A little over a month ago, there was a lot of skepticism around NASCAR embarking into a new unknown. What lay ahead of the sport was a territory it had never ventured into before, a street course race in downtown Chicago. But after a weekend full of ups and downs, NASCAR emerged on a big high with the skeptics turned into believers who wanted more. But if Hailie Deegan, one of the biggest young stars in the sport today, is to be believed, there shouldn’t be another race like the one in Chicago.
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At least not more than one per year.
The Truck Series driver recently cleared her stance on various subjects, including the highly successful street course race in Chicago. Deegan gave an example of another ‘event-race’ that had a lot of momentum in its first year, but it all waned down as time passed.
Hailie Deegan isn’t a big fan of street course racing
In a recent podcast appearance on the Kenny Wallace Show, Deegan was asked by Wallace about her thoughts on NASCAR regarding the Next Gen car, the race in Chicago, and the direction the sport is heading in. The young driver claimed she doesn’t know where the sport is going and therefore “it’s hard to say” about the direction of NASCAR, but she had some thoughts on Chicago.
“As for the Chicago race, and this is a conversation I’ve had with a few people, yes, the views are gonna be good. How good were the views at the initial Bristol dirt race? They were great. NASCAR Cup cars are going on dirt. That’s never happened before. Yeah, the views are going to be great,” Deegan described. “Same thing with Chicago, you’re bringing the first ever street course to NASCAR, views are going to be great. It doesn’t mean they’re always going to be great though. You’ve seen the views with Bristol Dirt, they’ve gone down. So it becomes a little less appealing.”
Deegan claimed that Chicago was good for a “one-off deal” but in her opinion, there shouldn’t be 3 or 4 such races on the schedule. In fact, she made the case for more road courses, claiming there are plenty of good ones to choose from.
But for a street course race, Deegan believes “one is fine.”
Deegan on the biggest hurdle NASCAR is facing right now
Later on in her conversation with the former NASCAR driver, Hailie Deegan opened up on the biggest problem NASCAR is facing right now. She said, “I think the biggest hurdle with the sport right now is the money coming in vs. the money going out.”
Deegan claimed that one can’t just be relying on big investments to offset the cost of missing sponsorship money. “I think it’s making the appeal come back to where the sponsors do want to be a part of it but in order to do that, it comes with eyes, it comes with viewership,” she added.
Having said that, the Truck Series driver claimed that “there’s a lot” that would need to be sorted to bring back how things were back in the day.
