Katherine Legge’s highly-anticipated debut in the NASCAR Cup Series at Phoenix Raceway ended in d🐻isappointment as she failed to make it to the ꦜchequered flag.

The 44-year-old was ♏officially classified in 30th place after com🐠pleting 210 of the planned 312 laps in Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500.

Starting from 37th and last, Legge suffered an early setback when﷽ she spun the #78 Livꦍe Fast Motorsports Chevrolet of her own on lap 5, causing the first caution of the day.

She was later running in 28th place when contact with the #21 Wood Brothers Ford of Josh Berry aღt Turn 2 sent her spinning down the backstretch.

At this stage, Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez was running behind Legge and couldn’t avoid her spinning Chevrolet, wit🐟h contact dealing severe da🎐mage to both their cars.

While Suarez still managed to continue the race and finish 23rd, Legge’s day came to a premature end as she headed to the garage for extensive repai🎶rs.

Her team coul♏dn’t fix the car in time to send her ꧋back out again.

Speaꦰking afterwards, Legge described her maiden outing in the NASCAR Cup Series as a “baptism of fire”.

“I think we were relatively quick compared to the field, so it wasn’t bad,” Legge told Fox🐲 Sports. “We were trying💛 to find some pace, and we found it throughout the race, but it was a rough start.

“Baptism of fire. I think there’s a lot of positives to take from it. Obvi🗹ously there were mistakes made, but I learned so much and hopefully I get to come back and do i🐻t again.”

Legge explained that the changes Live Fast Motorsports 🉐had made to the #78 Chevrolet on Saturday night had backfired, and thওe team spent much of Sunday trying to undo the changes so she could have a more stable car underneath her.

"It was really a rough start. We made some changes to the car overni😼ght, and they were awful,”  Legge told Bob Pockrass.

“I was hanging on like from the first stint, I was so loose, and then we kept making adjustments, so we kept making the car way more stable for me...I wish we hadn't made the changes.”

Sunday’s race made Legge the first female driver to contest a Cup race since Danica Patrick made𝐆 her final start at Daytona 500 in 20𒁏18.

Legge is relatively inexperienced in 🐻stock car racing, having taken part in just five Xfinity races and made just one ARCA outing prior to her Cup Serieꦡs foray last weekend.