Hailie Deegan will no longer drive for AM Racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, AM announced July 8.
Deegan was originally replaced for the Chicago street course event by Joey Logano, who drove the No. 15 to an eighth-place finish.
“We are grateful for Hailie’s contributions and dedication as the driver of the No. 15 Ford Mustang during her time with the race team,” a spokesperson for AM said in a team release.
AM has not announced its plans for the remainder of the 2024 season.
“I worked hard to prepare for this season after the team pursued me to drive their car,” Deegan said in a release. “Unfortunately, it has not turned out the way that I expected.
“There are always several reasons within a race team as to why things do or do not work, but sadly our goals no longer align. With that being said, myself and AM Racing will be parting ways.”
Through 17 races, Deegan, running her first full-time Xfinity season, had a best finish of 12th, coming at Talladega Superspeedway.
She has not yet revealed what her plans are for the rest of the year.
About the author
Rutherford is the managing editor of Frontstretch, a position he gained in 2015 after serving on the editing staff for two years. At his day job, he's a journalist covering music and rock charts at Billboard. He lives in New York City, but his heart is in Ohio -- you know, like that Hawthorne Heights song.
A daily email update (Monday through Friday) providing racing news, commentary, features, and information from Frontstretch.com
We hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.
Oh well, your tens and tens of fans will still follow you on social media. Somewhere, Danica Patrick is smiling.
I think people are downvoting you, because of you highballing her fan count.
I tried to support her. But she makes Danica Patrick look like Jimmie Johnson,, Dale Earnhardt, and Richard Petty combined.
It is time to stop hyping the diversity program winners and go with who can do the job Period. Women and others are out there, just look at the NHRA. And anyone who can wrestle a funny car of a fuel dragster may have some ability in a stock car, but the Gray boys are having issues. Of course, Tanner drove Pro Stock, and that is reaction timing makes you and he has it.
Maybe someone without an agent and the despair encompassing the sport to land a diverse winner damaged her a great deal.
Of course, when you have mental lightweights running that part of NASCAR shows the challenges they face.
They propped up Darrell Jr. and now will pay the price for his temper tantrums. Raja Carruth is the real deal and will be a winner and crowd favorite. With him, Max Seagle and his team did it the right way.
Nascar turned their back on Joanna Long. She would mostly out run Danica in underfunded equipment. It is all about star power first.
You part her in a jr motorsports car then you can see how good or not good she really is.
You can’t be serious.. she did nothing in the Truck series in top flight equipment
The Truck series drivers are mostly neanderthals who would spin her out if she passed them.
I watch a bit of the Xfinity race most weeks. I have to say, I rarely heard her name mentioned, which tells me she was just running laps and not contending for wins. I don’t really pay much attention or follow the Xfinity series (like I do Cup) but I definitely know she wasn’t running in the top 20 very much.
Hailey Deegan has funding and will land quickly with another underfunded team So don’t expect to see much improvement overall
Natalie Decker keeps getting rides. So will Hailie Deegan. 30% of nascar fans are women and they like Deegan. Nascar ratings dropped when Danika Patrick left. A bigger problem for Deegan is named Isabella Robusto! Underfunded teams except for rss & am are chevy teams or Hailie would already have a ride.
I see northing wrong with Hallie Deegan the driver. She has the talent to do the job. I do see a problem with who she races against though. Men do not want to get beaten by a woman. They will rough her up and beat on her if they get a chance. She has to be more aggressive on restarts and during the race. Ford is also a drawback. Other than Custer in the 00 there are not many good Fords. If the Ford program was strong Herbst wouldn’t have dumped her and run with the other brands. She did not do well in trucks but she isn’t alone. She did not do good in AM car. But she ran great in Toyota in ARCA. Probably many other reasons for her to be dropped. Ford must have allowed it? So will she get in a Chevy or Toyota? I have no idea, I just hope she lands on her feet in a decent ride and does well.
“But she ran great in Toyota in ARCA”????? In her 2 years in NASCAR West (and occasionally East) she won 3 races, but more often finished between 15th and 25th. And if I remember right, didn’t she have to wreck someone to get one of those wins? In her time in ARCA she never won a race and usually finished somewhere between 6th and 10th in 20 car fields. Not terrible but hardly “great” either, especially when you consider she was driving top tier equipment in ARCA.
I lot of people want to blame the race team for her lack of success in Xfinity, but Brett Moffitt had an average finish 10 or 12 positions higher with the same team last year. AM Racing may not be a top team, but they’ve shown in the past that they’re a lot better team than Deegan’s result would indicate.
I don’t have a problem with women in racing, years ago I crewed for a woman who was a very good SCCA road racer. I think a competitive and successful woman driver would be good for NASCAR. I had high hopes for Deegan. I thought she might be the female racer that finally broke through in NASCAR to be a top performer on a regular basis.
Three races more than any other woman won. No she did not have to wreck people. I was not implying that she should. I was only saying that I think she may need to be more aggressive, never said wreck.
In all 3 of her wins, she dumped the leader on the last lap (including her own teammate). Sorry, I’m just not impressed by her.
Its funny you are using that excuse, considering that is done in Nascar’s 3 top tours almost every week.
There was a very popular 7 time Cup Champion that made a career of dumping people for wins! Just ask Terry Labonte!
And you didn’t see me shed any tears when he ate the 4th turn wall at Daytona, either.
It’s not an excuse. I’m just not impressed with drivers that don’t have the talent to win a race without wrecking someone.