Can Hailie Deegan Turn It Around? Part II (2024)

What a difference four days can make. Part I of this story was published prior to the race at Nashville Superspeedway. Shortly after the story was published, AM Racing and Hailie Deegan responded to an earlier inquiry I had sent for the original story.

Their response included Deegan’s answers to several questions. Those answers were received on June 27. Four days later, it became public that Deegan’s situation with AM Racing had taken a turn in an unfavorable direction.

The first domino was the announcement that Joey Logano would replace Deegan in the car at the Chicago street course. At first, this made some sense. The event had one of the largest entry lists in recent memory. With the team’s low position in the owner points, a poor qualifying effort could mean missing the show. Logano could provide the veteran savvy needed to get the team into the show safely, and to also evaluate the program after a disappointing first half of the season.

But that announcement from AM Racing was curiously vague and did not specify whether Deegan would return to the car the following week, or at all. Logano had a solid but unspectacular day in the race on July 6. He ran most of the day between 10th and 15th, and finished eighth. This was almost definitely better than Deegan would’ve faired, but Logano’s modest performance in the car may have also shown the problems couldn’t be completely attributed to Deegan.

Two days after the race, the other shoe dropped. AM Racing and Deegan announced they had agreed to part ways.

Throughout the process of preparing for part I of this story, I had heard from Deegan. I also had a lengthy on-record conversation with Stephen Thurston, a co-founder of one of Deegan’s primary sponsors, Viva Tequila Seltzer. The day after speaking at length with Thurston, the Logano announcement was made. It was clear that Thurston had no idea this was coming.

For a driver who boasts a larger Instagram following than Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Chase Elliott combined, there is a lot to unpack here. If Deegan was able to compete for wins on a semi-regular basis, there is no doubt it would be a boon for TV ratings and overall growth, bringing in a new group of fans who may have otherwise never tuned in.

How many women and girl-dads around the country would love to see her beat a field full of men and bring home a checkered flag? Can you imagine seeing Deegan doing burnouts and a victory lane interview? The impact would reach far beyond the norm.

Those factors may have helped get her this far, but it seems they weren’t enough to overcome the performance during the first half of her rookie season. AM Racing may have met or exceeded its own expectations in 2023 with Brett Moffitt driving in its series debut, but as we discussed in part I, expecting Deegan, a raw rookie who is always under a microscope, to come near Moffitt’s level of performance would’ve been a foolish and unrealistic pipe dream.

When it was announced that Deegan would run full-time with AM in Xfinity for 2024, Moffitt was still in the team’s plans. They hoped to keep him on the team, driving a second car.

“The goal for us is to find a way to keep Brett within the program,” Moore said. “As of right now, we don’t have anything to really report on that. That is still our intentions. He’s done such a fantastic job for us — not only as a driver, but as it pertains to just a teammate and a person.”

Moffitt’s eventual unceremonious release from the team may have been the first sign that Deegan and AM were faced with a steep uphill battle. AM had just one year of notes in the series, and without Moffitt around to help with Deegan’s development, she was a rookie driver with a sophom*ore team, with one year of notes from the 2018 Craftsman Truck Series Champion.

You saw how it played out.

Now, nothing I’ve explained so far is new. But we’re getting there. What did Ford Performance think about this move? What were Deegan’s comments just days before her removal from the car? What does Viva Tequila Seltzer think about all of this?

One response about her recent crew chief change suggests Deegan expected to continue with the team. Crew Chief Joe Williams left the team after the race at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Matthew Lucas stepped in. Since Lucas took over, the previously mediocre results only got worse. Deegan offered her thoughts on the crew chief change.

“Crew chief changes are really hard,” she said. “You take time learning with a crew chief and growing together, so when things change, it can be tough in the beginning. Matt was at the team prior to being my crew chief so we’ve had time throughout the year to get to know each other. From where we are at, we just have to keep building and trying to be the best we can.”

After moving from Trucks to Xfinity this year, and having the results she had, did she feel in over her head? I asked her about the strength and depth of competition at this level.

“I think the competition is tough across the board from Xfinity to Trucks. These fields are deep with top level equipment. The days of running top 20, just because you’re on an A level motor program, are out the window. The thing I noticed about Xfinity is that the racing is much cleaner, but I also think that has a lot to do with the package of the car.”

This response was very interesting. The team was 17th in the owner points with Moffitt driving in 2023. As of now, they’re 32nd. That 15-spot drop would be a tough pill for any team to swallow. But does Deegan’s perspective have merit? Definitely.

One example can be seen in the 2024 owners points to date. Hendrick Motorsports and JR Motorsports have entered their No. 17 and No. 88 cars in a combined 14 events so far this season, already more than all of last year. Those cars run up front when they show up, and outrun Deegan consistently. They would be outrunning Moffitt as well.

Young’s Motorsports and driver Leland Honeyman are new to the series this season, and have exceeded expectations. Our Motorsports owned the 32nd position in last season’s owner points, but today it’s 17th, largely owed to the funding and skill brought in when they reunited with Anthony Alfredo. Its 2023 driver Blaine Perkins is now with RSS Racing, where his car sits 33rd in points.

That makes four cars above AM Racing in this season’s points that weren’t on the same level, or not in the series last season. Deegan is right, the series is deeper and more competitive. Subtract those four cars and the year-over-year gap goes from 15 to 11. When moving from an established, Cup-experienced, NASCAR champion driver like Moffitt to Deegan – that should’ve been predictable. Moffitt’s experience and talent could help AM keep getting better. Deegan doesn’t have that experience to build a program. It was a recipe for disaster.

Despite it all, Deegan still had hope and optimism for the second half of the season to be better than the first. When asked what tracks she most looked forward to returning to and having better results, she made it clear.

“Vegas and Kansas. I love mile-and-a-half racing. I feel it’s always suited me pretty well. Kansas is the track I made my first truck start at and have loved it ever since… I just look forward to continuing to grow. I feel like I have learned a lot this year and I will continue to grow and build as the year goes on.”

Does that sound like someone who knows they’re about to be removed from the driver’s seat? Now, we’re left to speculate on where any additional growth might occur.

I wrote in Part I that Deegan was probably under more pressure to perform than ever before, which she acknowledged.

“There is a lot of pressure in my position. People hold me under a spotlight and criticize my every move, so there’s always going to be pressure on me. Easy thing to do is focus on myself and trying to make myself better every race.”

With optimism for the future, how exactly was the decision made to end what had been announced as a multi-year partnership? First, we have to look at who the stakeholders are.

Ford’s fingerprints were enthusiastically visible all over the initial announcement for Deegan to drive for AM in 2024. She was, after all, part of Ford’s driver development program. Here is what Mark Rushbrook, the Global Director of Ford Performance Motorsport, had to say at the time.

“We are excited to see Hailie continuing to advance her career by running full-time with AM Racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2024,” Rushbrook said. “Hailie works so hard on and off the track, and AM Racing will surround her with a great team to continue her development. From what we saw from Hailie in her Xfinity Series debut in Las Vegas last year, we look forward to some great results in 2024.”

Here is what AM Racing team President Wade Moore said at the time.

“But from truly a performance standpoint, Ford believes in her, Ford is going to continue to stay behind her, and who am I, who are we as AM Racing to doubt whatever Mark Rushbrook or … anyone from that camp has to say when it comes to competition?”

Moore continued, “So we’ll continue to follow their lead and work hand in hand with them. But again, we’re growing. She’s got a lot of room to grow. We’re going to do it together, and that’s why I think it’ll work.”

Compare that enthusiasm and implied support to the statement given to me on July 3 by Jay Ward, Director of Ford Performance Motorsport Communications.

“We don’t have any comment to make on the AM Racing decision to use Joey Logano for the next Xfinity race,” Ward said. “The relationship between AM Racing and their drivers is for them to manage and we do not get involved in these decisions.”

After 17 races in a 33-race season, we’ve gone from “Ford will continue to stay behind her… so we’ll continue to follow their lead,” to, “The relationship between AM Racing and their drivers is for them to manage, and we do not get involved.”

This prompts the question, where exactly does Deegan stand in the Ford driver development program? She’ll be turning 23 years old later this month (July 18), which seems pretty early to give up. But then again, it wouldn’t be the first time something like that happened. Plus, with the departure of Stewart-Haas Racing after this season, we still don’t even know who will carry the banner for Ford in Xfinity. Maybe there just isn’t enough juice left at Ford to keep footing enough of the cost to keep Deegan in the car.

Ford was a big part of Deegan’s landing with AM, but with the high cost of racing, other sponsorship was important, including that of Thurston’s Viva Tequila Seltzer.

As far as Deegan’s representation of the brand, the company sounded very satisfied with what she brought to the table.

“Content is king … she does a very good job of creating that content.” Thurston elaborated, “I think she was on the lake the other day. If you follow her, that is kind of the perfect time to drink a Viva.

“We probably wouldn’t sponsor anyone else. I think that Hailie fits our mold pretty good. Never say never.”

Good thing it didn’t say never. This coming Saturday (July 13) at Pocono Raceway, it’s sponsoring someone else. Josh Berry will drive the car in what might be a bit of an awkward situation given all the plans Thurston was so excited about at Pocono. In addition to securing an agreement to have its beverages sold at the track, it had Deegan-centric activation planned for the event.

“We did a partnership with the racetrack. There’s gonna be a big picture of Hailie there, and we’ll have Vivas in a sampling tent and everything.”

“We signed with AM to do a partnership as long as Hailie is there. We like Hailie, we feel like she is an integral part to the relationship.”

That sounds like a Hailie-centered deal that was technically between Viva and AM. I could be wrong on that, and these agreements are rarely simple, often featuring various outs and clauses. Deegan’s website may not be updated frequently, but as of now, Viva is nowhere to be found on the sponsors page. It isn’t on AM’s sponsors page either. Could Pocono be the end of its presence? Thurston offered a brief reaction to the changes but no clarification of the future.

“We definitely came into this season and partnership excited about the possibilities it could bring with such a young up and coming driver. We are wishing the best of luck to both parties after their decisions.”

If you see Viva on an AM Racing Ford after Pocono, it could mean it’s contractually tied to the team, which would also mean Deegan would have less funding to bring to her next team. Whoever that team is, Deegan’s official press release after the separation indicated it needs to be competitive.

“The only thing I am focused on is getting back to being competitive,” Deegan said. “That is ALL that matters to me. I’m working as quick as possible to find the best opportunities to get back to the track. I’m thankful for the following that I have and everyone who supports me. It’s truly only me that knows the whole story and what I need to succeed. See you at the track, soon.”

If she is still in Ford’s good graces, maybe the Rette Jones Racing Xfinity team could be a landing spot for a part-time schedule. That team has run well in limited starts with Noah Gragson. Or, maybe a move back down to the Truck Series would be the move.

I doubt we’ve seen the last of Deegan on track in NASCAR’s 2024 season. While a change of scenery could help, the pressure and criticism won’t be any different.