Hailie Deegan had been largely quiet the last few months after leaving AM Racing.
Until this week, when she announced a move to single seaters.
But first, it would be wise to take a look at the story up to this point.
The Californian, who turned 23 years old in July, comes from an off-road racing background. The daughter of Brian Deegan was successful; after all, she was a former class winner in the old Lucas Oil Off-Road Racing Series.
But stock cars were a goal relatively early on. In 2018, she entered what was then the K&N Pro Series West after a couple of years in late models and legend cars. She finished fifth in points, but the most memorable moment of her formative year was her lone win of the season.
The next year, Deegan finished third in West points and backed up her win the year before with two more wins. The most popular of these came in a race in Colorado, where she dumped her teammate for the win.
I remember the hype train online at the time was really starting to heat up. People were literally comparing her to Dale Earnhardt. If people think Connor Zilisch’s hype prior to his NASCAR Xfinity Series win last month was a bit much, Deegan’s was bigger.
And why wouldn’t it be? It generally seemed like NASCAR was about to get their first female superstar.
That’s NASCAR’s lead business reporter talking about a driver, who at that point had made just six starts in the ARCA Menards Series and nothing above that level, as a key to the next TV deal. Deegan Mania was insane.
Then 2020 happened. She finished third in ARCA points, which wasn’t great considering only four drivers started every race that season. No wins, but know what? That’s okay. Winning is overrated. The top winner in that series that season was some guy called “Ty Gibbs“. No idea what he’s doing now.
Screw ARCA. Clearly, the best course of action for Deegan was to follow the schedule and move up to the Craftsman Truck Series. They’d give her the real experience she needs to go forward in NASCAR.
In 68 Truck starts from 2021 to 2023, Deegan finished in the top 10 only five times. She did beat her teammate
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