Hailie Deegan was totally blindsided by Riley Herbst’s selfish move. After a killer rookie season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series last year with Brett Moffitt behind the wheel, AM Racing kicked off their second year with Hailie Deegan driving the full 33-race slate in 2024. And she has been doing better with every race. At Talladega also, she was in a sweet spot after the final restart, gunning for a top finish.

But instead of teaming up with Deegan to shoot for a top-3 spot, Tony Stewart’s driver, Riley Herbst, pulled a stunt that dropped her down to P12 place. Clearly miffed, Hailie Deegan and her crew didn’t hold back from calling Riley Herbst out for everyone to hear.

Unhappy Hailie Deegan’s crew openly called Riley Herbst out over the radio

Shocked by what went down, Hailie Deegan couldn’t hide her frustration, saying, “I don’t know why the 98 did that at all.”  One of her crew members jumped in, most likely shaking his head, “He wasn’t ever going to stay with us. That’s him. 12 Good job all day. He does it every time. It doesn’t matter who it is. He does it to everybody. Every time he will not help anybody out. He’s all about himself. He will not help anybody out. He’s all about himself.”

During the final laps, the race was nothing short of chaotic. Austin Hill was leading unexpectedly at the Super Speedway. With just two laps left, his #21 car wobbled and got a bump from Parker Kligerman, sending it sideways and triggering a pile-up that shook up the field and pushed the race into overtime. After a messy first overtime restart where leaders crashed out, the race hit a second overtime. Suddenly, all the fresh faces from Xfinity were in front, including Leland Honeyman Jr., Joey Gase, Caesar Bacarella, and rookie Hailie Deegan gunning for the lead.

The 22-year-old AM Racing driver, Deegan, lined up on the outside of the second row as they rolled out on the 2.66-mile track. Riley Herbst, behind the wheel of the #98 and starting from the inside of the fifth row, quickly moved up to tail one of the few remaining Fords in the race, driven by Deegan. From the broadcast booth, Ryan Blaney pointed out the potential teamwork between the blue ovals as they zoomed past the start-finish line, gearing up for the final lap.

But on the contrary, running fifth but leading the outside line, the #15 had the #98 of Herbst right on its bumper. And moments later, Herbst swung to the top of the track, making it three-wide and putting Deegan smack in the middle. Over the next stretch, while the Stewart Haas racing driver charged ahead to an impressive second-place finish, Deegan fell back, winding up 12th—her best result yet in the Xfinity Series.

Understandably, she was pretty sour about it after the race. During her post-race interview, you could tell she was stung, having just missed out on her first top-5 finish in her Xfinity career.

The #15 driver smacked the wall in frustration when she got back to the hauler

Momentum really counts in racing, and after a rocky start with a couple of DNFs in the first four races of 2024, Deegan’s been picking up steam. She’s managed to place 23rd or better in four out of the last five races. You could see her improvement; after finishing P18 at Martinsville, she finished P12 at Talladega, but she was so close to breaking into the top-5.

That near-miss must have been gnawing at her. Reflecting the same during her post-race interview, the #10 AM Racing driver shared, “It was all falling in order, and then we fired off on the final restart, and I was pretty much the only car on the outside but didn’t get any help. I got left off the drive completely. I tried to block a run from behind, but I knew if I kept trying to do that I was going to get wrecked, so, honestly, it’s a great finish for what we’ve had this year. I think I punched the wall pretty hard when I got back to the hauler because I was so upset after the position we were in,” she said, as per AMracing.com.

Not to mention, if she keeps up these strong finishes, this superspeedway race might just be the breakthrough she needed, setting her up for better finishes and maybe even a top-5 or two down the road.