When one door closes, another opens. For Hailie Deegan, she is currently testing the available doors. The only feminine energy on NASCAR’s racetracks arrived at an early exit this season. After her Xfinity rookie stint went dry, AM Racing parted ways with the young driver in early July. Deegan’s misfortune sent shockwaves across the motorsport community as multiple theories emerged about her downfall.

Yet the 23-year-old driver is focused on turning over a new leaf. Although her NASCAR prospects still hang in the balance, Deegan is currently trying her hand at new wheels. And such a trial left her visibly shaken, as the experience was a challenging one.

Hailie Deegan gulps in a new race car

NASCAR races have their unique characteristics: stock cars zooming around oval circuits. The vehicles are built on a steel tube chassis and utilize a 5.8-liter V8 engine. Its open-wheel counterparts have special spinoffs as well. The American open-wheel series is none other than IndyCar, and Formula One is based in Europe. F1 vehicles have a hybrid powertrain consisting of a 1.6-liter turbocharged V6 engine. But to be able to drive those, drivers need to prove their mettle at the F2 and the F3 series first, producing 620 hp and 380 hp, respectively.

Hailie Deegan hopped on such a 380-hp F3 ride recently in a test drive. After bidding adieu to NASCAR vehicles, she tried her hand here but got a jolting first experience. Deegan went to Putnam Park with Nathan Toney, the Toney Driver Development, to drive an F3 car, and an instructor gave some information, including a warning. “Here, it’s really important to go straight braking, ’cause it will upset the car. Turn in, it’s going to kill your shoulders and then squeeze power…Then this car, it sounds funny, but at 3 to 4000 RPM, it makes you cough. Whatever harmonics it is, you’ll notice it.”

Soon after, Hailie Deegan turned laps in the sleek open-wheel vehicle and came back with a gleeful smile. But Deegan also harped on the stifling aspect as she took it to her YouTube channel. “That was so much fun…but my soul felt like it was shaking out of my body. You weren’t wrong about the whole coughing deal, like 4000 RPM…I had to force myself. The first time I was out there, I had to get pace quick, ’cause I’m coughing so bad. So I was just going to putt around the first lap…after a half lap, I was like, I’m choking right now.” 

The speeds and car structure also took a toll on her head-body coordination.

“Other than that my head feels like it’s gonna rip off from my shirt. It’s like taking flight. I’m having to pull it down…like if my helmet wants to fly back,” Hailie Deegan narrated dramatically. Her new stint may be just a trial or might lay down her future career. However, it does not mean her NASCAR journey had a lack of effort—she needed more time and probably a good mentor.

Deegan’s talents may have been misused

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When Hailie Deegan burst into the motorsports scene, she turned heads, and soon earned several ARCA Menards accolades and, in 2018, made history as the first woman in 30 years to win a K&N Pro Series West race. These achievements earmarked her as the next possible Danica Patrick, potentially holding even brighter prospects than her.

However, she was rushed—Deegan signed into Trucks at a mere 16 years old, and then, without achieving a win, transitioned into Xfinity. Many veterans have emphasized this is the reason for her downfall, including Kevin Harvick.

Even Hailie Deegan herself admitted that this was why she could not keep up. She remarked about her rush through the ARCA and Truck ranks: “I was very new to the East Coast side of things; I hadn’t made a lot of friends or had people to ask advice from. I was just sent out there, kind of blind, and I relied on my team to give me what information they could.”

Despite clinching two top-ten finishes in the Truck Series, she slipped a wish. “I wish I could have accomplished a little bit more and I feel like we were in so many positions to do so. I’d be running the top five or 10 and end up getting wrecked or they’d wreck right in front of me.”

Let us see where Hailie Deegan’s trial-and-runs propel her for a future career. With Haas Factory Team owners expressing interest in her, maybe she could end up back in NASCAR. If not, then the F3 testing would point to a different trajectory.