Hailie Deegan likely to concentrate on truck series early in 2022 season

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Hailie Deegan will be dividing her time in the driver's seat once the new season starts next month. Deegan's focus will shift between her regular truck commitment and putting in seat time for Ford in select Xfinity races.

The 20-year-old finished her first full season driving for the newly-rebranded David Gilliland Racing in 2021, during which she had an unfortunate incident in the opening Daytona truck race in February.

Per a tweet from Bob Pockrass, Deegan is expected to concentrate on her trucking early in 2022:

Racing is in Deegan's blood and it comes as naturally to her as breathing. Her father, Brian Deegan, is no stranger to dirt as he competed in quite a few off-road motocross races himself. After winning the ARCA Menards series in 2018, the younger Deegan was named Rookie of the Year in NASCAR's K&N Pro Series West in 2020.

That success, however, did not transfer very well when Deegan moved up to premier level. She has only managed one top-10 finish in 23 career Camping World starts going back to last year's February Daytona race.

With an average start of 18th and an average finish of 20th to this point, the California racer will need to focus even harder, now that her priorities will be split between two different racing series.

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Hailie Deegan's racing roots

Hailie Deegan has been involved in the racing world thanks in no small part to her father Brian Deegan, a legendary racer in his own right. He won a total of 14 medals in Freestyle Motocross at the X Games and survived multiple broken bones, a lacerated spleen, and the loss of a kidney.

That competitive drive and desire rubbed off on his eldest daughter Hailie. After her first race at eight years old — which she won — her first championship win came four years later when she won the Junior 2 Karts, becoming the first girl to do so. Victory after victory soon followed, as did media attention, before she even graduated high school.

The aggression that was always present in Brian Deegan, however, also manifests itself in Hailie, as she has been accused by other drivers of bump drafting and not playing by the rules. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen how she will take on her split duties this year.