Hailie Deegan has announced her decision to leave NASCAR and embark on a career in open-wheel racing.
Her abrupt exit from NASCAR came during a challenging year in the Xfinity Series with AM Racing. As she prepares to race for HMD Motorsports in the Indy NXT series next season, Deegan’s decision has attracted both support and critique from former NASCAR Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick.
Deegan’s journey in NASCAR has been anything but smooth. After making a notable entrance through the Toyota driver development program, she transitioned to Ford in 2020, a move that would later define her NASCAR experience. Her time in the NASCAR Truck Series, where she raced with DGR-Crosley, was marked by struggles, never achieving beyond 17th place. Her inaugural stint in the Xfinity Series this year didn’t bring the turnaround she had hoped for, with her parting from AM Racing following a string of non-top-ten finishes.
Harvick hasn’t shied away from expressing his thoughts on Deegan’s career. During a recent episode of his podcast, ‘Harvick Happy Hour’ he explained:
James Gilbert/Getty Images
“Look, we can go back and talk about this scenario, and the moment that she stepped out of that Toyota program here was kind of the end and turning point of NASCAR piece of what Hailie Deegan does. As soon as she got out of that Toyota system and went into the situation that she got in with Ford, it just spiraled out of control in the wrong direction.”
With challenges behind her, Deegan now looks towards the future with optimism. The 23-year-old driver has recently opened up on the upcoming move, commenting, as previously reported by Newsweek Sports:
“About two weeks after I stopped on the Xfinity side, I was really — like I didn’t really linger very much.
“I was like, ‘OK, what’s next?’ What are we working towards next? Let’s make our goals. What are we looking like budget wise and what are we looking sponsor budget wise? How are we looking for different options?
“Just kind of seeing and weighing out the pros and cons of everything. And that’s when I was like, ‘You know what, I feel like I’m decent friends with a few guys in the IndyCar scene and people I used to race in IndyCar.’
“I kind of was just poking around, talking a little bit. A few people that like I grew up go-karting with and like just kind of asking questions and seeing it out. I was like, ‘Let’s go to the IndyCar race at Iowa. Let’s go check it out. Why not.’ Just kind of to see what it’s all about and when we started weighing out me as a driver, like my pros and cons [and] my best qualities in my driving are.
“Like, I like high grip stuff. I like places, tracks here are wide open a lot. I love road courses. Besides this past year, some of my best runs have been on road courses and best overall. Best qualifying and all that. The IMSA stuff on top of that, I did good on that side. So, I was like, ‘Man, maybe we should really look at this avenue.'”
While Harvick acknowledges the challenges Deegan will inevitably face due to the different dynamics of open-wheel cars, he is supportive of her new direction. He said:
“It’s going to be a tough transition because it’s a completely different car. I don’t know much about the INDY NXT program and everything that goes with it. But I’m glad that she’s, hopefully, she’s happy and being able to race and do something that she’s enjoying… So hopefully she gets a fresh restart over there.”
