{"id":17274,"date":"2018-05-16T21:00:11","date_gmt":"2018-05-17T02:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=17274"},"modified":"2018-05-16T21:00:11","modified_gmt":"2018-05-17T02:00:11","slug":"deegans-championship-fire-earns-her-return-spot-in-nascar-next-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/16\/deegans-championship-fire-earns-her-return-spot-in-nascar-next-class\/","title":{"rendered":"Deegan’s championship fire earns her return spot in NASCAR Next class"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jodie Valade, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — To be honest, Brian Deegan didn\u2019t see that championship fire in his daughter, Hailie, when she first began racing.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Hailie Deegan – 2018 NASCAR Next Class. Photo by Scott Hunter\/NASCAR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With his eldest son, Haiden, sure. He\u2019s only 12 years old, but has always had the kind of daring and reckless personality that already has earned him the nickname \u201cDanger Boy Deegan\u201d on the motocross circuit. Even youngest son, Hudson, who races trucks and motocross at age 8 showed that classic Deegan fearlessness early.<\/p>\n

But Hailie — smart, laid-back, happy-go-lucky Hailie — began racing go-karts at age 8 just to keep her occupied while Brian Deegan competed as a motocross and X Games motorcycle star and on the trucks circuit. It was just fun. Nothing more.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy daughter was real calm. Real mellow personality. Everything was just easy and perfect, you know?\u201d Brian Deegan said from his home in Temecula, California. \u201cI didn\u2019t think she would be like someone that would go out and just be super aggressive on the race track.\u201d<\/p>\n

But something changed when Hailie Deegan began competing. That Deegan boldness and brashness, the same air that led to her father\u2019s successful career — and multiple serious injuries after gutsy maneuvers — suddenly emerged.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m on the track, I\u2019m a whole different person,\u201d Hailie Deegan said.<\/p>\n

Deegan is 16 now, the only woman competing in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West this season, earned the highest praise from Kevin Harvick a couple months ago and was named this week to the NASCAR Next Class of 2018, her second appearance on the list of nine drivers tabbed as emerging stars in the sport.<\/p>\n

Other drivers selected to the class include: Anthony Alfredo, Riley Herbst, Derek Kraus, Chase Purdy, Will Rodgers, Zane Smith, Tanner Thorson and Ryan Vargas. Deegan, Herbst, Purdy and Smith all are second-time honorees.<\/p>\n

Alumni of the program, now in its eighth year, include Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson and William Byron.<\/p>\n

After just a year and a half of racing stock cars, this is the year Deegan hopes she can make real headway in the sport. She is graduating from high school next week — two years early — so she can devote all her time to her racing career. Bill McAnally, whose team she drives for in the K&N Pro Series, has called her \u201cfierce\u201d and \u201cfearless.\u201d<\/p>\n

And last month, after racing against her in a K&N Pro Series West event at Bakersfield, California, Harvick plucked Deegan from the field as the one who \u201chas a lot of potential.\u201d Deegan finished three spots behind Harvick in that Kern County Raceway Park race — seventh to his fourth — and has finished in the top eight in all three K&N West races she\u2019s entered this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just so happened that in the race he got behind me and that\u2019s just kind of the thing I needed for people to notice that I can drive, that it\u2019s not just an off-track thing, or \u2018Oh, it\u2019s another girl that they\u2019re bringing for publicity\u2019,\u201d Deegan said. \u201cThat I can drive. And that people need to see that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Brian Deegan: \u201cI think it\u2019s cool. Kevin Harvick\u2019s one of the gnarliest dudes in stock car racing, hands down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hailie Deegan has success, already, as the 2016 Modified Kart champion in the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series. She has the pedigree, growing up in a family that lives and breathes racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy whole family just wants to race,\u201d Deegan said. \u201cWhat we talk about at the dinner table is racing. We don\u2019t talk about other things than racing. It\u2019s just our life. It\u2019s what we do. Our fun is going to the race track.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, her father has learned, she has the fierceness needed to compete for every spot on the track and for championships.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the other girls have felt like they\u2019ve had to be really tough to be in a guy\u2019s sport,\u201d Brian Deegan said. \u201cI think Hailie just is tough. She doesn\u2019t have to portray it. You\u2019ll see that in her driving. She doesn\u2019t get pushed around, she fights back on the track. I think she doesn\u2019t have to act that act in her personality.\u201d<\/p>\n

That laid-back personality that Brian Deegan initially thought might be a hindrance might prove to be one of Hailie\u2019s greatest assets.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at the champions. Look at Jimmie Johnson. He\u2019s pretty calm, collected, smart,\u201d Deegan said. \u201cLook at Kyle Larson, the new fast kid. He\u2019s pretty calm. If you met him, you wouldn\u2019t think this guy\u2019s the gnarliest car racer on the planet. I think she\u2019s got what it takes to be a champion in stock car racing. I think she\u2019s got that personality to be calm, smart. She doesn\u2019t get phased by pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy no means am I claiming she\u2019s going to be the next champion anytime quick. It\u2019s going to be a lot of work, but I do believe she can do it. I\u2019ve seen her do it, already. I wouldn\u2019t say it if I hadn\u2019t already seen it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hailie Deegan is just eager to continue proving that she\u2019s not a novelty on the track. She wants to show that she has talent, passion and drive to be among the best — and, yes, that she has that fire to compete for a championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not here to run mid-pack,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to do it if I\u2019m running mid-pack. I want to give it 110 percent until I\u2019m able to run up front. I will not stop working until I\u2019m able to run up front.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jodie Valade, NASCAR Wire Service CHARLOTTE, N.C. — To be honest, Brian Deegan didn\u2019t see that championship fire in his daughter, Hailie, when she first began racing. With his eldest son, Haiden, sure. He\u2019s only 12 years old, but has always had the kind of daring and reckless personality that already has earned him the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17277,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-17274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-4uC","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/IMG_0016.jpg?fit=3232%2C2042","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17274"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17278,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17274\/revisions\/17278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}