IndyCar junior Hailie Deegan bows down to Danica Patrick for being the torchbearer for females in racing

Indy NXT sensation Hailie Deegan revealed that she looked up to former IndyCar and NASCAR driver Danica Patrick. The 23-year-old reflected on Danica's influence on how the world looked at females in the world of motorsports.

Danica Patrick dropped out of high school to pursue her dreams of becoming a racing driver and moved to Europe. After an unsuccessful stint in the Formula Ford Championship, she came back to the US and got the opportunity to race for Rahal Letterman Racing in the IndyCar series.

ARCA Racing Series Testing - Danica Patrick - Source: Getty

Patrick met with Bobby Rahal during her time in Europe, who was the then Team Principal of Ford’s F1 endeavor and co-owner of Rahal Letterman. She went on to become the first woman to win an IndyCar race, the 2008 Indy Japan 300. Patrick then made the move to race in NASCAR and took the pole position for the 2013 Daytona 500, becoming the first woman to do so.

Hailie Deegan took the opposite route when compared to Danica Patrick, as the 23-year-old started her tarmac racing career in stock cars, and only recently made the move to American open-wheel racing. During an interview, Deegan suggested that she didn't care about people's opinion amid her struggling start to the Indy NXT series. She said, via IndyStar:

“I really don't value anyone's opinion unless they're above me success-wise.”

“People who have never done it before, it doesn't really affect me at all,” added Hailie Deegan.

The 23-year-old then spoke about women in motorsports as she said:

“At the end of the day, on the outside, I don't know if racing is ready for a fully competitive female. Everyone says they want to push it, but…”

Hailie Deegan then hailed Danica Patrick for making it to the top disciplines in motorsports and performing at the highest level. The Indy NXT driver suggested that she looks up to Patrick, as she said:

“She's probably, in my opinion, she was the woman that really really made it and did a lot and so I give her full props.”

Deegan added that even Patrick faced negativity during her time in motorsports, but the former IndyCar driver was resilient. Deegan added:

“But who cares? She's (Danica) way more successful than everyone who's talking about her combined.”

How Nolan Siegel helped Hailie Deegan make the switch from stock cars to open-wheel racing

Hailie Deegan made her open-wheel racing debut last year when she raced in the Formula Regional Americas championship as a development driver. She detailed how IndyCar driver Nolan Siegel helped her understand the data during her first open-wheel race. She said:

“I did get really lucky this race, so Nathan, who owns this team and is doing this race with us, his driver that he crewed last year at the beginning of the year was Nolan Siegel. So, he's out here, he races IndyCar full-time, and he is out here helping me look at the data, coach me, so I definitely have like one of the best coaches I feel like in the pits right now, so that does help.”

The switch from stock cars to Indy NXT hasn't been the easiest for Hailie Deegan, as she's still a second or so off the pace of the race leaders. However, she's improved a lot since her debut race at St. Pete, where she was 3-4 seconds off the pace of the leaders.