The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Hailie Deegan took that first step and dazzled her fans. The famed stock car racing driver turned over a new leaf this year after a miserable streak. Deegan could not finish better than 12th in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and faced a round of DNFs. As a result, AM Racing discharged her mid-season – ejecting the only female presence from the series. However, now Deegan has taken a new path – and already started to excel.

In mid-October, HMD Motorsports announced its induction of the 23-year-old racer for Indy NXT. Deegan opened a new chapter in her open-wheel racing career. Although her Indy debut got off to a slow start, Deegan’s first outing in a Formula Car was remarkably promising.

Hailie Deegan puts up a dazzling debut

Last month, the former NASCAR driver’s open-wheel racing debut was not so good. 22 drivers took part in the Chris Griffis Memorial Indy NXT Series test session at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Hailie Deegan was last on the speed chart, posting a top speed of 111.280 mph which was 3 mph slower than the 21st driver on that chart. However, Deegan has already translated those baby steps into larger footprints, in a different series. She drove for Toney Driver Development last weekend in the Formula Regional Americas season finale at Circuit of the Americas.

After ending practice inside the top-five fastest group, Hailie Deegan lined up 10th for the first race. She toppled seasoned rivals like Jake Pollack and Kevin Janzen and clinched an 11th-place finish. She expanded at length about her experience, detailing the highs and lows. “The first race day in this car – I’d say it was a success because my goal was to make all the laps, don’t tear off the front wing and the nose wing, and just go out there and learn. I did my first standing start, didn’t stall it – pretty proud of myself, so that one was good. I think I can do a little bit better on my start…I bogged it down a little bit which I think hurt me initially on the green. Then obviously, passing’s hard…We didn’t get to have as many laps as I wanted to, like I wanted more green flag laps.” 

On the second day of racing, Hailie Deegan raised it a notch. Conditions at COTA changed with a light drizzle – and the track was slippery with drivers using slick tires. Despite these tough conditions, Deegan overtook both Anthony Autiello and Hayden Bowlsbey by the third lap. Deegan held her top-ten position till the end, scoring her first-ever points in a Formula race. She talked buoyantly about her second race day: “The second day we were racing, the track was wet and we were on slick tires…Experience-wise I gained so much there…It’s a big learning curve, so much different than anything I’ve ever done before.”

And one factor stood out in Hailie Deegan’s Formula Racing debut.

Making good use of cautions

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Hailie Deegan showed promise right from the beginning. Her four test sessions got underway on Wednesday, where a best lap of 2:08.840 placed her eighth. Then on Thursday, she improved by almost three full seconds, with her quickest time of 2:06.052 placing Deegan inside the top 5. This amazing pace allowed Deegan to take control of the race, especially restarts. For instance, during the first race, her teammate Brady Golan damaged his car. Following that, Deegan restarted 12th and challenged her seasoned rivals – even passing veteran Kevin Janzen. The second race saw Hayden Bowlesbey replacing his front wing during a caution while Deegan moved into the top ten.

So Hailie Deegan emphasized that her restarts were the highlight of the races. She talked about her first race where she passed Janzen: “The restart went good – I ended up passing somebody…Other than that, I just want to clean up the little mistakes I made yesterday.” So Deegan laid down her verdict: “One of the craziest things for me was the restarts. I’m so used to restarts being so crazy, hectic, chaos – and it was so much more tamed than I guess I was expecting…Learning those differences like how these cars react when you’re battling with people, how people give and take throughout a race – I think that was super useful for me.”

Evidently, our former NASCAR driver is making big strides in the world of open-wheel racing. Let us wait and see what success awaits Hailie Deegan in her new venture.