What’s Happening?
It has been a difficult couple of years for one of Ford Performance’s most promising prospects, Hailie Deegan. The truck series driver-turned Xfinity Series regular has struggled to live up to the flashes of potential she showed in the ARCA Series. Now, with her and AM Racing parting ways, her career in NASCAR seems to be in limbo. What exactly happened to Hailie Deegan, and where will her career go from here? Here’s everything you need to know about Hailie Deegan’s disastrous 2024 season.
- Initially, Hailie Deegan was a driver for Toyota Racing Development. However, after seeing how TRD has treated some of their developmental prospects in the past, Deegan jumped from Toyota over to Ford Performance, taking with her a lot of sponsorship dollars and mostly untapped potential.
- As a driver in the Ford pipeline, Deegan competed in three full-time seasons in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for the teams ThorSport and David Gilliland Racing (now Tricon Garage), respectively. Her three years in the trucks series saw her run largely in the middle of the pack, earning a best points finish of 17th with DGR in 2021.
- Deegan made her debut in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in Las Vegas in 2022, earning an impressive 13th-place finish in a Stewart-Haas Racing-prepared car. The impressive debut, plus one more year in the truck series with ThorSport, was followed by her being announced as the full-time driver for AM Racing in the Xfinity Series. 2024 was intended to be her first full-time season in the series, but, as we know now, that did not happen.
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Was Hailie Deegan Set Up to Fail in NASCAR?
Origins As The Gen Z Hope
Hailie Deegan was born into a racing family. Her father Brian Deegan is a former motocross racer and has won several gold medals in the X-Games. Her brother Haiden Deegan, following in her father’s footsteps, is currently an AMA Supercross racer and even won the 2023 AMA SMX 250 Championship. Like her father and her brother, Hailie Deegan started her career in the off-road racing world. She competed for a handful of years in the LOORRS Junior Karts and won championships in the division in 2013 and 2016.
Deegan officially jumped to asphalt racing in 2017 when she made 2 CARS Tour starts for Bond Suss Racing. In 2018, signing with Toyota, she made 19 combined starts in the then-NASCAR K&N Pro East and West Series. She raced in the K&N Series for 2 seasons (achieving a 5th-place points finish in the West division in 2018 and 3rd in 2019) before debuting in the ARCA Menards Series in 2019. While racing in the K&N West Series, she won 3 races (one at Meridan Speedway in 2018 and two at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Colorado National Speedway in 2019.
Aside from her on-track success in the lowest rungs on the NASCAR ladder, Deegan gained most of her fans’ support was her videos posted to YouTube and TikTok. In her videos, fans got to get a glimpse behind the scenes of a NASCAR driver’s life like never before. He has a fun personality in her videos and seems to be very interactive with her fans, which proves to be very popular. In the video above, Deegan goes through some of her biggest crashes of her racing career. It’s an interesting watch, and it’s not at all hard to see how fans fell in love with her.
A Decent ARCA Season
In 2020, Hailie Deegan took the next step in her NASCAR career. Rather than running almost strictly in the regional ranks of NASCAR, Deegan went national with her debut season in the ARCA Menards Series in 2020. She drove the number 4 Ford for David Gilliland Racing after leaving TRD the year prior. In her lone full-time season as an ARCA Series driver, Deegan showed a lot of potential. In the season-opening race at Daytona, she finished runner-up. She also finished 2nd at the Illinois State Fairground Racetrack later on in the season. Despite not getting a win, out of 20 starts, she did earn 17 top-10 finishes and 4 top-5s. She ended the 2020 season 3rd in ARCA points.
To be transparent, the ARCA Menards Series was far from the most competitive series in NASCAR. Realistically, only 5 drivers ran all 20 of the races. In addition to that, Deegan was constantly up against drivers like Ty Gibbs, Corey Heim, and eventual champion Bret Holmes. Still, her stats are pretty impressive. It’s often argued that maybe she could have done with another year or two in ARCA. That may be so, but it’s not what happens in real life. Starting in 2021, Deegan made her jump up to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
Difficult Seasons in the Truck Series
From 2021 to 2023, Hailie Deegan was a full-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series competitor. Driving for the same team as she had with her stellar ARCA debut season, expectations were sky-high. Unfortunately, she never quite met them. In 2021, she competed in 22 races but only scored 1 single top-10 finish at Gateway late in the year. She finished a handful of races inside the top-20 en route to a career-best 17th place points position. Despite the disappointing numbers in 2021, the wolves didn’t come for Deegan just yet. She was a rookie, and rookies were bound to have a bad season or two here and there.
The biggest problem Deegan ran into as she navigated throughout her career is that she never really progressed. At best, she remained stagnant throughout the 2022 and 2023 seasons. Some might even argue (and it’s a legitimate argument to have) that she even digressed her latter two years in the series. In 2022 and 2023 alike, she scored 2 top-10s. Those finishes came at Mid-Ohio, Texas, and Talladega twice. In her NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career, she scored a best finish of 6th at ‘Dega in 2022 and Texas in 2023. In 2022, she finished outside the top 20 more often, which prompted her to move over to ThorSport Racing for 2023. While driving the number 13, Deegan ran more consistently inside the top 20, but it wasn’t anything to write home about.
Needless to say, Deegan was starting to grow frustrated with how her NASCAR career was turning out. In 2022, she made a lone NASCAR Xfinity Series start at Las Vegas. She drove the number 07 SS Greenlight Racing Ford to a 13th-place finish. She was also a contender all day. This turned the heads of a number of fans as they began to wonder if the Xfinity Series might suit her driving style a little better. Fast forward to 2024, and we now know that that was not the case.
Her Disastrous 2024 Season
Without having many receipts in terms of performance in the NASCAR Truck Series, the mind-boggling decision was made to move Hailie Deegan up to the NASCAR Xfinity Series for the 2024 season. She signed with AM Racing and was replacing Brett Moffitt in the renumbered #15 Ford. With her impressive run at Las Vegas back in 2022, hopes were high but somewhat skeptical when it came to fans. Many fans questioned whether or not she had really earned the opportunity. Others pointed out the fact that Deegan was now being seen as a paid driver.
She made 17 starts for the team before being pulled from the car prior to the Chicago Street Course. To add insult to injury, she was performing well below the standards for the team Moffitt put forth the previous season. In 17 starts, Deegan’s best finish was Talladega, where she finished 12th. Her only other top-15 finish was a 15th at Las Vegas early in the year. The straw that broke the camels back, though, was that 8 of those 17 starts, Deegan finished outside the top-30. She had gained the reputation of being something of a crash magnet.
Ultimately, before the 2024 edition of the Xfinity race in the streets of Chicago, Deegan was pulled from the car in favor of Cup champion Joey Logano. This move raised eyebrows amongst fans with many speculating that she was going to be dropped from the team. Initially, AM Racing refused to comment. The next week, however, Deegan was released.
What Happens Next?
While Hailie Deegan’s future is currently unknown, there have been rumors in recent weeks that she is tied to the newly rebranded Haas Factory Team. With Cole Custer moving back up to the Cup Series and Riley Herbst likely moving on to 23XI racing, there could be a spot for Deegan at Haas. In fact, Joey Custer, an executive with the team, did state earlier in the week that they have been in talks with Deegan.
What do you think Deegan’s next move will be in NASCAR? Do you think her career is over? Do you think she’s earned another opportunity with a top-tier team? Let us know what you think!
