Denny Hamlin hails incredible NASCAR drives by first-time star

NASCAR star Denny Hamlin has singled one new Cup Series driver out for praise after this weekend's race at Indianapolis.

Katherine Legge's first race in the series went poorly, getting into a wreck at Phoenix while running at the back of the field, but a little experience in the Cup and Xfinity Series has helped her massively.

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This past weekend at Indianapolis saw the 45-year-old start her fifth Cup Series race and third on an oval. While she qualified way down the pack on Saturday, Sunday saw her slash through the field to take 17th place – her second top 20 finish of the year and Live Fast Motorsports' best ever finish at a non-superspeedway.

Hamlin was effusive in his praise on his Actions Detrimental podcast this week, hailing Legge's performance and pointing especially to the lack of quality in the car she's driving.

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Hamlin: Impossible to state how impressive Legge has been

“Very noteworthy," he said. "I mean, I just feel as though...Wow, she is getting a lot out of that car…It can’t be stated how impressive she’s been. It’s not like she’s getting five lucky dogs and getting back on the lead lap and squeaking out finishes.

"She’s staying on the lead laps at these race tracks and battling some of our better drivers for teens finishing positions with a car that is clearly not up to snuff for what she’s racing against.”

He also went into the problems a part-time driver for a tiny team can face, explaining: “Now, in practice, I would have said, whoa, holy cow. Danger, danger…They don’t have any testing, probably no data or anything like that. So when they hit the race track for the very first time, who knows where their travels are at.

"Are they hitting the track? Are they not? They’re one of those teams that puts their thumb in the air and thinks, ‘I think we’ll probably be here this weekend'."

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