In the span of only a few years, the fans’ perception of Hailie Deegan has gone from the next big thing in NASCAR, to a sure bust following a dismal few years in the Truck series, and an extremely lackluster partial Xfinity season.
However, Deegan has decided to change directions in her career, announcing Monday that in 2025 she will make the transition to the Indy NXT series, one step below IndyCar, driving for HMD Motorsports, a team which has seen many successes, with current IndyCar drivers Nolan Siegel, Christian Rasmussen, and Linus Lundqvist all graduating from the team.
Deegan has had little to no open wheel experience up to this point in her career, although she does have some select starts in the IMSA Michelin Pilot series, as part of a deal with Ford.
Is this the right move for Deegan?
It seems Deegan has realised that her NASCAR aspirations have all but come to an end, as she was dropped by her NASCAR Xfinity series team mid-way through her full time campaign after not providing any substantial results. Many people thought this was the year Deegan would break out, as it seems the Xfinity cars better suit her driving style than the heavy aerodynamic focused Trucks.
The Hailie Deegan NASCAR hype train had officialy died, and it seemed not many other teams were picking up the phone to give Deegan a call, so a change seemed neccesary.
As for if this is the right move for Deegan, we may not know for sure yet, but the prospect of Deegan competing in a fairly respectable development series, also on cable TV with Fox Sports, is a positive one for sure.
How will Deegan perform?
Given the fact that she has never raced in open wheel machinery before, it is obvious she will not go out and light the world on fire right away, but given her road racing background, and her days in off-road racing, it is not out of the realm of possibility that Deegan will begin to compete for respectable results at some stage throughout the season.
Only time will tell if this move will help elevate her career, or further bury it.
Image: Patrick Vallely
