Hailie Deegan gives a promising Indy NXT update after IMS double-header

Hailie Deegan switched over from the stock car racing realm to Indy NXT in the 2025 season and has had three race weekends under her belt so far. With the IMS road course race weekend having been a double-header, the female driver got a chance to assess herself in the Indy NXT field, with the championship being her novice venture in the open-wheel racing sphere.

When the 2025 Indy NXT season started at the race in St. Petersburg, Deegan was one of the two female racers in the series. However, since then, Sophia Floersch has parted ways from HMD Motorsports, and the California-born driver is now the sole person representing female drivers in the series.

With it being her rookie season in the championship after coming from her years of racing in the stock car realm, Deegan was not attributed with a horde of expectations, but people anticipated that she would grow over the upcoming race weekends. With the IndyCar Grand Prix weekend at IMS witnessing a double-header for the Indy NXT grid, the 23-year-old got the chance to get her feet planted in the series.

Deegan finished 17th and 18th in the two races that were held, respectively, and shared how she is improving with every race. The HMD Motorsports driver said (via Frontstretch Open Wheel):

"A lot, just by myself like we have a chart that goes through like percentages of how far I'm off and every time we go hit the track, the percentage goes down which is good to see that we keep making strides in the right direction. Speedwise right now, I'm just kind of racing myself a whole lot obviously, restarts when stuff happens but just trying to get faster pacewise myself and get comfortable." (0:33 onwards)

"I kind of have to remind myself like this is my only third time at a race in these things so it's still so new for me," Deegan added.

Since 2018, Hailie Deegan has been regularly competing in the NASCAR junior categories before moving onto open-wheel racing at the end of last year.

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How has Hailie Deegan evolved in her Indy NXT campaign?

Hailie Deegan at the INDY NXT Indianapolis Grand Prix - Source: Getty

Being a rookie driver in Indy NXT brings a mountain of pressure on many drivers. The young drivers aim to get into the top league of open-wheel racing in the United States and join the IndyCar grid soon.

However, moving from NASCAR brought many challenges for Deegan, including driving without the aid of power steering. This impacted her at the season opener in St. Petersburg, where her right forearm was swollen after the race, and she later said (via Frontstretch):

"I definitely need to be in the gym as much as I can be, which I’ve been the last couple of months, but I think just keep working at it so I can see the improvement myself."

But, with her adapting to the Indy NXT challenges, now Deegan is not worried about the physical nature of racing and can solely focus on getting her pace up in comparison to her rivals.