We didn’t realize it whereas she was working her approach up the ranks in off-road and inventory automobile racing, however Hailie Deegan had her eye on IndyCar. The daughter of motocross legend Brian Deegan was targeted on the world of roofs and fenders on the time, and because of the previous SRX sequence which pitted younger drivers like Deegan towards a few of the greatest names from NASCAR and IndyCar, the 23-year-old from Southern California began to consider open-wheel racing as one thing greater than an entertaining sport to observe from afar.
It took competing in SRX and a disappointing run within the Xfinity Sequence — which led to a break up along with her AM Racing group in July — for Deegan to significantly take into account diverting her profession to IndyCar and its Indy NXT improvement sequence. Inside per week of the Xfinity exit, she was in Iowa, taking within the short-oval doubleheader that includes IndyCar and Indy NXT. By mid-October, it was official: Deegan was headed to NXT with HMD Motorsports, winners of the 2022 championship with Linus Lundqvist and in 2023 with Christian Rasmussen.
“I’ve at all times watched IndyCar racing. I paid consideration to quite a lot of open-wheel racing; that’s actually the one kind of sport I watch,” Deegan advised RACER as she ready to drive an Indy NXT automobile for the primary time on Friday on the Chris Griffis Take a look at at IMS. “I don’t watch any ball sports activities or something, my life’s consumed by all types of racing. I hadn’t spoken to lots of previous IndyCar legends up till SRX. And speaking to them, they defined to me the entire open-wheel world, IndyCar world, and that actually sparked my curiosity in it extra. So I positively was paying extra consideration to it than I used to be prior to now.
“After which I went to Iowa, obtained to observe the races there, listening to the Indy NXT sequence. I simply beloved quite a lot of traits about it. I’ve beloved street course racing for a very long time. I grew up karting. I’ve completed IMSA races and I simply at all times loved it rather a lot prior to now. On the NASCAR schedule, I’d at all times mark the street course races, like, OK, these are going to be our stronger races. Clearly I did quite a lot of the NASCAR stuff, which is oval, however nonetheless appreciated the street course stuff. It has at all times been a few of my favourite racing.”
The wealth of knowledge out there to a driver and biggest take a look at time helped Deegan make the choice to maneuver to Indy NXT. James Black/Penske Leisure
The Xfinity-to-NXT transfer is a brand new one, and with expertise gained in automobiles which are nothing just like the low, mild and highly effective Dallara IL15-AERs that include knife-edge dealing with, Deegan’s studying curve in IndyCar’s open-wheel equal of the Xfinity Sequence means she’s successfully beginning over.
Undaunted, she’s able to embark on a multi-year program with HMD that may see her transfer to Indiana and embed herself with the huge group that’s primarily based on the outskirts of Indianapolis. Deegan’s actions — uprooting herself and diving head-first into NXT with HMD — communicate to how critically she’s taking this new chapter in her life and profession.
“Making this choice was not a easy one for me, or a fast one like within the second, a whim,” she stated. “It was positively very thought out and methodical with the plan of what wouldn’t it take to achieve success in a sequence like this, in these automobiles. I positively am absolutely dedicated to doing as a lot because it takes to achieve success on this type of racing. Additionally, there’s much more assets to achieve success, whether or not it’s monitor time, testing; there’s a lot take a look at time that you simply get earlier than the season really begins.
“And I feel from that aspect, what actually attracted me is all the information that they’ve, having the ability to see the entire throttle traces, brake traces; that’s one thing that I’ve by no means actually had entry to earlier than, and that’s why I actually fell in love with the IMSA aspect of issues once I did a number of races there and felt like I used to be in a position to excel at it fairly fast. It was as a result of there was a lot information and assets to go off of, which I’ve by no means had prior to now.
“You will have all these assets at your fingertips. For those who use them, you could be profitable. All of the profitable guys clearly do make the most of each little bit of that. And in addition, I feel the bodily standpoint from it, like seeing drivers tremendous concerned within the coaching and health aspect of issues, I like that. With my household coming from the Moto aspect, the two-wheel world, that’s tremendous essential, and so it’s at all times been essential to me, however I really feel prefer it hasn’t been valued prior to now, and on this racing, it’s. For those who’re prepared to place the work in and decide to it, you possibly can determine it out.”
Deegan will likely be surrounded by title-contending NXT veterans and rookies alike at HMD in 2025. Owing to the grand training she’ll endure at new tracks in a brand new type of racing, she’s setting expectations which are acceptable for the problem.
“With regards to targets for myself, I wrote down my targets by the tip of the season, and never one in all them had ‘completed within the prime 5 or prime 10,’” she stated. “My targets are about development, continually getting higher each single race, constructing my pocket book, issues like that. Studying in regards to the technical aspect of the automobiles, the setups. As an alternative of claiming, ‘I’m preventing understeer or overseer,’ I need to have the ability to go and say, ‘Hey, I need to make this variation on the automobile. I feel we must always go to this or that.’ That’s actually the place I’m placing my focus and targets. It’s the development aspect of issues.”
