HAILIE DEEGAN’s Brutal INDY NXT Rookie Season Sparks Fan Retirement Calls

September 1, 2025

by Rajnish Kumar // from www.essentiallysports.com

GRRL! musings:

In gathering news for GRRL! for a couple of years now, we’ve noticed an interesting pattern: “fans” and “experts” calling for a woman to get out of a class of racing even if she has more racers behind her in the standings than in front.

In Hailie’s case, Mr. Kumar doesn’t focus on the 13 racers behind Hailie in the standings (that’s 13 racers behind Hailie that should also “retire” from IndyNXT), but amplifies hateful fan shouts for dear Hailie’s seat. You never see vitriol about a male racer in the middle of or bottom of the standings. Maybe there’s something else at play here. GRRL! wonders what it could possibly be…

GRRL! SUMMARY:

HAILIE DEEGAN’s bold leap from NASCAR to INDY NXT in 2025 turned into a learning experience that had fans questioning everything. After making history as the first woman to win in NASCAR K&N Pro Series West and earning ARCA Rookie of the Year honors, her open-wheel debut with HMD Motorsports delivered a reality check: zero wins, zero top-10s, and a 14th-place points finish in 14 races. The physical demands hit different too—she went from calling NASCAR “unphysical” to icing her hands after road course battles.
The criticism isn’t just noise when the numbers tell the story this clearly. DEEGAN managed only four top-15 finishes in a 20-car average field, with her best qualifying effort of 11th at Laguna Seca failing to translate to race-day execution. Her own words reveal the struggle: “I just didn’t feel comfortable pushing as hard as I felt I needed,” highlighting the gap between stock car instincts and open-wheel precision that left her consistently fighting in the mid-to-lower pack.
Social media became the ultimate accountability mirror, with fans serving up everything from constructive suggestions to brutal reality checks. The “remember when people hyped her as the next big thing” comments hit hardest, referencing those wild 2023 rumors about replacing Kevin Harvick at Stewart-Haas Racing. Now fans are suggesting late models and CARS Tour runs to rebuild fundamentals, while others push for a return to her dirt racing roots where the Deegan family legacy actually lives.
Here’s what we’re watching: HMD Motorsports downsizing to four cars in 2026 puts DEEGAN’s seat in question right when she needs stability most. Her September 2024 Formula Regional test showed flashes of speed, but INDY NXT’s adaptation struggles suggest the learning curve is steeper than anyone expected. Whether she doubles down on open-wheel development or heeds the calls to step back and rebuild fundamentally will define if this is a detour or a career inflection point.