‘I Underplayed It’: Hailie Deegan Reveals the Biggest Challenge in Her Switch From NASCAR to IndyCar

Hailie Deegan went over to the IndyNXT by Firestone this year with the confidence that she was going to fare better there than she did in NASCAR. Her hopes have come to fruition to a certain extent.

She sits 17th in the championship after 12 races but with no wins, top-fives, or even top-10s. Recent finishes that can be categorized as borderline decent showcase gradual improvement.

As she learns the ropes of this new trade and works towards making a name for herself, she made an appearance on the Off Track with Hinch and Rossi podcast. Speaking to Alexander Rossi, she spoke about what the biggest learning curve has been for her thus far. Interestingly, she mentioned that she has faced some particular difficulties in matching physical demands.

She pointed out how she loves going to the gym and is pretty much in great shape. Even then, she has found herself lacking the ability to handle her new car. She said, “NASCAR stuff is not ‘physical’ physical at least. And so I think if you just work out, you’re in great shape for NASCAR. Whereas this stuff, I think I underplayed the lack of power steering so much.”

Deegan’s team, HMD Motorsports, has tuned the steering to help her at the cost of losing character in other areas. She said with an awareness of the same, “So, that’s where for me, I feel like I’m behind in time of training and trying to get stronger and trying to just build up my strength for having no power steering.”

Deegan reveals the hardest track type for her to race on

The IndyNXT Series races mostly on road courses. So when Deegan was asked about the difficulties, she responded, “Oh, for sure. Obviously, the road courses are very hard.” She continued to explain how she was yearning for just a tiny bit of strength after completing practice at Barber Motorsports Park.

In comparison, she appears to have had a far more enjoyable outing at the St. Petersburg Street Circuit. It was the first street course race she was ever a part of, having not raced on one when she was in NASCAR. Deegan has been expected to be a beacon of hope for young women aspiring to be NASCAR drivers someday.

At 24 years of age, she still has time to fulfill that expectation. The first step towards that would be improving her performance in open-wheel racing. Perhaps someday, Deegan will return to race stock cars.