Hailie Deegan may not be ready for the bright lights of NASCAR

As 2020 draws to a close, Hailie Deegan’s fashion train couldn’t have been fuller. However, halfway through the 2024 season, it appears Deegan’s NASCAR career is heading in the wrong direction.

After winning three ARCA West races in the 2018 and 2019 seasons, Deegan was called up to the ARCA Menards Series for a full-time season in 2020, finishing third in points.

In 2021, Deegan was hired to drive the No. 1 truck for DGR-Crosley full-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Deegan wasn’t terrible in 2021, finishing 17th in points, but unfortunately 2022 was a slightly worse Truck Series season for Deegan as she slipped to 21st. A 13th-place finish in her Xfinity Series debut in Las Vegas, however, gave fans hope that she was better suited for the NASCAR Xfinity Series, where most drivers are able to develop their racing craft.

2023 saw a new Truck Series team for Deegan in ThorSport Racing, which won the 2021 championship with Ben Rhodes. While Rhodes won another championship in 2023, Deegan struggled again, falling to 19th in points with just two top 10s.

However, 2024 marked a new era for Deegan, as the Xfinity Series team AM Racing signed Deegan for 2024. The team that helped Brett Moffitt to nine top-10 finishes and finish 15th in points in 2023 seemed like the best opportunity for Deegan to prove herself in the first three series of NASCAR.

Unfortunately, she did not capitalize. Deegan currently sits 29th in Xfinity Series points, the worst of any full-time driver in the series. She sits behind drivers such as Aric Almirola, Ryan Truex and Matt DiBenedetto, all of whom have at least five fewer starts this season. While a few poor finishes can be attributed to mechanical issues with her car, she just hasn’t quite figured out how to make her way through the field yet.

Deegan’s struggles alone are no worse than those of the majority of drivers throughout NASCAR history. Many drivers showed promise, but sputtered when they reached the first three heats.

The factor that differentiates Deegan’s struggles from others, however, is the quality of the teams she has wrestled with. DGR-Crosley won races with Todd Gilliland and Ryan Preece while Deegan was with them, and in the only season Deegan drove for ThorSport, three of his teammates made the Truck Series playoffs with Ben Rhodes winning the championship at the end of the season. .

Although Deegan doesn’t have a 2024 teammate to compare himself to, the aforementioned Brett Moffitt has accomplished far more in the same car than Deegan has thus far. Although there are still 18 races left in the Xfinity Series season for Deegan to turn things around, the light at the end of the tunnel dims with each poor result.

Deegan is certainly a talented racing driver. Winning at any level of NASCAR – even at the regional level, as Deegan did – is extremely impressive and should not be overlooked. However, if a driver consistently performs worse than his peers with whom he shares equipment, the problem would seem to be his fault.

Deegan has time to steer her career in the right direction. After all, she is only 21 years old. But if the results don’t start coming soon, she could find herself back where she started, needing to prove herself to start moving up the ladder.