DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.: Ford Performance driver Hailie Deegan has certainly had her fair share of track time at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway over the last two weeks.
The two-time ARCA Menards Series West winner participated in The Roar Before the Rolex 24 last weekend in preparation for her first Sports Car start in the BMW Endurance Challenge on Jan. 24.
This weekend, Deegan is only turning left in a stock car as she’s piloting the No. 4 DGR-Crosley Ford Fusion in preparation for her series debut at the 2.5-mile superspeedway in next month’s Lucas Oil 200 Driven by General Tire.
“It’s really been a bucket list thing,” Deegan says of driving at Daytona. “I’ve been coming here for years, coming to every DAYTONA 500. Now to be driving on this track where so many famous and legendary drivers have been racing, it’s been an eye-opener to how great this track is and how great this sport is.
“I think being on the track previously, even if it was in the Mustang GT4 going a lot slower, it made my confidence equal out so that I was not nervous coming here. I was pretty comfortable and knew what to expect. I expected it to feel a little better faster. The car feels really good. I came out of the gate it feels really good.”
Set to compete fulltime in the ARCA Menards Series this year, Deegan says while winning is important, she’ll be competing at tracks she’s never seen. With the learning curve she’s set to tackle over the next nine months, she says it’s important to remain competitive throughout her rookie season.
“I think what is most important to me is to be competitive week-in and week-out. Not winning a race and then not finishing. I want to be competitive week-in and week-out,” She added. “I might set goals to win a race or a few but it will take time to get comfortable with everyone here – all the new people, a new crew chief, stuff like that. It’s just a matter of time before finding our niche.”
Leaving the Toyota campaign and joining Ford Performance, Deegan says her transition to DGR Crosley has been smooth and has enjoyed talking to team co-owner David Gilliland and getting herself up to speed for what awaits this season.
“I think being part of DGR-Crosley has been awesome,” she said. “David (Gilliland) has been amazing to work with. What I really like is that he’s raced before. He knows what it takes to race, and he knows what it’s like to have a kid in the racing world trying to make it. He runs a successful, winning team.”
Of course, being a female competitor puts a lot of energy and spotlight on Deegan, but she’s not worried about living up to everyone’s expectations.
Her outlook is simple, Focus on what she wants to accomplish and conquer.
“My main focus is on what I want to accomplish. I’m not really worried about anyone else. In this garage, everyone is running their own program,” she said. “Some people have sponsors, some people’s dads pay the bills, everyone’s different. I don’t think you should compare yourself to anyone else because everyone is in a different situation.”
With a solid day of testing in the books on Friday, Deegan says she wanted to leave the track on Saturday afternoon knowing she was plenty comfortable both in single-car and drafting trim.
“At this test, the bottom line is to get comfortable and get a good baseline set-up and figuring out where we are in compared to some of our competitors.”
But before Deegan can circle around Daytona for 80 laps in hopes of becoming the first female winner in ARCA Menards Series, she’ll look to carry the confidence of her ISMA test.
“It (Rolex test) went really good,” she said. “At first I was totally lost and a few seconds off the pace. Between the ABS, the paddle shifters and traction control, those were all things
I’ve never really worked with before and so it was all new to me. I was not used to driving a car with that much grip.
“You really rely on the car a lot and you can drive it almost as hard as you want to get it to do what you want it to do. Once I learned to trust the car more, I was right there in times with Austin (Cindric) and Chase (Briscoe). It’s going to take more practice to get their pace at the racing level. As of now, pace-wise, I definitely think we were right there.”
Two weeks later though, Deegan knows the game will change considerably for the ARCA Menards Series race.
“Patience is going to be huge. I’m trying to build relationships with the drivers trying to figure out who is going to help, who is not going to help and who I can trust. That’s going to a big thing (in the race).”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
