While some fans were “unimpressed” with Hailie Deegan’s success at Texas Motor Speedway, she did match her career best finish. On April 1st 2023, she finished 6th at Texas in the Craftsman Truck Series. Previously her best finish was 6th at Talladega in 2022. Despite the trouble in the first two races, Hailie Deegan’s season has definitely started to build momentum.
In this article, I will look at Hailie Deegan’s season thus far, in light of her recent success. I will also compare it to her previous two seasons’ early results. Based on these comparisons, I will also attempt to get an idea of how the rest of Deegan’s first season at ThorSport may go. Finally, I will look at the validity (or lack thereof) of the arguments made by some NASCAR fans who remained unimpressed even in light of her improving results.
Comparing the First Five Races of 2021, 2022, and 2023:
Hailie Deegan’s first full season in the truck series was the 2021 season. The first five races of the season were Daytona, the Daytona Road Course, Las Vegas, Atlanta, and Bristol (Dirt.) Deegan was only able to break into the top 20 once in these first five races. This race was the fifth one at the Bristol Dirt Race. She finished 19th.
The first five races of the 2022 truck series season were Daytona, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Circuit of the Americas, and Martinsville. Deegan was able to start the season off with a top 20 at Daytona, finishing 17th. This was followed by three finishes outside the top 30 and another top 20 finish at Martinsville (19th.)
This season is Hailie Deegan’s first season with ThorSport Racing. So far in 2023, the trucks have raced at Daytona, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Circuit of the Americas, and Texas. Furthermore, the 2023 season has seen Deegan improve her performance over the previous two seasons opening five races. While it started with two accidents, we have seen her put together three top 20s in a row. She finished 12th at Atlanta, 16th at COTA, and 6th at Texas.
Looking Forward to the Rest of 2023:
If the first five races are any indicator, Hailie Deegan’s season will continue to be much improved over her previous two seasons. In 2021, she did not finish in the top ten until the 16th race at World Wide Technology Raceway. In her sophomore season, Deegan would reach the top ten in the 15th race of the season at Mid-Ohio. Later in 2022, she would achieve her best finish of 6th, at Talladega.
In the first five races of 2021, Deegan’s average finish was 24.0. For 2022’s first five races, this average finish dropped to 27.8. This season that number has improved to 20.2. Given that she performed well in the first two races prior to being involved in accidents, it is easy to see that her performance has picked up.
It is hard to predict how the rest of any driver’s season is going to go, but I would not be surprised to see more top 10 finishes for Deegan this season. ThorSport is looking fast as a team overall, and Deegan has already matched her career best finish only five races into this season. She nearly got her first top 5 finish in the truck series at Texas.
Some Fans Dismiss Texas Success:
At Texas Motor Speedway, Deegan not only tied her career best finish, but was also the biggest mover of the race. She started 25th and gained 19 positions during the race. While many fans were thrilled with her success at Texas, others were more dismissive of the result. The tweet below is an example of this.
Easy to gain spots like that when everyone in front of you crashes each other out of the race.
— Jeff King (@KingDrPepper44) April 3, 2023
There were a lot of drivers taken out by accidents during the Texas truck race. This is happening more and more in NASCAR these days. This is mainly due to an increase in aggressive driving and a general lack of respect among drivers. Many fans attributed Deegan’s success at Texas to not getting caught up in the accidents. While this is accurate to say, some fans took the thought further and seemed to take the position that this fact invalidated the result.
Is that a fair assessment? I think it is not fair. NASCAR has become a more aggressive sport in recent years, but avoiding trouble has always been part of the skill set required to succeed. It seems that, for the most part, these are the very same fans who would have previously blamed her for getting caught up in accidents. The fact that she avoided trouble in no way invalidates her finish. In the closing laps of the race, she even showed more skill than some of the leaders when she got in the grass in the tri-oval and was able to keep the truck from spinning out. Others did not fare so well under the same circumstances.
Conclusions:
So far Hailie Deegan’s season is an improvement over the previous two seasons. Furthermore, it looks like she will continue to improve. Clearly, she is a talented race car driver, as we have seen in the IMSA race at Daytona. We also saw this most recently at Texas. One of the biggest keys to continued success in our current time (and in the future as well) will be avoiding accidents. Of course, there will always be detractors who will use that as a weak argument against the talent of any driver for whom they don’t particularly care.
While five races isn’t a lot to go on, it is easy to see the improvement in Hailie Deegan’s performance. She has been getting stage points, qualifying better at times, avoiding accidents, and getting better finishing positions. I believe we will definitely see her improve on her career best finish of 6th place this season. The only questions are when, where, and by how much.
I agree with you completely
Good article. I personally believe most of the haters really don’t know squat about racing & are only trolls. Hailie is doing great & we’ll see some top 5’s sooner rather than later. Bristol dirt maybe?
Thanks! It certainly looked like Bristol Dirt was going to be a top 5 during stage one anyhow. She still managed to comeback to 13th after dropped to 20th. It was an improvement over last year. I believe we will definitely see a top 5 sooner rather than later. Thanks for reading and thanks for commenting!