Katherine Legge will start the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday afternoon and, if the weather and a helicopter cooperate, climb into a Cup car at Charlotte Motor Speedway the same evening for the Coca-Cola 600. She will be the first woman ever to attempt what NASCAR and IndyCar fans call The Double, and the sixth driver of any kind to try it. [1]

The five who have gone before her — John Andretti in 1994, Tony Stewart in 1999 and 2001, Robby Gordon four times between 1997 and 2004, Kurt Busch in 2014, and Stewart's only completion of all 1,100 miles in 2001 — were all men, all already established at the top of one of the two series. Legge runs full-time in IndyCar for Dale Coyne Racing and will run her Coca-Cola 600 Cup start out of Live Fast Motorsports' No. 78. [1][2] The schedule is unforgiving: green flag in Indianapolis at 12:45 p.m. ET, a planned helicopter departure off the IMS infield, a flight to Concord, North Carolina, and an evening green flag at Charlotte for 600 miles more. [3]

The Coca-Cola 600 runs Sunday without Kyle Busch, three days after his death at 41. The paper's Friday lead-adjacent major recorded the eleven-day arc from Watkins Glen to a Concord simulator; Indianapolis Motor Speedway will light its pylon on lap 18 in his honor. Legge's first becomes a second register on the same Memorial Day broadcast. Six drivers, in 32 years, have tried this. The number was always going to move from five to six. On Sunday it also moves, for the first time, from the men's side of the ledger. [1]

-- AMARA OKONKWO, Lagos