Hailie Deegan Hopeful of Repeating Danica Patrick’s IndyCar Ability That Failed Jimmie Johnson

Hailie Deegan, after being suddenly ousted from NASCAR, has left the stock racing world behind. After a P3 season finish in the 2020 ARCA series, Deegan participated in the Truck Series for three seasons, where remained winless. Her best finish in Truck was a 6th place in the 2023 Charlotte Motor Speedway race. This was followed by running 17 races in the Xfinity series before AM Racing decided to part ways with her.

The California native has made a career switch and would be seen piloting the #38 car for the two-time Indy NXT (developmental series of IndyCar) champions HMD Motorsports. This would be the first time Deegan would run a full season in an open-wheel tournament. Recently, Deegan was in a conversation with Kenny Wallace, dwelling on her recent practice session. Her one stat is more than one of the greatest names in Motorsports.

Will Deegan become the most successful woman in open-wheel racing?

This is only the second time Deegan is driving an open-wheel can in an Indy Series. In 2019, she drove in IndyCar at the Worldwide Technology Raceway and she loved every bit of that experience. Fast forward six years: she will run a full 14-race season in the Indy NXT series. However, Deegan’s start to her open-wheel campaign has been slow.

She ran a test session at the Chris Griffis Memorial at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. This is where teams can test new cars and new drivers. Hailie Deegan amongst the 22 drivers clocked the slowest time. She was more than three seconds slower than the fast car on the grid. However, there is something else that she excelled at, which had NASCAR veteran Kenny Wallace pointing out a big comparison.

Deegan was on the ‘Kenny Wallace show’. Where Wallace talked about receiving a text from someone, who he claimed was a big name in the industry, sharing stats of drivers and the braking force they had. Wallace said, “He (the guy who texted Wallace) said, great brakers in the big-time IndyCar, Lagona Beach all that, street courses they were able to push down on the brake, 1200 pounds. Story has it that Jimmie Johnson the great seven-time, champion in NASCAR (Cup Series), was only able to push 800 pounds. Danica (Patrick) was able to get to 1100 pounds.”

Wallace was subtly trying to make a comparison, as Deegan, in her practice session, was able to push 1200. Does that make her a great braker or a better driver than 7-time Cup Champion Johnson, who had a winless IndyCar season (2022), or equal to Danica Patrick, one of the most revered female drivers to run in IndyCar? Maybe not. However, Braking is an important part of the IndyCar Series owing to the kind of road courses they run on. Having strong legs is crucial, as 1200 PSI is a lot, and having the strength to push like that would aid Deegan in her open-wheel journey.

Danica Patrick, in her 7 seasons in IndyCar, went on to become the first woman to win an IndyCar championship event after she won the Indy Japan 300. As for Deegan, it’s a long way to go, but she too can get the success of Patrick if all goes well, rather she can also surpass her. Both coming from a karting background is also indicative of Deegan walking on the path of Patrick. However, it won’t be fair to make any comparison yet, because Deegan has only run one session. Even Deegan agrees that a comparison like this might not be right as Patrick ran in IndyCar and Deegan is part of Indy NXT.

Deegan on this said, “So I don’t know if it’s different compared to the Indy Next stuff… So in the Indy next I’m not sure how comparable it is to the like that side of things any car side of things. Because your goal when I sat in the car to do the brake pressure side of things is to get 1,200 on the front PSI. So like I was able to do that and stuff so I don’t know if that’s a comparable deal.” Braking on both Series cars won’t be the same since the cars vary significantly in size and speed. If Deegan makes good runs in NXT, she would be promoted to IndyCar.And then maybe a fairer comparison could be made.

Further in the conversation, Deegan said, “I’ve never tried hitting the brake pedal on IndyCar before so when I do that I can get back to you.” This shows Deegan has set her eyes to excel in open-wheel racing and is hopefully in for a longer run than her stock car career. Apart from the many differences between IndyCar Series and NASCAR, Deegan enjoys how fitness is important in open-wheel racing in contrast to NASCAR.

According to Hailie Deegan, you don’t need to be ‘fit’ in NASCAR

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Deegan pushing 1200 PSI is perhaps thanks to her numerous leg presses done in the gym. Deegan is highly active in the gym and now that it will translate into her performance is a big plus for her. Further in the conversation, she said, “The fitness side of things is something that really attracted me to the indie car side. Cause I love fitness, like I workout every single day and I love that side of things. And I think that’s instilled from the Moto world by the two-wheel side and because they train every single day training is a huge art I’d say 60% of their racing and so I like that’s actually utilized.” 

The Deegan name is legendary in Motocross, her father, Brian Deegan, is multiple times X Games gold medalist. Even her brother Haiden Deegan is the reigning 250 SMX World Champion. And fitness is a big part of their lives. According to her, this is what has led her to always stay fit. However, according to her in NASCAR, fitness is not required. “In NASCAR, you don’t have to be in shape in any sort of form. As much as people want to say oh it’s hot, you have air conditioning in a cool suit. Calm down like it’s very dramatic in that sense,” Deegan added.

Deegan believes the IndyCar Series is harder than NASCAR and more physically draining. Especially because of the absence of power steering and also requiring so much force for braking, so the whole body needs to be strong. According to Deegan, the popular belief in IndyCar is, “The more fit you are, the faster you will go.” If that is true, Deegan’s performance will translate on the track, and time will tell if she succeeds.

How do you think will Hailie Deegan fare in Indy NXT? Let us know in the comments below.