to
(14:40):
half ask anything if I'm going to do it properly.
If I'm going to do it, I'm going to do
it properly. So it will probably be January and it
will be awesome.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
How much input do you get into the most design
A lot.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Well, as much as you want, so it can be
done by the teams, it can be done by the sponsor,
it can be done by you, it can be done
by NASCAR, it can be done by the companies that
produce the merch. So it's really as much or as
little as you want. I think it's more important than
(15:14):
just putting a name and a number on a T
shirt is to have something that's authentically you and that
you are proud of. So I am going to sit
with the folks at drop light, and we're going to
come up with some really cool design stuff that I'm
proud of and that I would want to buy myself. Therefore,
(15:36):
I would like my fans to have access.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
To Okay, So do you typically reach out to potential
sponsors or do they reach out to you sponsorship?
Speaker 1 (15:47):
The age old question, So both. When you are starting
out in your career, it is one of the hardest
things to do, and it is a numbers game, and
you have to send out proposal of proposal, and it's
more to do with who you know than what you know,
and it's more to do with how much value they
get than what it's costing you to race. And I
(16:11):
am not a salesperson in any way, shape or form.
So there are agents and agencies out there who do
try and find sponsorship on people's behalfs. The teams do too,
and really it just kind of happens through one of
those channels. So agents, yourself, who you know, teams, series,
(16:34):
et cetera, et cetera. I think again, it's more you
get introduced to somebody who introduces you to somebody else,
and that company thinks that it's a great idea to
put their name on the side of race car and
do B to B because sponsorship is not about how
many eyeballs. I mean, it is to a certain extent,
but it's more to do with the activation and the
(16:56):
B to B and the impact that you have. You
can put your name on the side of my racecar
for Vegas and nobody would give the monkeys. It would
get a certain number of eyeballs on TV unless you
are there and you're meeting people, and people know what
the product is and there's weekend in weekend out recognition
of that name. That's where the value comes. And so
(17:20):
to prove ROI to all the sponsors is a tricky
prospect when it's immeasurable in a lot of ways. You know,
for example, there's Neuded tequila being on my car, that's great.
A lot of people will go and buy Doesnuda because
they're like, oh, they sponsor NASCAR, they must be really cool.
They are go buy Dosnuda. But the same with Elf. Right,
(17:42):
a lot of people see Elf on the side of
my race car and they think that's really cool. I'm
going to buy ELF. But where you really get them
buying in is when you do stuff at the racetrack
and when you do stuff behind the scenes, and so
I'll do a big activation every year. Does Neuter doing
a ton of activations at the moment, And so when
it's like repeatedly seen in different places and it's on
(18:07):
the car, like you can do it once and get
forgotten about. If you're on the car every weekend or
every other weekend, or like ten times a year, then
it's that fan loyalty that you are building. It's also
about being at the track and meeting other people. So
does New to Concel tequila to Kroger for example, Right,
Like if the Kroger people are there on a car
(18:28):
and we're there on a car, and then they think
it's a great idea to put Disney drink Kroger. That's
kind of immeasurable as to how much impact you've had
that weekend through all the different channels. But it's sometimes good,
sometimes bad. There's a lot of there's a lot of value.
Especially in NASCAR, you have a lot of eyeballs, a
lot of people watch it, and racing fans tend to
(18:51):
be the most loyal. So they see a brand in
like Bubba Wallace has Columbia, for example, and they're going
skiing and they're like, oh, look Columbia because of Bubba,
then they are going to buy that over something else
because it's your favorite driver and they're a lot more loyal.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
What kind of qualities do you look for in a
sponsor when you're deciding who to work with?
Speaker 1 (19:16):
So money fair, I mean, there is a lot of
that that happens, especially early on in your career. You're
taking every opportunity that gets placed in front of you,
and it depends on which situation you are, Like, I
am not from money. I didn't have a opportunity with
(19:38):
a Penske, Organathi or somebody big early on in my career,
so I had to scramble and I had to scratch
and fight and do it all. So typically the teams
will have the sponsors and you'll be representing those sponsors
that the teams have. But if it's a sponsor that
is you that you're taking to a team like an
(19:59):
l then I think it's incredibly important that it is
a good fit and it's authentic because what you don't
want to do is it for it to be a
one hit wonder. So you don't want them to feel
like it did nothing for them, and you don't want
to feel like it's a product that you can't represent
because you don't know anything about it. Like it would
(20:21):
be like me trying to sell viagra. I mean that
might work. I don't know. That might be a good one. Actually,
now i'm thinking about it. That could be interesting because
everybody would laugh. But it's like Elf is very authentically
me because I use their products. I can relate to
their products. You know, drop Light have a bunch of
(20:42):
different companies underneath them that are very authentic. You got
Desnudat during tequila. Who doesn't Who doesn't love tequila? Got
I call water love love the electrolyte water. You've got
cool sign the watch is really cool, like plane inspired
arrow inspired watches. You've got coal plunge. You use a
(21:05):
cold plunge. So it's really easy then to be like,
this is super cool and if you're in the market
for X, Y and Z, then why not do this
as opposed to one of the other competitors. So I
think if you're looking at it and you get excited
about it yourself, then it is a win wind for everybody.
(21:26):
And if you don't if it's me trying to sell wheelbarrows,
I don't know, I don't know how excited I could
be about wheelbear actually, having said that, I did break
mine the other day, so maybe i'd be excited about it.
Who knows.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
What are you using a wheelbarrow for a little bit
of landscaping?
Speaker 1 (21:42):
I have a couple of days where I was trying
to get sorted around my house and my dad is
not here. I have a daddy to do list because
my dad's a builder, and so I have a list
laundry list of things that I like him to do.
And I haven't been racing, so he hasn't been out
to visit me's so I had to do it myself,
which is very depressing. I moved four tons of stone wheelbarrow. Yeah,
(22:06):
it's good work out.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Though, Oh my god, that's good.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
I like doing things myself. I like to feel like
empowered by being able to achieve these things myself rather
than getting somebody else in to do it. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I'm also very stubborn kind of. On that note, What
are your favorite lake activities?
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Oh, that's an easy one to talk about. So I
love living on the lake so much. It's my refuge,
it's my peace away from the races. Honestly, it can
be a little bleak in the winter because a lot
of people have seasonal property up here, and so there's
not that much to do when you can't be on
the water, although being in Georgia means that it doesn't
(22:46):
normally get that cold for very many days, and so
you can normally be on the water in some capacity.
I'm not don't. I don't spend that much time. I
probably average would say I get on the water maybe
twenty to thirty days out of the year. That's it.
But I love it. I have a bunch of toys.
(23:07):
I've got obviously, a wakesurft boat, jet skis, kayaks, a motorcycle,
and I just love you have motorcycles, Yeah, ride motorcycles,
do you what I love? Yeah, I'm very careful on
them if my mom is listening. And I just love
being in the woods in the mountains, on the lake.
(23:29):
I love wakesurfing. I honestly like floating. I like hanging
out on my dock with my friends, like I love
a good dock party. We move the fridge down there.
We just kind of like bob around the dock in
the water on the lily pad and cute then we'll
jet ski your pel computes and get a frozen ugarita
or something, and it's just it's super nice in the
(23:49):
summer to be able to do that.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Do you race on your jet ski?
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Not really me. I don't have anybody who wants to
race me. Unfortunately, otherwise I probably will.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
What do you think has been the fairest and least
fair criticism you received this season?
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Oh? All right. I think least fair was Rockingham when
I got taken out of Rockingham and I got the
blame for that by a lot of fans who obviously
didn't understand how passing works. And I think that was
because it was coming off the back of Phoenix, where
(24:38):
I spun and took out squares. And I think that
criticism was fair. I think it was harsh because I
think if you looked at the weekend as a whole,
we weren't slow. It was compared to a lot of
other drivers first time forays into Cup racing. I don't
think it was as bad as all that. I think
(25:00):
it was fine, apart from a couple of mistakes that
I made that were very public and disappointing. And I
still stand by the apology that I said to Daniel,
And you know, like, yes, that was fair ish, but
the rocky am one't absolutely not. I guess that's fair
and unfair. I guess we'll go with those two.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
There you go perfect. What is the fastest you ever driven?
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Fustest I've ever driven is probably Indy IndyCar two hundred
and forty something whilst an hour on the street.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
That's crazy. Does your neck hurt a lot?
Speaker 1 (25:33):
No, You are sandwiched inn there, so your neck is
padded out so that if you hit anything, obviously your
neck compbounds around, your head combounce around, so you don't
have to hold your head up through all those two forces.
You just kind of relax and let it lean. Although
I'm pretty sure nobody actually does that, and I'm pretty
sure we will hold our heads up. We're just used
(25:54):
to it.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
What part of your body gets hurt the most while
you're racing.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Back, probably depending on the seat. I've had comfortable seats,
and I've had uncomfortable seats, and I've had seats, especially
in sportscar racing when you're in the car for three hours.
My lower back when I'm in somebody else's seat was
like a little sore after the weekend. But I'm pretty
lucky and I'm pretty resilient, even after all these years.
(26:21):
I think you put your body through so much abuse
you kind of get used to it.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
That makes sense. I'man. I feel like everybody's back hurts
when they're driving for a while.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
This is just.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Obviously different, just a little bit different. Okay, what's dating
like as a race car driver?
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Dating is a race card driver is impossible? I don't know.
I'm talking from my own personal experience. I know a
lot of female drivers that are happily married and coupled up.
I don't know whether it's as a race car driver
or whether it's just individuals or not. But it's tough.
It's really tough because I eat sleepa racing like, racing
(27:02):
is life. Basically, I need to get that stick. Amy
didn't I and I decided a couple of years ago
that I am not dating anybody else. I'm racing ever
again because I did didn't end well for me, And
it's tough. It's tough because outside of racing, you have
(27:23):
to be in racing to understand racing, So you have
to have somebody that's very tolerant of you being away
every weekend and you being away with thousands of men
and you having a cooler job than they do. So
it takes like a really strong strong man to deal
(27:43):
with that. And then you know the fact that racing
comes first and everything is also tough. There are no
concessions made. It's not like, hey, babe, I've got this
Christmas party that I need to go and do. Are
you coming well? No, I've got this race to go
and do. Well. You can miss that one. No, you can't,
there's no way. Always amazes me how female drivers have
(28:03):
kids as well, because like then you have somebody else
that's dependent on you, and I just maybe I am
too single minded about racing. Maybe there's a happy medium,
but I really think that in order to be successful,
you do need to want that more than anything else
in your life. So you need to want it more
(28:23):
than you want to have kids, more than you want
to have a relationship. It has to be the singular
and most important thing. Otherwise you're leaving something on the
table because a lot of guys do. But I think
the guys have it easier. And the reason I think
the guys have it easier is because there's a lot
more support that comes from being a guy driver, and
(28:46):
you can have the You can have a wife that
takes care of everything at home, looks after the kids,
does everything for you. Like I want a wife, I
want somebody to take care of all the home stuff
for me. But then I would not I'm not attracted
to somebody who's not alpha male, so therefore I wouldn't
want somebody taken care of all of those things for
(29:07):
me because it'd be weird because I still want to
be the girl. So I know that delves into a
lot of issues with traditional roles, and I don't want
to go down that route and piss anybody off. But
I feel like I'm in this very weird space. It's
been honest, and I wonder what's going to happen when
I stop racing, because I wonder what kind of person
I will then morph into.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Yeah, what do you see yourself doing when you get
out of racing? When I grow up?
Speaker 1 (29:34):
When I grow up, I want to be I guess
I've trained myself over the years to be a bit
of an adrenaline junkie. Whether that was meant or I
think it was already intrinsically in me. But I think
I need to get my kicks somehow right, Like I
need that competition, I need that adrenaline. I need that
(29:54):
goal oriented like thing that drives me. I'm sorry, pun
non intended, and I spoke to Christina about this. Actually
I need to get that itch scratched. And so I
also want to leave a legacy and I want to
have had a positive impact because so many people have
helped me and I wouldn't be here without them, and
(30:19):
I feel like I need to do the same moving forward.
And so with Chevy and GM, we have identified a
few female drivers that we are going to help and
support and hopefully they can learn from my mistakes and
I can mentor them and walk them through this crazy
(30:41):
racing life and hopefully then hand over the baton to
them and then their success will feel like my success
and we can win together. So I think that would
be an important next step in my journey. Or I'm
going to hold up in my cabin in the woods
(31:01):
on the lake and just walk my dog every day.
I don't know one of the others.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
What is your dream car for daily driving?
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Dreamcar for daily driving would be the nine to eleven Tobo.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Yeah, that's my dad's My dad has that car really yeah,
lagoon green or something. I don't know. I'll send you
a photo.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Last couple ones are like about workout kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Cool. I can talk about working out all day, every day.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Perfect. What's your typical workout schedule slash routine?
Speaker 1 (31:33):
My typical workout has transitioned over the years. It's morphed
because when you first get into driving, you are not
conditioned for the abuse that your body takes and you're
making your way up through the ranks, especially on open
wheel because open wheel is the most physical, aggressive cars
that you can drive. So you have to literally have
(31:55):
somebody do a plan for you, like Jim Leo at Pitfit,
for example, who is spoken to on the pod, will
come up with two days that you need to go
and do in the gym to get your cardio where
it needs to be and to get your strength and
resilience to where it needs to be. So you spend
the first few years of your racing career doing that,
(32:17):
and then you get to the point where racing kind
of takes over and you are fit enough and strong
enough to drive the race card just purely by racing
right with a little bit less gym work a little
bit more maintenance. I would say that being strong and
fit enables you to take that out the equation and
(32:38):
you've got more capacity to endure. You also get used
to it, so you start off in racing where you're
doing twenty minute races, and then you build up and
then by the IndyCar Champ Card days you like two
three hours in the car, so it's kind of like
you step up into it. Then you get really bored
going to the gym all the time, and you find
(32:59):
things that you like to do a lot of driver's
cycle a lot I did. I got burnt out. I
haven't touched my bike for a couple of years, really
my mountain bike. I have my road bike, I haven't
And then I needed to find things to challenge myself.
So I decided to do an iron Man and see
whether I could do that. So the training for the
iron Man was also the endurance training that I needed
(33:21):
for racing. So it killed two birds of one stone
and it gave me a goal. I did that and
then I decided that was cool, great, but it wasn't.
I'm not a very strong swimmer and it wasn't for me.
I have run on and off, you know, three to
(33:42):
twelve miles a day, three to five times a week
since I was a teenager, and that for me is
the only thing that keeps weight off me is running.
If I don't run, I get chubby really quick. And
it's important as well to be light. But I have
found in more recent years I've run less and less
(34:04):
because it also running can like use muscle as well,
so you lose muscle by running it off. A couple
of years ago, I found CrossFit, and I love it
because it's a community and it's not racing orientated, but
it keeps me fit enough and strong enough. You have
to do things in the heat to be able to
(34:25):
take the heat, so I do a lot of stuff
outside to be able to drive the race cars. And
I live in Georgia, so in the summer that's really
easy to do because it's one hundred degrees and one
hundred percent humidity. But I do. I love CrossFit, so
I combine CrossFit and gym workouts and runs at the moment,
and I have done that for the last two or
three years. And I think it's easy to monitor how
(34:48):
you're doing because we have in body machines that measure
your body fat and your muscle mass, and you know,
you lose a couple of pounds of muscle mass and
it's the end of the world. And yeah, we were
all very competitive about how much body fat we've got
and how much muscle that we've got. And it's it's
good because it's also a little bit of competition. And
I know the things that I'm good at and the
(35:08):
things that I'm not good at. And there's some really
strong people in the gym, and I like the community aspect.
You know. I'm always on the go, though. I think
it's really important just to move. So whether that's wakesurfing
or mountain biking, or walking the dog or whatever. However
I they're skiing, there is hiking. There's never a dull moment,
(35:30):
and I think that that activity is one of the
most important things that people can do.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
What is your strongest left.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
So I've got a bum shoulder at the moment, and
I've got an MRI this week on it. I tore
my rotator cuff in two thousand and six, so twenty
years ago, and I never got it fixed because racing
and I've been able to deal with it, and so
sometimes it flares up, and sometimes it doesn't. I would
say bench was my strongest stuff. What do you bench
(36:03):
at the moment? Probably not much. I don't want to say.
I don't want to say because people will judge me
one way or another. No way, I would say, at
the moment, it's probably I'm terrible with lower body, like
my overhead squats, like with my shoulder. I was like
just with the bar saying my name's Jeff. Though, yeah,
(36:28):
I should absolutely do more flexibility work. And I have
a friend called Lauri who owns a bunch of yoga
and pilate studios in the area. And I need to
do it because I think it would help. But the
problem is like finding the time when you're working out
already at least once a day, sometimes twice a day,
five times a week or more like then to do
(36:49):
the flexibility stuff on top is sometimes hard. So sometimes
I'll go and I'll see all these you know, twenty
thirty something women doing their little pulses on the reform machine,
and there's me him. I'm there shaking. I'm like, come on,
let's see how much you can deadlift. I bet you
can't deadlift two hundred pound. Let's go straight up, straight up.
(37:11):
How do you work out on the road in between races?
A lot of times we don't, and a lot of
times if we have time or we go in early,
we will go and find a CrossFit gym, or we'll
go and find a Barrie's or a burn boot camp
or something like that. Like when I go up to Charlotte,
I'll alternate through a few things and try and do
(37:31):
it with friends and just try and mix it up
and make it interesting again, just so you're moving. It's
like the gains are made when you're home and when
you're you're in a routine, because routine is so tough
on the road, and eating is so tough on the
road as well, so nutrition as well. So I bring
a lot of my own food and snacks and try
(37:51):
and eat as clean as possible. But it's not easy.
I mean it's also not easy at the racetrack when
there's a lot of naught food and snacks that a
lot of the teams put out that are tempting you.
And as soon as you go down that road, it's
hard to bring yourself back. So you just have to
like not and just stick to the protein bars or
(38:12):
whatever it is that you bought with you. It's not easy,
but you get used to it.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
You did a cooking class in Nashville, right, I didn't,
what were you cooking?
Speaker 1 (38:21):
So in Nashville we were at a Disney DA event
and they had a professional chef there, Garrett, and he said,
what is a traditional English meal that your mum used
to make that gives you the warm fuzzies and sign?
And so I was thinking about it, and I was like,
bang is a mash? Let's do bang is a mash cute?
(38:44):
We did a lot of like English food gets a
bad rep. Let's be honest. I love it, obviously it does.
But everybody loved bang is a mash? So I think
it was a win win cute. Okay, Catherine, That's all
I got. So you guys, have you got any questions?
If you have, post them somewhere that we can see them,
(39:05):
where Grace can see them, so she can she can
put another compilation list. And if you like this episode,
let us know because we will do another Q and
A later on this year, and I will speak to
you all next week in advance of Hell Las a Vegas.
Thanks for listening to Throttle Therapy. We'll be back next
(39:26):
week with more updates and more overtakes, and we want
to hear from you. Leave us a review in Apple
Podcasts and tell us what you want to talk about.
It might just be the topic for our next show.
Throttle Therapy is hosted by Katherine Legg. Our executive producer
is Jesse Katz, and our supervising producer is Grace Fuse.
Listen to Throttle Therapy on America's number one podcast network, iHeart.
(39:50):
Open your free iHeart app and search throttle Therapy with
Katherine Legg and start listening
Host
Katherine Legge
Popular Podcasts
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.