USA TODAY International Edition
Her dream drives her
Teen sets course to be first NASCAR female champ, and she has the right attitude for the job
TEMECULA, Calif. – Brian Deegan has a bulldozer and a daughter who can drive fast.
In the modern motor sports environment, this is a good combination.
Behind the Deegans’ home southeast of Los Angeles is a 31-acre spread of rolling hills into which Deegan has carved a playground of tracks and trails for offroad trucks and motorcycles.
It has been a proving ground and learning laboratory for his daughter, Hailie, a 16-year-old who could be the answer to this question: In the post-Danica Patrick era, who will be the next female to make big noise at the forward edges of auto racing?
Beyond that, Deegan likely will be involved in the search for something that hasn’t occurred in the almost 70-year history of the NASCAR Cup Series — a victory by a woman.
Toyota Racing Development picked Deegan to be part of its heavily-funded program designed to put one or more women in Cup racing and, eventually, into victory lane.
Deegan appears to have all the qualities necessary to make a run at what, to date, has been an imposing mountain. She is bright, articulate and mature beyond her years. She has a family that lives and breathes motor sports. And she has that “It” factor that makes racers go fast in difficult situations.
“She’s fearless,” said Bill McAnally, whose cars Deegan is driving this year in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series. “I haven’t gotten her to cry yet because I haven’t found her breaking point. I think she’s got everything that’s needed other than the experience, and we’re giving that to her.”
Hailie needs to look only across her living room for a blueprint for success. Her father, Brian, is a successful motocross racer and X Games motorcycle star and now races off-road trucks.
Hailie’s younger brothers Haiden, 12, and Hudson, 8, complete the family motor sports lineup as motocross racers.
Brian Deegan understands the difficulties associated with advancing a woman to the highest levels of auto racing. He has studied others who have traveled the same road and is trying what he considers new approaches with his daughter. “Why hasn’t a girl made it yet?” he asked. “Maybe it’s because the system they’re using wasn’t the right system to get a girl there yet. So I said, ‘Let’s try our system,’ along with the best equipment.”
That system involves what Deegan calls an “all-in” approach that makes every week count. Beyond scheduled K&N races, Hailie is in some sort of racing vehicle virtually every day. She practices at nearby Irwindale Speedway with other drivers in “real-time” racing situations — passes in tight corners, running twowide through turns, responding to aggressive bumping from behind.
In the Deegans’ backyard, she and Brian often race each other in off-road trucks. The action is quite different from asphalt stock car racing, but each run adds to her experience level and sharpens her responses and reactions.
“It’s easy to go out and go pedal to the metal and go fast,” Brian Deegan said. “That’s not how you build technique. Speed will come. You have to work on technique. Is dirt racing teaching her everything she needs to know about circletrack asphalt? No, but it’s a good foundation.”
The biggest change from off-road vehicles, in which Hailie won championships, to stock cars is trying to make small gains every lap.
“The biggest challenge now is the preciseness,” she said. “In off-road racing, you can hit someone and not worry about spinning them out. In stock car racing, you’re only inches away. I’m fine-tuning that.”
Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick raced against Deegan recently in a K&N race in Bakersfield, Calif. He drove behind her for several laps before eventually passing. Harvick, not a man given to quick praise, picked Deegan from the Bakersfield race field as the driver with the most potential. “I think as far as potential and reach and just racing knowledge and getting in a car as young as she is, she would be the one I would pluck out of the series and say, ‘That’s the one we want to be a part of,’ ” he said.
In the race, Deegan showed no signs of melting despite the pressure of one of America’s best stock car racers a few inches from her rear bumper.
“To have a good car is a confidence booster,” she said. “With everything like it is now, I have pressure on me, but I don’t usually crack under pressure. I know I have a solid top-five car. I don’t have to worry about the car, just myself.”