HAILIE DEEGAN Caps Rookie Indy NXT Year With Career-Best Top-10 Qualifying Run

September 3, 2025

GRRL! SUMMARY:

HAILIE DEEGAN wrapped her rookie Indy NXT campaign at Nashville with her strongest qualifying performance yet—tenth place and just two tenths off the top five. Not bad for someone who had exactly one formula car start before diving into one of the toughest open-wheel series. We love to see a driver who came from NASCAR actually backing up the transition talk with legitimate speed.
The HMD Motorsports driver showed real racecraft during the Nashville finale, running competitive lap times that matched the leaders and delivering her personal best lap of 26.140 on lap 52—the fastest time on track that lap. She finished P13 while staying on the lead lap throughout, proving she belongs in the field and wasn’t just making up the numbers in her debut year.
DEEGAN’s second half surge tells the story we want to hear: steady improvement and legitimate progress rather than flash-in-the-pan moments. Her P11-P12 double at Laguna Seca in her home state and increasingly competitive oval performances showed she was actually learning the craft, not just surviving it. Finishing 14th in championship standings out of 27 drivers isn’t championship material yet, but it’s exactly where a smart rookie should be after switching disciplines entirely.