Hailie Deegan claims she became an easy target for truck drivers due to being less aggressive
Hailie Deegan had a season to forget in the Truck series in 2023.
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Hailie Deegan (Credits: Racingnews.com)
ThorSports Racing’s Hailie Deegan is one of America’s most promising female racing talents. She is in her third full-time season in the Truck series but hasn’t been able to fully establish herself as a contender despite driving for front-raw teams. According to him, one main reason for her performance is that she is a clean racer compared to other truck drivers.
In her recent appearance on the Kenny Wallace show, the Ford driver pointed out that her fellow racers easily took advantage of her as the lack of aggressive driving made her a soft target on the track. Deegan added that she accidentally put herself into the category of drivers that can be taken advantage of while racing.
“I would say it’s a double-edged sword because I don’t think people go out there and just like, ‘I’m gonna go after Hailie’. I don’t think it’s like that but I think it’s, maybe I’ve been over the last two and a half years a little bit less aggressive because I kind of wanted to take a step back. I knew the Truck Series will be hard, I knew going into it, and I still had a lot to learn,” Deegan told Kenny Wallace.
“I kind of took a step back, and I think with that I became a little bit less aggressive, and so I think I got into the category of people, like there’s certain people on the track you kind of know you can take advantage of, and think I didn’t mean to, but almost accidentally put myself into that category,” Deegan added.
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Hailie Deegan says she tried to become more aggressive this season
Deggan said the unfortunate situation forced her to approach races more aggressively this season. She added that this approach has also come with its negatives, including changing the racing community’s attitude toward her.
“This last year, I tried to be more aggressive, tried to get back what I had before, and because I was looked at as a person that’s not aggressive or ‘they’re easy to take advantage of’, and because I was looked at like that, that when I do start being aggressive, I just get junked,” the Ford driver said.
The change in approach has served her well in the 2023 season. With ThorSports Racing, she had a car capable of winning races for the first time in her career. But the season has been pretty disappointing. From 17 races, she has scored just one top 10 and missed out on the playoffs. Multiple run-ins on the track also didn’t help her pursuit of better results.
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Justin P Joy
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