Hailie Deegan will embark on his maiden season in single-seater racing with HMD Motorsports in 2025.
The former NASCAR star and three-time most-popular driver of the Craftsman Truck Series will test the waters in Indy NXT alongside Bryce Aron.
She joins British Andretti star Jamie Chadwick as the only female drivers on the grid – with her new rival having already stamped her authority with a win at Road America last season.
Based on her lack of notable performance throughout her racing career, worries about how she might fare in a discipline she hasn’t tried before are fair, but she could yet enjoy success.
Kenny Wallace says Hailie Deegan to Indy NXT is a ‘good idea’
Former NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace is one of those with the ‘controversial’ opinion that she might perform better in Indy NXT.
Across 87 NASCAR races, she accrued five top-10 finishes, with a best result of sixth achieved twice at Talladega and Texas.
Speaking on his YouTube channel about the move, Wallace backed Deegan to come out strongly next season.
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“The reason I think this is a good idea and this is a controversial take and I know it is. They can’t run into her like they did in NASCAR.
“There’s so many jealous men that race in NASCAR, that they could take the vehicle and use it like a weapon and run into her. It happened all the time, we watched it.”
What could be Deegan’s undoing in Indy NXT?
As mentioned before, Deegan has no single-seater racing experience and has mainly been an oval or stock car driver.
It’s a rarely attempted move and is something that will be a struggle for her as she adjusts to life outside of the closed cockpit.
She will be competing against drivers who have been in similar cars for the majority of their careers and know no different.
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Plenty of hard work in the simulator and testing days lie ahead over the next five months, with intense preparation required.
However, if the move pays off, it’ll massively benefit all sides of the coin, with Deegan receiving a platform to kick on with and IndyCar to inherit a lot of her fans.