Hailie Deegan had turned to Indy NXT after her run in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2024 came to an end. However, her stint in Indy with HMD Motorsports never found a rhythm. Deegan failed to crack the top-10 in the open wheeled series, and wound finished the 2025 season 14th in the standings.
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The next turn in her career came in January when the 24-year-old confirmed a return to the NASCAR ladder with Bill McAnally Racing for a full campaign in the 2026 ARCA Menards Series West. Deegan opened the season with a sixth-place finish at the Kevin Harvick-owned Kern Raceway in Bakersfield on Feb. 28.
Her teammate, Mason Massey, stole the spotlight at Kern by winning in his first start in the series. Eric Nascimento Jr. matched the best finish of his career with a run to second, while Taylor Mayhew, 15, reached the podium in third-place on debut. Deegan spent much of that Kern event running in fifth place before a restart shuffled the field and dropped her to eighth.
This week, in the ARCA race staged before the upcoming IndyCar and NASCAR Cup races in Arizona, Deegan drove her No. 16 Chevrolet and crossed the line in 11th place at Phoenix Raceway. She had spent most part of the race a lap down.
“We were so free to start. Just super super free. We were fighting all day in practice, and there just wasn’t enough time to work on it and to like kind of wholesale change what we needed to get done in practice,” said Deegan after the race, explaining how the day went.
“So we just didn’t make much headway with it in qualifying. There was some water on the track. We just got screwed for qualifying,” she continued.
“Just got a little free there in the water and stuff that was late on the track. First run was super free. So, once we got it tightened up during the halfway stage break, I feel like instantly our race turned around,” added Deegan, who felt the race did not fall her way when it came to cautions.
Deegan believed more yellow flags late in the race could have helped her pick off cars on the lead lap. Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see how the former Xfinity (now named the O’Reilly Series) driver performs in her second stint as a stock car racing driver.
The next ARCA Nebards Series West race is set to go live at Tucson Speedway on April 11, 2025. Its starting time has yet to be decided.
