At one point in her career, for a brief period of time, Hailie Deegan was considered a top-tier talent ready to pounce on that one opportunity and take the NASCAR world by storm. However, that time has gone by because the opportunities have come, but her talent hasn’t shined through exactly. In fact, the opposite has happened. Deegan is now considered by many as the opposite of what she was considered during that brief period when she was touted to quickly rise through the ranks, go from Trucks to Xfinity to Cup, eventually.
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And it’s incidents such as the one with Lawless Alan in Nashville recently not only amplify the criticism against her but make even her admirers doubt their conviction in their favorite driver’s talent.
Hailie Deegan called out by NASCAR fans for her Nashville incident
Over the course of their respective careers in the Truck Series, Deegan, and Alan have had their history of run-ins with each other, the most recent of which came last night in Nashville. Unlike last year, this time around it was Deegan who was more or less at fault as she ran into Alan’s truck as he was coming down on the bottom on lap 5.
And even though his team tried all they could to fix his Truck under the DVP clock, when the race resumed, Alan’s truck suffered a tire issue on lap 7, and his race came to an end while Deegan eventually managed to finish the race in 28th position.
Naturally, this incident brought out the wrath of many NASCAR fans against Deegan.
Danica Jr
— Zach (@Pudnite) June 24, 2023
When will the Deegan experiment end, it’s obviously not working
— AJ 🤠⚡️ (@icyharvick4) June 24, 2023
Deegan is worse than Danica was pic.twitter.com/IDv3FQ0J0P
— Swervin³² (@Swervin32_) June 24, 2023
She’s had plenty of time to prove herself and has yet to do so! Times up, goodbye.
— Tim Barbeau (@timmer5026) June 24, 2023
She is exactly who Tony Stewart was talking about this week.
— Rich Mahoney (@RichMahoney1) June 24, 2023
But it wasn’t just the fans who were mad at Hailie Deegan.
Lawless Alan blasts Deegan, calls her “talentless”
After his race came to an end because of his incident with Deegan, Lawless Alan didn’t mince his words about his fellow driver. There was a particular bitterness in Alan’s comments, which is more or less because of the frequency and the history of wrecks between him and Deegan
When asked about his thoughts on the most recent incident in Nashville, Alan said, “I mean, I don’t think there’s much to say. She’s talentless, and just sailed it off in there and wrecked me. It’s lap, what, three? And she’s sailing it in there. I just don’t understand what the move was about. It’s not the first time she’s wrecked me. She does it to f****ng everybody, so it is what it is.”
.@lawlessalan25 on @HailieDeegan:
🗣️ “She’s talentless & just sailed it off in there and wrecked me. Not the first time she’s wrecked me. She does it to f*cking everybody.” 😳
They also had a disagreement in 2022 after Martinsville. (Via @RealJaredHaas)pic.twitter.com/OgPdXf5u5l
— Davey Segal (@DaveyCenter) June 24, 2023
At this point, Deegan’s stock is pretty low and her chances of graduating from the Trucks to the higher series in the future are pretty grim. Yes, she has a lot of fan following across her social media platforms.
But she’s a racecar driver at the end of the day. And as a racecar driver this year in the Truck Series, she has had seven finishes inside the Top 20, and just one inside the Top 10.