In Pictures: Hailie Deegan shares snapshots as she prepares for Indy NXT

Hailie Deegan was announced as HMD Motorsports 2025 Indy NXT driver earlier this year in October. She is the daughter of famous Motocross rider Brian Deegan and made a name for herself in stock car racing. While most IndyCar and NXT drivers are away on a trip during the off-season or are preparing for the holiday season, Deegan is working her way at the track as she prepares for her Indy NXT debut.

Famous photographer and videographer Isabella with the username @bellakshoots on Instagram uploaded photos from Hailie Deegan's track day. Isabella has over 1.1 Million followers on her Instagram and usually posts automotive content. Deegan took to the track in the FR Racing car as she continued to practice in the open-wheel racing machinery.

The photographer uploaded five pictures from Hailie Deegan's test with the Toney Driver Development team FR car. The post included pictures of the 23-year-old getting ready to pilot on her #38 FR Racing car, a few closeups of Deegan's all-black helmet with the Monster sponsorship, and an image of her seated in the car as the engineer made the final adjustments. The caption read:

“The legend herself miss @hailiedeegan”

Hailie Deegan recently uploaded a vlog on her YouTube channel titled, “Off-Season Grind Continues… Testing at Sebring.” The American conducted test sessions in the FR Racing car in the YouTube video detailing how she planned to find the limits of the open-wheel racing machinery.

Deegan said in her YouTube video:

“So we did make some laps yesterday. I felt like I got up to speed pretty good, learned the track, which was my goal for this test. But now, since I have a whole another day, I really want to focus on pushing myself more. Really like pushing and finding that limit, getting my roll speed up in the center of the corner. I feel like my entries are fine. I drive into the right spot in the corner, but I really need to work on just rolling the center.” [2:25 onwards]

Hailie Deegan drove an open-wheel racing machine for the first time earlier this year in the Formula Regional Americas Championship in the last two races of the championship for the Toney Development Driver team.

Ken Schrader shares his opinion about Hailie Deegan's father's claim

Hailie Deegan poses on the grid with her mother, Marissa Deegan, and father, and professional freestyle motocross rider, Brian Deegan, and brother Haiden Deegan - Source: Getty

Hailie Deegan began her NASCAR career in 2018 in the K&N Pro Series and finished 5th in the championship that season while following it up with a 3rd place finish in 2019. She then moved to the Truck series in 2020 and couldn't manage a single Top 5 result.

Kenny Wallace on his YouTube channel asked Ken Schrader for an opinion about Brian Deegan's claim that NASCAR isn't ready for a successful girl race car driver.

Ken Schrader said:

“Well, I don't believe that. I mean, I think about it some, but I don't. NASCAR's ready for whoever the next successful driver is. I gotta believe that there’s nothing that Daytona Beach would like better than for a female, to be climbing out with some consistency of these vehicles in Victory Lane. Who wouldn’t want that?” [4:07 onwards]

“There’s thousands of good racers throughout the country. What percentage of them are even going to get to run at cup or Xfinity or whatever, our truck? And then what percentage of them are actually going to get to frequent Victory Lane?” Schrader added.

"So now we take all those thousands of drivers, and then we take just the female drivers. Well the chances are, just you know, statistically it’s just not near the chance. But doesn’t mean they can’t,” he said.

After announcing her Indy NXT move, Deegan tested with HMD Motorsports in the NXT car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in October.