Local Celebrity Hailie Deegan Forced to Reveal Her NASCAR Plans

Of late, Hailie Deegan has made quite a name for herself thanks to her fantastic race craft and consistency in the NASCAR Truck Series. Despite not being in the Cup or Xfinity, the 22-year-old has earned a lot of fans. She is currently a driver with ThorSport Racing in the Truck Series. ThorSport Racing’s shop is located in Sandusky, Ohio and Deegan has become sort of a celebrity with the locals in the area. A dirt track expert, the 22-year-old recently took part in a Compact Series race at Sandusky and was greeted by a large number of fans, a lot of whom were curious about her future plans in NASCAR.

Deegan started the Compact Series race in eighth place and finished in fifth, which is a fantastic result considering she had not driven a compact car competitively that much. Before the start of the race, Deegan was interviewed at the track where she revealed her future plans in NASCAR and when she plans on moving up from the Truck Series and eventually to the Cup Series.

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But first, Deegan had to greet her fans who had come to see her race in Sandusky. The 22-year-old got a whole autograph signing session only for herself, something she didn’t expect.

“I thought it was an autograph session for everybody, apparently it’s just my autograph session,” the Truck Series driver quipped.

She was then asked about her career in NASCAR and what plans she had for the future. Currently, Deegan is planning to stick with ThorSport Racing, stating that “it’s been a blast working with everyone,” at the team. However, every Truck Series driver has the dream of moving up to Xfinity and Cup.

So when she was asked if she had an idea when she was going to be promoted to Xfinity, Deegan remained tight-lipped but outlined that the move had to come at the right time with the right team.

“Obviously my goal would be to eventually move up to Xfinity but it’s all about timing, all about finding the right partner, the right team, and everything. So it depends,” the 22-year-old said.

Despite being a prominent driver in the Truck Series, Deegan has been quite down-to-earth, interacting with the fans at Sandusky before and after the race.

She shared her excitement about the event in a video she had uploaded on YouTube as she got ready to race in front of her team’s hometown racing fans.

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Deegan Finishes in Top Five Despite Rotor Fire

Deegan explained that the short circle track speedway was located right next to ThorSport Racing’s shop in Sandusky. She was excited about the number of fans coming to watch the event and perhaps even a bit intimidated by the 45-car field.

“I was like hell yeah, count me in, so they turned it into a big event. I think it’s awesome. I know there’s a bunch of fans coming out already, a bunch of cars. There are 45 compact cars, I’m like damn! This field is stacked,” she added.

The race was not without incident as towards the end, her right front rotor caught on fire. Thankfully, the race was red-flagged at the time due to a separate incident which allowed her crew to douse the flame and get her ready for the restart.

Despite not driving compact cars in a competitive setting that much before, Deegan did a fine job qualifying eighth out of 45 and finishing in fifth place. Her raw talent is there for all to see, and there is no doubt that she will get to the top one day.