“I Kind of Took a Step Back”: Hailie Deegan Feels She Became ”Easy to Take Advantage Of” in NASCAR Races

Anytime Hailie Deegan gets on the racetrack, be it in the Truck or the SRX Series, there is a brighter spotlight on her than on others in her position. Competing as the only female driver in a race on most days, Deegan has constantly held her own, handling criticism with grace and treating her victories as stepping stones to greater things. And if her last two SRX finishes are anything to go by, things do look promising.

But how does she feel when she is on the racetrack? Does she feel she has a target on her back?

Talking to NASCAR veteran Kenny Wallace, Deegan opened up on this and several other aspects of her life, divulging plenty of details about what is shaping up to be a promising racing career.

Hailie Deegan felt she was taken advantage of because of her approach

On the Kenny Wallace Show, the Truck Series driver was asked whether she felt that the other racers deliberately wrecked her on the track. Deegan had a measured response, “I would say it’s a double-edged sword because I don’t think people go out there and just like, ‘I’m gonna go after Hailie’. I don’t think it’s like that but I think it’s, maybe I’ve been over the last two and a half years a little bit less aggressive because I kind of wanted to take a step back. I knew the Truck Series is gonna be hard, I knew going into it and I still had a lot to learn.” 

Admitting that since initially, she toned down her aggression on the track because of the steep learning curve, many looked at her as an easy target while on the track.

“I kind of took a step back and I think with that I became a little bit less aggressive and so I think I got into the category of people, like there’s certain people on the track you kind of know you can take advantage of, and think I didn’t mean to, but almost accidentally put myself into that category.”

“This last year I tried to be more aggressive, tried to get back what I had before, and because I was looked at as a person that’s not aggressive or ‘they’re easy to take advantage of’, and because I was looked at like that, that when I do start being aggressive, I just get junked.”

Deegan has been vocal about her ‘Clean Racing’ approach in the past as well

The 22-year-old does walk her talk on the track, as was evident at the SRX Race at Eldora Speedway. Deegan admitted that the only way to overtake eventual winner Tony Stewart was to push him into the fence, ultimately choosing not to.

After the race, she doubled down on her stand, “So I don’t really I don’t like racing like that, especially someone like Tony, probably not someone I would ever race like that. And so I kind of knew we were racing for second tonight which I’m okay with.”

Clearly, Deegan is someone who advocates for clean racing. The only question is – will that be the case when the stakes are higher?