"Don't squish your balls" - Hailie Deegan shares unfiltered footage of her brother experiencing an Indy NXT car

Hailie Deegan moved away from stock car racing and signed with HMD Motorsports for the 2025 Indy NXT season. The race at the Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg was Deegan's debut in the Indy NXT series. The 23-year-old shared unfiltered footage of her brother stepping into her open-wheel racing car.

Deegan uploaded a video on YouTube on March 5, titled “My First Indy NXT Race! *St. Pete Raceday Vlog*”. She shared clips from her first Indy NXT weekend in the form of a vlog. Most of the video revolved around racing, and Hailie described her performance in various sessions at St. Pete.

However, a part of the video was about Hailie Deegan’s brother, Haiden Deegan, attempting to get inside the Indy NXT car. Unlike stock cars, a driver essentially lays down inside the open-wheel racing cars to keep the center of gravity as low as possible. Haiden faced some issues while stepping inside the car. Hailie said:

“Don’t squish your ball” (5:50 onwards)

Haiden stood clueless inside the car, wondering how to sit in the limited space available. Hailie instructed her brother step by step. Once the 25-year-old sat inside the car, Haiden started playing around with the steering wheel and paddle shifters.

“Bro, this is sketchy, I'd die so fast”, said Hailie's brother.

Hailie Deegan had a tough first weekend in the Indy NXT series. The American was many seconds off the pace of the leaders in the practice and was the slowest one in her group during the qualifying session. Deegan started from last on the grid but made steady progress to finish P14.

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Hailie Deegan reacts to her family’s presence on her Indy NXT debut

Hailie Deegan’s family attended the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and spoke with FOX reporter Jamie Little after the Indy NXT qualifying session.

Little questioned Hailie's father and Motocross legend Brian Deegan about his feelings as her daughter made her debut in the series. Brian said:

“You know, for her to take on a new challenge. I know it's a steep learning curve for her, but I'm excited. As a parent, you like to see that. And nervous, right? It’s still our daughter going very fast in her very small race car. So it's nerve wracking. But it's cool to see a new sport like this for her.”

Hailie Deegan shared the video of her father and Jamie Little having a conversation on Instagram and thanked her family for attending the race. The caption of the story read:

“Glad the fam was able to make it out for my first @indynxt race! It's tough trying to make it to another races when the whole family is racing.”

Hailie showed improvement during the St. Pete weekend, where she was many seconds behind the leader in practice to being just 3 seconds off the leader in qualifying. The race pace wasn't poor, with Deegan lapping just a second or two slower than the leaders.