Hailie Deegan’s return to NASCAR is finally taking shape, but Bill McAnally is not rushing her straight back into a full-time Truck Series campaign. Instead, the team owner has outlined a gradual two-year plan that will see the 25-year-old chase another ARCA Menards Series West championship in 2027.
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This is in addition to also getting selected opportunities in the NASCAR Truck Series. The bigger target is to have her ready for a full-time Truck campaign in 2028.
As per a tweet by Alan Cavanna on X, McAnally confirmed the plans during an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Deegan will continue with Bill McAnally Racing (BMR) in the West Series, where she will once again compete for the championship. However, the organisation also intends to give her a route back into NASCAR’s national divisions through a part-time programme with McAnally-Hilgemann Racing.
“We’re going to continue our ARCA West program. We’ve got Hailie Deegan signed for that. We’re going to run for the championship out west this year,” McAnally said as per an On3 report. He added that the team was working on its second ARCA entry and was excited about giving Deegan another opportunity to contend for the title.
The Truck Series opportunity is the more significant development. McAnally indicated that, provided everything falls into place, Deegan will make selected appearances in a fourth entry for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing in 2027. The idea is to build her experience before potentially moving her into a full-season programme the following year.
“I think Hailie will be a contender in the Trucks, but we’re just taking our time with her now, we want to make sure she’s ready. She’s been there and hasn’t had the results that she needed to continue her NASCAR career, and when we take her this time, she’s going to be ready and prepared to go out there to run with the trucks and finish respectfully,” he explained.
That last point is important. Deegan’s return is not being treated as an attempt to simply get her back into a national series as quickly as possible. McAnally wants her to rebuild the confidence and consistency necessary to compete before committing to a full schedule.
Her 2026 ARCA West campaign has provided a convincing starting point. Deegan returned to stock-car racing with BMR after spending 2025 in Indy NXT, and the reunion quickly produced results. She won the Madera 150 in September with a last-lap pass on reigning series champion Trevor Huddleston, ending a drought of 2,667 days since her previous ARCA West victory.
The emotional reaction in Victory Lane revealed how much the result meant to her. Deegan fought back tears while thanking the people who had continued to support her through the difficult stretch.
“It’s been hard. It’s been hard. It’s been super hard,” she said after the Madera victory. Her second win arrived at Kern Raceway in the season finale, where she led the rain-shortened event and was declared the winner after 42 laps. Deegan ultimately finished fourth in the championship standings, while Huddleston secured his second consecutive title.
For BMR, those performances validated the decision to bring her back. The organisation had previously worked with Deegan during her 2018 and 2019 ARCA West campaigns, when she collected three victories across two seasons.
McAnally has also spoken about her ability to communicate what a car needs to become faster, describing that quality as something he recognised when she first tested for the team at just 15 years old.
“I think Hailie, her development is going very well. She got out ahead of her skis a little bit, but she is grounded now, one-hundred percent focused, and wants to take this West Series on and win a championship and contend for a championship,” McAnally added in the same interaction based on the On3 report.
The road back has been anything but straightforward. Deegan competed full-time in the Truck Series from 2021 through 2023, making 69 starts during that period and recording five top-10 finishes. She moved to the Xfinity Series with AM Racing in 2024, but the partnership ended after 17 races.
Rather than immediately pursuing another NASCAR seat, she switched disciplines and joined HMD Motorsports for the 2025 Indy NXT season. She finished 14th in the standings across 14 starts, without a podium.
Her return to BMR in 2026 was therefore an opportunity to rebuild rather than simply resume where she had left off. It also coincided with an admission that finding the necessary financial backing for a NASCAR comeback had been a major obstacle. In October, Deegan said she wanted to return to Truck racing but could not make the move happen independently.
“I wish I could say, because I wish I could just do it myself, but I can’t,” she admitted, explaining how difficult it was to secure sponsorship commitments early enough for teams to plan their programs.
McAnally’s announcement now gives that ambition a clearer route. His Truck operation already has Nick Sanchez, Daniel Hemric and Christian Eckes among its announced full-time drivers for 2027, with a fourth entry being considered for Deegan’s part-time appearances.
There is still work to do before the 2028 target becomes a confirmed full-time commitment. No complete Truck schedule or final sponsorship package for Deegan has been announced. But the important change is that her comeback now has a team behind it, a competitive programme to continue developing in and a defined progression towards NASCAR’s national level.
After the setbacks of the past few seasons, Deegan is no longer simply hoping to find her way back. McAnally is building that opportunity around her, with the expectation that she will be better prepared when the next Truck Series chapter begins.