Was Hailie Deegan Set Up to Fail in NASCAR?

What’s Happening?

While Hailie Deegan has received most of the blame for her recent NASCAR struggles, Kevin Harvick believes other factors are at play. On a recent episode of the “Harvick’s Happy Hour” podcast, Harvick dove into why he believes Deegan struggled, including calling Ford NASCAR’s worst driver development program. Was Deegan ultimately set up to fail in NASCAR?

• Hailie Deegan was a NASCAR sensation as a teenager. She won three races in the K&N West Series, a precursor to the ARCA Menards Series West. She followed that up by jumping into the ARCA Menards Series full-time in 2020 at the age of 18, finishing third in the standings.
• However, her struggles mounted as she worked up through the ranks. She spent two seasons for DGR-Crosley, now TRICON Garage, in the Truck Series before moving to Ford with ThorSport, a move that Harvick feels was not a good one. After a lackluster Truck Series performance, she moved up to the Xfinity Series with AM Racing, where she was out of a ride halfway through the season.
• Now, Deegan is out of a ride and searching everywhere for her next step. She intends to make her Trans Am debut at Lime Rock Park this weekend, driving in the SpeedTour All-Star Race. She was also seen at Iowa Speedway during the IndyCar weekend, igniting rumors of her interest in IndyCar.

What Harvick Had to Say

Kevin Harvick points to one big mistake Deegan made in her career: stepping out of the Toyota development pipeline and into the Ford pipeline.

I don’t think that guidance and mentorship has been exactly what she needed for NASCAR. I think that the big mistake here was getting out of the Toyota development system. I don’t think Ford has a great development system as far as the things that they do from ARCA all the way until you get to Cup. I don’t even know if they have a development system, so you get put in these situations to where you don’t have the resources and things that you need like Toyota does and Chevy, [who] doesn’t do it quite as well as Toyota does but they do it better. I think Ford has the worst development program as far as their their drivers go

Kevin Harvick

To Harvick’s point, Ford’s development pipeline is not very good. Ford’s best Xfinity Series team is Stewart-Haas Racing, which will close at the end of the season and be replaced by Haas Factory Team. Ford does have Front Row Motorsports and ThorSport in the Truck Series, but Zane Smith left Ford to join Chevrolet at the end of 2023, with ThorSport in 2024 primarily filled with series veterans. Ford’s best young drivers in the Truck Series are Jake Garcia and Layne Riggs, both well outside the Truck Series Playoffs.

After struggling in the Truck Series with ThorSport for a season, she was thrust into a seat at AM Racing, a second-year team. Is a relatively new team the best place for an up-and-coming driver? Well, things went very wrong for Deegan at AM Racing with some potential issues behind the scenes, and we dive into that more in the article below.

Was Hailie Deegan REALLY The Problem at AM Racing?

Granted, Deegan’s performance sagged at all of her stops, and she underperformed compared to her equipment pretty much everywhere she went. However, Harvick doesn’t believe that everyone should have given up on Deegan as a result. He rather believes that Deegan should have had more time to develop, and moving to Ford ultimately hurt her.

I think that she needed more time in the truck series getting that guidance and mentorship that she needed in order to develop into what she needed to be to be a NASCAR race car driver. She carries this fan base off the racetrack that is a big fan base, and I think that she just got pushed through too fast and wound up in the wrong development system for her to be successful, so I think the moment that she stepped outside of that Toyota development system was a bad move.

Kevin Harvick

NASCAR drivers take a long time to develop. This is why drivers spend multiple years in the lower series, and even the best prospects often take a long time to get their feet underneath them at the highest level. For example, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson each did not win their first race until their third year in the Cup Series.

The lower series also has its fair share of late bloomers. Christian Eckes is one example. Although he only won one race in his first 68 Truck Series starts, he has won seven in his last 37 and is a favorite for the 2024 Series Championship. Noah Gragson went winless in his first Xfinity Series season in 2019, but he developed to win eight races in 2022, finishing second in the standings.

Now, in fairness, Deegan didn’t have just one year in the Truck Series before moving up. She had three years in top equipment and only recorded five top-10 finishes. AM Racing was a solid team in 2023 that consistently fought for top-15s and top-10s, and Deegan struggled to get the car into the top-20. However, Harvick believes Deegan still could have used more time, and Deegan’s following, combined with good funding, means she naturally has a longer runway than some others.

Was Deegan Set Up For Failure?

Back to our original question: was Deegan ultimately set up to fail? Was she rushed through the lower series too quickly, or was she given the best situation she could have?

She moved up to ARCA in 2020 at the age of 18, when she was old enough to race superspeedways. She also often raced against top prospects like Ty Gibbs and Sam Mayer. Maybe she could have used more experience in the regional series, but she also had to get superspeedway experience eventually.

Was moving from Ford to Toyota the wrong move? Toyota clearly has the better pipeline, and she did not get any better at Ford. When she left before 2023, TRICON Garage, the team she left, became Toyota’s top Truck Series team, with Kyle Busch Motorsports switching to Chevrolet. Maybe she would be in slightly better equipment, but she still struggled at ThorSport despite her teammate winning the Truck Series Championship.

AM Racing was maybe not the best situation for her, but this team recorded its first top-10 of the season when Joey Logano replaced Deegan for the Chicago Street Race. Remember that Logano has only one road course victory in the Cup Series, so despite being a two-time Cup Series champion, he’s not known as a great road racer.

Hailie Deegan OUT at AM Racing

It’s unfair to say Deegan was set up for failure because she was often put in solid equipment that she underperformed in. However, could a couple of different moves have improved her career? Harvick seems to think that a little more patience might have helped.

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