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Indy NXT sensation Hailie Deegan participated in her first oval test earlier this week at the Nashville Superspeedway. The 23-year-old featured on IndyCar's YouTube channel where she reflected on her test run around the 1.330 mile Superspeedway and detailed her rise in confidence.
Deegan made her Indy NXT debut at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg where the American struggled with pace. It was her first competitive outing in the Indy NXT car as she had only raced the Formula Regional car previously.
The 23-year-old was consistently multiple seconds off the pace of the leaders at St. Pete and qualified dead last for the race. She finished the race in P14, just a few positions behind teammate Sophia Floersch in P12.
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Hailie Deegan had previously only raced in stock cars and midget sprint cars, which raced around the oval. Therefore, the road course at St. Pete was bound to be tough for the American. However, she found herself at home during the Nashville oval test. Commenting on the increase in confidence following the oval test, she said (via Indy NXT):
“Well, guys, we just got done here at Nashville. This was my first oval test in the NXT car. It was awesome. It's so much fun. It was a lot to build up to, confidence wise. I knew that today I was gonna have to go out here and be able to hold it wide open to be on pace and we were able to build up to that. Had some slight dilemmas in the morning, that we had to figure out what's inside the car.” (0:25 onwards)
“But once you got that all sorted, the car was super comfortable, super comfortable on the inside, setup wise, everything. So I feel like we got a really good balance on it. Obviously I feel like we're getting a little bit better every single time. Hit the track, so I knew the ovals would be a little more comfortable for me,” added Hailie Deegan.
The 23-year-old completed 127 laps around the Nashville Superspeedway with a best lap time of 00:25.9388. Hailie Deegan in the No. 38 HMD Motorsport car finished the test session in P15 out of the 19 drivers that participated in the test.
Hailie Deegan on the issue that plagued her Indy NXT test at Nashville
Although Hailie Deegan had the experience of driving a car around ovals at 190+ miles per hour, doing the same in an open-wheel car is a different experience and requires different skills. The American faced an issue with her helmet where the win dwas getting under her helmet and lifting it, causing an issue. Speaking about the same in her YouTube video, she said:
“We did the install lap for the gears and stuff, but I haven't got to really make a lap just yet. I'm having an issue with my head trying to rip off on the straightaways. Air is getting under my helmet and I think it was my seating position that I was in the car. So we worked on it a little bit, working on the header, working on a few things.” (1:50 onwards)
Dennis Hauger was the fastest at the Indy NXT test and Deegan was just four-tenths off his pace.
