Kicking off her first session at the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway behind the wheel of an open-wheel racecar, Hailie Deegan is jumping headfirst into the world of IndyCar after her stock car racing stint.
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While Deegan’s time as an Xfinity and Truck Series driver might not have yielded the best results for herself, the 23-year-old seems to be taking well to the completely different genre of racing upon initial impressions.
Having undergone her first test session at the famed quad-oval this weekend, the Temecula, California native spoke about how driving techniques for a stock car and an Indy NXT car vary vastly as one might expect.
Elaborating on how she is having to tweak her “old habits” to suit the car, Deegan explained, “There is definitely old habits of just myself in general like, simple little things like I’m making sure I get to peak brake pressure initially when I hit the pedal and just keeping thos things in mind.”
She continued, “I even told my engineer that these are my bad traits, watch for them and like yell at me if I’m doing something wrong.”
“It’s definitely odd”
Deegan further added to the differences as she makes her career switch this season by touching further on how different an open-wheeler with an exposed cockpit feels from a stock car with an enclosed shell surrounding the driver.
“It’s odd, it’s definitely odd, I can tell you that. It’s different, for me not having a windshield. When you race at Daytona, Talladega everything is still inside the car but you’re obviously going like 190 miles an hour.”
She added, “But on this side of things you’re going that fast you feel like you’re head’s going to rip off because of the wind. That’s something that’s definitely different and being able to feel everything is unique.”
It remains to be seen how well Deegan adapts to the new environment after seemingly falling out of love with NASCAR after her troubled Xfinity Series stint.
With the open-wheeled feeder series a stepping stone for a future ride in the NTT IndyCar Series, Hailie could find herself competing for the famed Indianapolis 500 someday if her exploits in the sport go well.
Meanwhile, NASCAR prepares to go live from Las Vegas Motor Speedway this Sunday, kicking off the first event of the Round of 8 in Sin City.
