Hailie Deegan LEAVING NASCAR
What’s Happening After a long job search and numerous rumors about her future, Hailie Deegan has her the next step. In…
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Hailie Deegan is leaving NASCAR after what was a difficult 2024 season. Deegan is transitioning her talents to the Indy NXT series next season. So, what happened to her once-promising NASCAR career that sent her to open wheel?
What’s Happening After a long job search and numerous rumors about her future, Hailie Deegan has her the next step. In…
Hailie Deegan is a racer by blood. Her father, Brian Deegan, is a Supercross legend, and that skill and competitiveness transferred to Deegan. However, for her professional career, Deegan focused on oval racing, and at 16, she found herself working her way through NASCAR.
In her first full season in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West, the lowest touring level in NASCAR, Deegan, racing for Bill McAnally, impressed with 12 top-10s and two poles in 14 races. Most importantly, she won at Meridian Speedway. This win was a shock as Deegan, with a dirt background, seemed a lock to win at a dirt track rather than an asphalt track. Winning at Meridian also earned Deegan the historic honor of being the first female driver to win in the K&N Pro Series.
Her sophomore season, 2019, impressed as well, with Deegan making six starts in the ARCA Menards Series and winning two more races in the West Series. Deegan also made waves as the first Non-NASCAR National Series driver to earn a NASCAR Authentics diecast in Wave 6 of 2019.
However, with her future in front of her, Deegan would make a drastic move heading into 2020. Toyota Racing Development is known for its overflowing talent, but that comes with at the cost of a crowded ladder system. With 2020 on the horizon, Deegan left TRD to head to the less crowded Ford camp.
The move to Ford seemed like the right one; the system’s top drivers were starting at the Xfinity Series level, leaving ARCA and the Truck Series relatively open for young talent.
With the 2020 ARCA season ahead of her, most fans felt that she would have a couple of seasons to adjust to that level and move up to the Truck Series. That first season in ARCA was the first that Deegan did not win in a NASCAR-sanctioned series. However, she had 17 top-tens in 20 races, which was good enough to finish third in points behind.
This 2020 season also earned Deegan her first Truck Series start with DGR-Crosley at Kansas. This one-off was not a shock, as “easing” a driver into NASCAR’s National Series happens often. While Deegan had a good race, finishing 16th, a peculiar move followed this start. Deegan would forgo a Sophomore ARCA season and go truck racing in 2021.
Most thought it was too early for Deegan to move up, and that showed in her stats in 2021. That season, she had 11 lead lap finishes and one top-ten in 22 races. Deegan put up similar stats in 2022, but she was not allowed a third year at DGR, as the team, now known as Tricon Garage, switched from Ford to Toyota.
In 2023, Deegan moved to Thorsport and showed a little more improvement. However, similar to her jump to Trucks, Deegan announced a jump to the Xfinity Series in 2023 with AM Racing.
Deegan was now on the hot route through NASCAR’s developmental series. However, shifting from Ford’s top Truck Series team to AM Racing was a major shift.
Once again, Deegan’s stats in 2024 nose-dived from her slight improvement in the 2023 Truck Series. In 17 races, Deegan had just four Lead Lap Finishes. The 17 races are notable, as following that 17th race at Nashville Superspeedway, AM pulled Deegan from the No. 15 with Joey Logano taking over duties at the Chicago Street Course.
Most fans thought that this was temporary, thinking AM wanted a solid race at a difficult track so Deegan could regroup at Pocono. However, on July 8, Hailie announced that the two parted ways.
Nashville was Deegan’s final NASCAR race this year, and since then, rumors have swirled about her future. Many of those rumors suggested that Hailie was heading to open wheel, but she denied these on X.
However, on Oct. 2, Deegan announced she was entering a race in the Formula Regional Americas Championship at Circuit of the Americas. While not IndyCar as some expected, it suggested she had an interest in full-time open-wheel racing. Deegan confirmed this on Tuesday, announcing she was heading to IndyCar’s premiere developmental series, Indy NXT, in 2025.
No one point in her career turned her from a top prospect to a “bust.” However, some point to her signing with Ford as that turning point. Ford has had a recent rough patch of prospects not living up to the hype.
Nonetheless, Deegan is still an extremely talented driver who can win. A fresh start in a new series might be what she needs to get back on track. Either way, she brings her legion of fans to a new series. The only question is, will her winning history follow her?
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