Hailie Deegan has yet again left her fans in raptures over her performance at Eldora. The 22-year-old showed her exquisite skills on dirt yet again. Deegan was involved in a huge crash and sustained a lot of damage to her car. However, she jumped into a backup car and managed to achieve such an extravagant feat.
After the restart, Deegan gained a lot of places and ended up in second place. She was driving so well that she was challenging the four-time Cup Series champion Tony Stewart right in front of him. Although, Stewart was driving in another dimension and easily ended up winning the race.
However, later Stewart admitted that she was under a lot of pressure from Deegan.
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Hailie Deegan’s performance leaves Tony Stewart impressed
Despite sustaining the greatest damage in the incident on the ninth lap of the race, Hailie Deegan’s nerves were intact. She was all set to jump into the backup car and prove her metal on the dirt track. In the end, Deegan was just less than a second away from her first SRX Racing victory.
The young gun has been consistently performing well. However, the podium looked so far for her in the previous races. But we saw a different Deegan at the Eldora Speedway. She was confident in her abilities. She didn’t only manage to keep a seasoned driver like Ryan Newman behind him, but at the same time, she was keeping Tony Stewart on his toes.
However, Deegan said that she knew that a win wasn’t on the cards. In a post-race interview, she said, “I honestly think we were racing for second there. I think that was the best we were gonna get. He (Tony Stewart) is just too good here. He is too consistent. And overall, I thought we were fast but I don’t think we were as consistent as him.”
Hailie Deegan on the conference that builds with the past two weeks and racing with Tony Stewart for the win at Eldora pic.twitter.com/QnZL7MyFsm
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) August 11, 2023
On the other hand, Stewart, who finally ended his long draught of wins, was delighted to see Deegan on the podium. Despite being in a comfortable lead in front, Stewart knew Deegan’s skills on dirt and had to be careful not to make a mistake.
After the race, he said, “When Hailie Deegan gets to second in a dirt race, you better be on your toes, Because if you make a mistake, she’s going to pounce.”
The Crash on the Ninth Lap
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SRX was back in action at the Eldora Speedway with some new faces on the grid. As we saw Austin Dillon and Chase Briscoe making their debuts in the Series. We were witnessing a competitive race in the first few laps on the dirt. However, on the ninth lap of the race, Dillon lost the radiator hose in the car and went straight into the wall.
The crash was unavoidable for the cars behind Dillon. Chase Briscoe, Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti and Hailie Deegan all sustained damage due to the crash. Deegan, who was driving right behind Dillon, ended up sustaining the most damage to her car.
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HUGE damage to Hailie Deegan's No. 5.#SRX pic.twitter.com/LXne047Qlv
— Anthony Damcott (@AnthonyDamcott) August 11, 2023
When the race restarted, the two full-time SRX drivers, Andretti and Deegan, were provided a backup car while Dillon and Kanaan had no option but to retire.
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On the restart, Deegan was in eighth place and she slowly made her way up into the front and managed to equal her best finish in her SRX Racing career.
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