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Veteran NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick expects Hailie Deegan to go through a "tough transition" as she prepares her move to the Indy NXT Series in the 2025 season. He also feels she could yield better results after her disappointing stint with Ford in the Xfinity Series.
Deegan made her full-time debut in the series with AM Racing this season but was replaced right before the Chicago race after a series of subpar performances. The drivers who replaced her performed well instantly, which raised further doubts about her performance.
While she did not have a drive in NASCAR for the 2025 season, HMD Motorsports signed her to drive in the Indy NXT series, a build-up series for the IndyCar championship.
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Former NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick, assessing her move, explained that moving to the open-wheel series would be a "tough transition" for her.
"It's going to be a tough transition because it's just a completely different car," Harvick said on his namesake podcast.
Harvick further explained that Hailie Deegan could have been far more successful if she had continued with the Toyota program. However, after finishing third in the ARCA series, she moved to Ford, and Harvick assessed that it was at this point her performance went into a downward spiral.
"I don't know much about the Indy NXT program and everything that goes with that. But, you know, I'm glad that she's hopefully happy and being able to race and do something that she's enjoying. But, you know, I think, we can go back and talk about this scenario and the moment that she stepped out of that Toyota program. [This] was kind of the turning point of the NASCAR piece of what Hailie Deegan does. I thought that, you know, she was in a great position to be successful while she was in that Toyota system. And then as soon as she got out of that and went into the situation that she got in with Ford, it just spiralled out of control in the wrong direction. So hopefully she gets a fresh restart over there."
Hailie Deegan on her decision to move to Indy: "I did good on that side"
Deegan's move to the open-wheel series came unprecedented for many. She had mostly raced in stock cars up to this point in her career, and as Harvick mentioned, Indy has "completely different car[s]."
However, it wasn't the cars that Hailie Deegan looked upon while choosing Indy as the next stop in her racing career. She claimed that she raced better on road courses with better qualifying positions.
"I kind of was just poking around, talking a little bit," Deegan said. "A few people that like I grew up go-karting with and like just kind of asking questions and seeing it out. I was like, 'Let's go to the IndyCar race at Iowa. Let's go check it out. Why not.' Just kind of to see what it's all about and when we started weighing out me as a driver, like my pros and cons [and] my best qualities in my driving are."
It was then that she decided to give Indy a try.
"Like, I like high grip stuff. I like places, tracks here are wide open a lot. I love road courses. Besides this past year, some of my best runs have been on road courses and best overall. Best qualifying and all that. The IMSA stuff on top of that, I did good on that side. So, I was like, 'Man, maybe we should really look at this avenue.'"
Hailie Deegan is now set to drive the #38 for HMD Motorsports in the Indy NXT for the 2025 season.
