Hailie Deegan gets candid about 'super uncomfortable' Indy NXT moment and 'wild' St. Pete debut

The 23-year-old Hailie Deegan had her first taste of Indy NXT at the 2025 season-opener in St. Petersburg (March 2). She finished her Grand Prix outing in P14, and with some time having passed since the event, she talked about her experience via her YouTube channel

Moreover, she specifically shed light on how uncomfortable she felt driving an Indy NXT car for the very first time. In line with this, in a video uploaded on her YouTube channel on March 14, she said:

"It was my first time in the car, so I felt super uncomfortable. Yeah, I'm working on it. It's hard, for sure. It's more the physical side of things that I struggle with a little bit. But I'm enjoying it. St. Pete was wild. I've never raced on street course before; it's very very tight, so it was definitely like a being careful type of deal," Deegan said (2:00 onwards).

For the 2025 Indy NXT season, Hailie Deegan is driving for the Brownsburg, Indiana-based HMD Motorsports racing team.

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Hailie Deegan opens up on her goals for 2025 Indy NXT season

NASCAR Xfinity Series Hy-Vee Perks 250 - Practice - Source: Getty

While Hailie Deegan recently talked about her first Indy NXT outing via her YT Channel, ahead of the ongoing season, she also had an interaction with IndyCar media, wherein she talked about her goals for the Indy NXT season.

Deegan transitioned to open-wheel racing after failing to secure a sponsorship needed to run in the Xfinity Series. Highlighting her goals for her maiden IndyCar season, she said:

"I wrote down my goals already for the year before I even drove the car, and none of them have finishing places on them. I think finishing places are kind of dumb when it comes to goals because if you have one big wreck, like first turn and take out 10 cars, it's like, ‘Oh, yeah, we got our top 10 for the year," Deegan said.

Hailie Deegan has a wealth of racing experience. At the age of just 23, she has already had her taste of top American motorsports such as the NASCAR Xfinity Series (18 Grand Prix), Craftsman Truck Series (69 Grand Prix, five top-tens), and also the ARCA Menards series (26 races, 21 top-tens).

Considering her age, Deegan has a long racing career ahead of her. The ongoing Indy NXT season is only 1 Round down, and there are still a total of 13 events remaining on the race calendar.

Next up for Deegan and Co. is the Grand Prix of Alabama at the Barber Motorsports Park, a 2.3-mile permanent race course with 17 turns and an elevation change of 80 feet. The race weekend is scheduled to take place from the 2nd of May onward, with the main race on the 4th.