Hailie Deegan Unravels Her Bitter-Sweet Relationship With Daytona After Her Racing Strategy Fell Apart

Published 02/22/2024, 2:51 PM EST

NASCAR driver Hailie Deegan‘s early departure from the Xfinity race stirred concerns within the motorsport community. She found herself caught up in a multi-car wreck at the famed Daytona International Speedway. This eventually led to her elimination, along with other drivers, on 19th February.

The 23rd lap witnessed a nasty scene as Hailie Deegan collided with Daniel Suarez, Sam Mayer, and Kyle Weatherman. This plunged Deegan down to a disheartening 37th position. While all the drivers managed to escape major injuries, Deegan opened up on the incident and spoke about what went wrong for her at the Daytona.

Hailie Deegan saw her Daytona strategy fall to bits

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Deegan shared a video on her YouTube channel, where she shared moments from the race day. From arriving at the venue to preparing for the race, the video has it all. She explained what did not work for her at the Xfinity race. Apart from that, Deegan uncovered her strategy, which she gathered from her previous racing experiences.

“Daytona was not good for us. We’ve tried a different strategy. We’ve tried every strategy in the past. I’ve tried the go super hard in the beginning, but ended up in it. I’ve tried to hang way back and ended up in it.”

Taking about this past weekend’s race, she said, “And this time I was like you know what I’m going to try the strategy of hanging behind the first pack just a few car lenghts, so I’m still there enough. I’m not super far back but maybe enough to be able to avoid the wreck.”

Deegan explained that she strategized hanging a little back at the first and second stages and going hard at the third. She was going as per her plan when the wreck happened in the first stage itself. The advantage of hanging back, Deegan sensed the wreck and applied her brakes immediately, but the drivers coming after her could not do the same. The result was the unpleasant collision that we all witnessed.

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Deegan talks about her plans for Atlanta!

Since this was just Hailie Deegan’s debut for AM Racing, she is optimistic about her future. She plans to go hard from the beginning of the next race: RAPTOR King of Tough 250 at Atlanta.

She will also certainly try to acquire a good track position. “I get it it’s Daytona. It’s so hard to have the right strategy to slow down quick enough and it is what it is and you kind of know that going into it, so this week coming up we got Atlanta.”

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Hailie Deegan: “Bad Relationship With Daytona” Stole Xfinity Series Debut With AM Racing

What do you think Deegan has in store for her next race at Atlanta, which according to her, is a ‘mimi superspeedway’?

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Written by:

Mamata Mukherjee is a NASCAR Writer at EssentiallySports. Combining her love for writing and motorsports she has created some interesting and in-depth stories on drivers like Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Coming to ES with 3 years of experience in the field of writing, Mamata feels right at home in her role as a NASCAR Journalist.

Edited by:

Ranvijay Singh

Hailie Deegan Unravels Her Bitter-Sweet Relationship With Daytona After Her Racing Strategy Fell Apart

Hailie Deegan saw her Daytona strategy fall to bits

Deegan talks about her plans for Atlanta!

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