“I was mad”: When Hailie Deegan opened up about her Mooresville freeway incident with NASCAR driver Todd Gilliland

In 2019, Hailie Deegan recalled a surprising encounter with NASCAR driver Todd Gilliland on the Mooresville Freeway. She spoke about the anecdote in an interview with The Athletic's Jeff Gluck.

At the time, Deegan had just won a race in the K&N Pro Series West for the second straight season, while Gilliland was a full-time driver in the NASCAR Truck Series. Although they both made part-time starts in the ARCA Menards Series, they hadn't crossed paths on track.

However, the California native was caught off guard when she ran into him on public roads.

"One time, Todd Gilliland — I was getting on the freeway in Mooresville and all of a sudden this guy in this Toyota, he goes and he like pinches me in the wall and I was like so mad, laid on the horn, and then Todd pokes his head out the window and I was like, “Oh my God”. I had no idea it was him. He knew it was me," Hailie Deegan said via The Athletic.

Jeff Gluck remarked:

"You were like, “Dude!”"

She concluded:

"Yeah. I was mad."

Hailie Deegan finished third in the K&N West Series with two wins and eight top-fives. The results earned her a full-time ride in the 2020 ARCA Menards Series season. She jumped ship from Toyota to Ford Performance and drove under the DGR-Crosley banner.

She later competed in the Truck Series and the Xfinity Series before abruptly vacating her seat with AM Racing in 2024. The 23-year-old currently competes full-time in the INDY NXT series with HMD Motorsports.

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Hailie Deegan's father revealed that her daughter chose Indy NXT over F1 Academy

Hailie Deegan's father, Brian Deegan, recently outlined her path to Indy NXT. The motocross legend shared that he initially suggested Deegan to join the F1 Academy, the female-only racing series launched by F1 in 2023. Instead, she chose IndyCar's top-tier junior category, Indy NXT.

"I really wanted her to go do the F1 Academy deal that they were doing with the girls there. I thought that was a cool opportunity. Maybe she will. I don’t know. She felt like she needed to get some more open-wheel seat time before she did that, which I agree," he said via Racer.com

Hailie Deegan's rookie NXT season hasn't produced the results she'd hoped for. In her nine starts so far, the 23-year-old is yet to score a top-10 result, while her HMD teammate Caio Collet managed to win at Road America. She finished two laps down in her last outing at Iowa Speedway, placing 19th in the standings with 119 points.

Next, she heads to California for the Grand Prix of Monterey Race 1. Fans can catch the action on FS1 at 4:30 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled to take place on July 26.