Hailie Deegan, the No. 15 Ford driver for AM Racing, didn't get the help she needed from a fellow Ford to get a better result at Talladega. This left her angry at the other driver in question, Riley Herbst. But interestingly, her team wasn't surprised.
Deegan, who finished #12 in the AG-PRO 300, needed to run in front of the #98 of Herbst. But during a crucial moment in the final few seconds of the race, Herbst got out of line and left the #15 of Deegan alone.
In a radio message from those final few moments of the race, Deegan's team member can be heard asking her to get herself connected to the #98 so they can surge. However, Herbst had other ideas as he decided not to help Deegan and pull out of line.
As the checkered flag dropped, Deegan was told her team had no idea why Herbst raced ahed and that he was never going to stay with them, to which she had a pretty explosive reply.
"He's f***ing kidding me? I can't believe the #98 did that," she said.
The response Deegan received on her radio was that Herbst's actions were unsurprising because "he does it every time."
"It don't matter who it is. He does it to everybody. Every time, he will not help anybody out. He's all about himself," Deegan's team member added.
Hailie Deegan was left angry after her Talladega finish
Hailie Deegan's post-race comments reflected her bitterness with what could've been a better finish than 12th as she had a big window of opportunity to get a result.
Looking back on the final restart, Deegan mentioned how she was "pretty much the only car on the outside" but didn't get any help.
“I got left off the drive completely. I tried to block a run from behind, but I knew if I kept trying to do that I was going to get wrecked, so, honestly, it’s a great finish for what we’ve had this year," she said (via SpeedSport).
“I think I punched the wall pretty hard when I got back to the hauler because I was so upset after the position we were in,” Deegan added.
But even though the result for Deegan at Talladega could've been a lot better than a 12th-place finish had Herbst helped her out, it's worth mentioning that this result is her best yet in the Xfinity Series.
So far she's had three finishes inside the top 20 and currently, she is 24th on the points table with 115 points.