Ken Schrader makes his opinion clear on Hailie Deegan’s father’s claim of NASCAR not ready for ‘successful girl race car driver’ 

Hailie Deegan will be racing in the Indy NXT series for the 2025 season. HMD Motorsports announced the American's signing in October.

Deegan raced in the NASCAR K&N Pro and the Truck series in recent years. Kenny Wallace and Ken Schrader discussed Hailie Deegan's Indy NXT move and also her father's claim about NASCAR.

Kenny Wallace on his YouTube channel, for episode 5 of Herm & Schrader, asked Schrader:

“Brian Deegan said, I don't think NASCAR is ready for a successful girl race car driver. What do you think?”

Ken Schrader replied:

“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 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?” (3:55 onwards)

He continued:

“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?

"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.”

Hailie Deegan is the daughter of the infamous Motocross and Rallycross rider Brian Deegan.

Hailie started her racing career in the dirt, just like her father, but moved to asphalt racing in 2017. She raced in various NASCAR series from 2018 to 2023. The American made her open-wheel racing debut in 2024 in the Formula Regional Americas Championship.

Deegan was successful in her early asphalt racing years in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series, finishing P5 in 2018 and P3 in 2019. However, she failed to get a single podium or a top 5 result in her next three years at the Craftsman Truck Series.

Hailie Deegan participated in the Indy NXT test at IMS in October and shared her experience.

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“It's definitely odd”: Hailie Deegan shares her experience after stepping into the Indy NXT car for the first time

NASCAR Xfinity: Sonoma 250 - Source: Imagn

Hailie Deegan’s first experience in an open-wheel car was driving the Toney Development Driver team's FR car for the final two races of the season. She soon announced her move to INDY NXT and tested the HMD Motorsports car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the Chris Griffis Memorial test.

Hailie Deegan said (via IndyNXT.com):

“It's definitely odd. I could tell you that it's different not having a windshield. That’s something when you race at Daytona, you don't think about.

"On this side of things, you feel like your head's going to rip off. That’s something that I'm definitely having to get used to. Not having the windshield and being able to really feel everything is unique.”

Deegan continues to practice the open-wheel racing cars with the Toney Development Driver team as she visited the Sebring International Raceway earlier this month.