Hailie Deegan equals career-best Indy NXT qualifying at Nashville season finale

Indy NXT driver Hailie Deegan impressed during qualifying for the 2025 season finale in Nashville. The former NASCAR driver, who has struggled to keep up with her rivals in her first season of open-wheel racing, equaled her career-best qualifying position.

So far, the No. 38 HMD Motorsports driver hasn't had a good rookie season. While her performance in certain test runs or qualifying sessions has been decent, Deegan has mostly struggled to overtake or even hold position in the races.

At Indy NXT's final race weekend, the Music City Grand Prix in Nashville, the 23-year-old secured an impressive 10th place in qualifying on Saturday, August 30. On her two-lap qualifying run, Hailie Deegan averaged a speed of 181.962 mph, making her the second-fastest driver for HMD Motorsports on the day.

Teammate Caio Collet, who stands P2 in the standings, qualified second with a two-lap average of 184.112 mph. Andretti Global driver Salvador de Alba took pole with an average speed of 184.471 mph.

Hailie Deegan at the INDYNXT by Firestone Race at the WWTR - Source: Getty

With P10, Deegan matched her career-best qualifying position, which occurred for the Indy NXT race at the World Wide Technology Raceway in June. This performance came at an opportune time for the 23-year-old. Ahead of the Nashville race weekend, HMD Motorsports announced that it would downsize to four dedicated entries for 2026, while helping Cusick Motorsports with two entries through a technical alliance.

With them scaling back, Hailie Deegan could be the driver to get the axe, considering her subpar rookie season. However, she has made decent progress from where she started, at least on ovals, if not road and street courses.

HMD Motorsports signed Deegan towards the end of 2024 for the 2025 season. The 23-year-old had no prior experience in open-wheel racing, having raced only dirt cars and NASCAR's stock cars. In mid-2024, she lost her NASCAR Xfinity ride at the midpoint of the season after AM Racing parted ways with her. The abrupt loss of the seat left Hailie Deegan without any racing commitments for the remainder of the year.

Hailie Deegan reveals the biggest challenge in her rookie Indy NXT season

Hailie Deegan has struggled to adapt to the physicality of Indy NXT's open-wheel racing cars, which also lack power steering. Though she has been invested in her physical fitness throughout her career, she never encountered such a physical challenge when she raced stock cars.

After getting a taste of the Indy NXT car with HMD Motorsports, Deegan found that NASCAR was "one of the most unphysical forms of racing." Though she had raced on road courses before, the 23-year-old couldn't keep up on similar tracks in Indy NXT this year.

In a recent appearance on the Off Track with Hinch and Rossi podcast hosted by IndyCar driver Alexander Rossi, Hailie Deegan spoke about this particular challenge and the toll it took on her body.

"Obviously, the road courses are very hard. Barber (the track that hosts the Grand Prix of Alabama, where Deegan had a P17 result) was bad for me. Like physically, okay, I'm not that far off when we get to practice or qualifying. Whatever it is, I'll be okay, not bad. But like the longevity for me, I'm dying," she said.

Like after practice, for the second practice, I'm back at the Airbnb with my hands in an iced bowl of water, just trying to get some sort of strength back because I was just like dying in pain and so... from just being sore. So I think tracks like those were hard," she added.

Hailie Deegan will look to end her rookie season in the top rung of IndyCar's junior ladder on a high after securing P10 in qualifying in Nashville.