Motorsports across the world might have several things in common, but there are also other things that would be vastly different from each other. One of the biggest shocks for someone would be the cultural, and social changes coming into a totally different environment. In the case of Hailie Deegan who had jumped from California to North Carolina for the NASCAR Drive for Diversity program, she too felt a massive difference between places.
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Recently, while speaking with Kenny Wallace on his podcast, Deegan explained the major differences in racing between the East and West course series.
Hailie Deegan describes the difference between East and West Coast racing
While speaking with Wallace, Deegan mentioned, “People don’t realize how different the East Coast and West Coast racing worlds are. They are two different worlds totally separate worlds.” Subsequently, Wallace asked, “What do you think is different?”
Deegan responded, “It’s different it’s the people, it’s … how people get along is very different. Like I was so used to like everyone’s buddies. Like we all yeah, we all might take each other out. But like we’re all kind of cool after the race and like we’ll probably all go hang out and like, it’s like your kind of group of people.”
She added, “But it’s, I really like that in stock car racing. And everyone knows everybody and everybody’s friendly. And I feel like a NASCAR racing everyone’s so like uptight. It’s like, constantly having to watch your back so someone doesn’t stab it…”
Deegan explains why East Coast racing was foreign to her
Speaking further into the podcast, Deegan stated, “I didn’t even know what the K&N series was. I didn’t know the difference between a Late Model and a Super Late model. Like this was all foreign to me. I was so I’m 15 years old. And I was stuck in my world on the west coast of off-road racing.”
She then continued to explain how she ended up doing a late model test on the east coast. Later on, he was spotted by a person connected with Toyota, who then arranged for a test for her later on in a K&N Series car. She mentioned, “I still remember to this day, it was Todd Gilliland’s K&N car when he drove for BMR.”
Deegan further mentioned how, after that K&N test, she had managed to secure a three-year contract with Toyota in that series. And that is where it all started in the stock car racing divisions for her.
