Hailie Deegan is back, but not in stock racing. After some time off from racing, Deegan will appear behind an open-wheel car this time. After spending three years in the NASCAR Truck Series and half a season at Xfinity, the California native did not get the success she’d hoped for. This led to AM Racing parting with her.

In both the Series, Deegan was winless! In the 17 Xfinity races that she ran in 2024, P12 was her best finish that came in the Talladega spring race. However, after the NASCAR stint, she is out to explore a different form of racing in the Indy NXT Series (a developmental series of IndyCar). And Deegan would be piloting the Henry Malukas Daiva Motorsports’ #38 ride. The move has taken the Motorsports world by surprise. Recently, Deegan has cleared the air on how she landed the ride.

Hailie Deegan on signing with HMD Motorsports

This would not be the first time that Deegan will drive an open-wheel car. Back in 2019, when she was still in the ARCA Menards Series, she got an opportunity to drive in IndyCar at the worldwide Technology Raceway. Since then, Deegan remained fascinated by these cars. Although open wheeling is drastically different from stock racing, this isn’t the first time a driver has switched between the two series. The 1997 IndyCar champion went on to become a 4-time Cup Series Champion in NASCAR (thrice as a driver, once as owner). It was none other than Tony Stewart.

However, what is perhaps surprising to many is Hailie Deegan landing a ride with HMD Motorsports. The team is the reigning champion of the Series. A fairly new team, only having formed in 2017 and debuting in 2019 in the NXT series, has done wonders. The team won the 2021 team championship and the 2022 and 2023 driver championships. They have Deegan joining for all 14 races in 2025 in a lineup that includes Caio Collet, Josh Pieson, Tommy Smith, and Bryce Aron.

Recently Deegan opened up about how she ended up with HMD, She said, “I got to Indy I met with quite a few teams and kind of just seeing where would somewhere be that I have got home, that would work with my partners, everything. There’s so many pieces to the puzzle, hospitality side of things how can they come in certain things. So finding a team that was able to do all that was really important for me. But also have very quality cars, equipment, and program to be competitive and HMD has proven that they are so I think as a whole the team is able to offer me a lot of things that I need for myself.”

In her first season, all eyes would be on her and this could be Deegan’s chance to showcase the potential that she has. While HMD’s goal would be for Deegan to get good finishes, the 23-year-old is not putting too much emphasis on it. Speaking about her first-season goals, she said, “I have written down my goals already for the year before I even drove the car and none of them have finishing places on them. I think for me finishing places are kind of dumb when it comes to goals. For me I wanna progress, I wanna learn, I wanna learn the dynamics of these cars.”

Naturally, learning and adapting to the car is a top priority for Deegan owing to the vast differences in open-wheel and stock racing. The handling, the speed, and the grip all differ in the two. And the eager California native is gathering all the knowledge she can.

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Hailie Deegan on prepping for her new role

There is no doubt Deegan would take several runs to get used to this type of driving. In her first test run at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Deegan clocked a time of 1:18.9038, which placed her last in the line-up. While this had many fans ridicule her career change decision, it is crucial to note that this is only the second time she’s driven an open-wheel car. And the youngster knows she has a long way to go.

Deegan, post the session, said, “First time at Indianapolis in general so it’s definitely a lot to take in at once these cars are very very fun to drive. Very different from what I’m used to. I drove an open-wheel car one other time. So this is definitely a lot to take in. I feel there is so much more data and resources to go off of, stuff you can utilize, and learning how to utilize it to its fullest potential is what I’m gonna have to learn.”

According to Deegan, HMD Motorsports has given her all possible resources to learn the craft. She said, “That’s the nice side of HMD, there’s a lot of teammates they have a lot of quality drivers. A lot of data that I have never had access to in the past six years of my life, so there is a lot that you can utilize if you are willing to put in the work and utilize all that. Watching a bunch of footage, taking a bunch of notes, going through all the data, so much data to go over.”

Deegan’s plan is to capitalize on the success of her team by closely studying the runs of successful drivers. “A lot of quality drivers have driven at HMD, being able to utilize that side of things, to see exactly what they are doing at the exact moment. That’s something I have had.” And not just that. Deegan also has several years of karting experience backing her in this journey. Only time will tell if the results here are any different from NASCAR or not.

How do you think Deegan would fare in Indy NXT? Let us know in the comments below.