NASCAR: Can Hailie Deegan become what Danica Patrick couldn’t?

Hailie Deegan is already looking like NASCAR’s next big female star. But can she climb to the next level and become what Danica Patrick ultimately couldn’t?

After two successful seasons competing in NASCAR‘s K&N Pro Series West for Bill McAnally Racing and Toyota, Hailie Deegan made what some saw as a shocking decision to leave Toyota for Ford and join DGR-Crosley, which just switched from Toyota to Ford themselves, as the newest Ford Performance development driver.

The 18-year-old Temecula, California native is slated to make the jump to the ARCA Menard Series following finishes of fifth and third place in the K&N Pro Series West championship standings. She won three races, including two in 2019, in 28 starts in the series behind the wheel of the #19 Toyota.

One of the main reasons for Deegan’s move to DGR-Crosley and Ford was because of the fact that there are more seats within Ford at NASCAR’s higher levels, and at Toyota, there are more development drivers in the ladder series who are going to be vying for a limited number of seats at the top.

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She also felt that this was the best decision as far as developing her driving skillset as a whole, as she could also compete in a few Truck Series for DGR-Crosley in the 2020 season.

In addition, she is slated to compete in select IMSA races behind the wheel of a Mustang GT4 for Multimatic Motorsports. She already competed in the Michelin Pilot Challenge season opener at Daytona International Speedway.

It has been said that patience is a virtue with Deegan so that she does not get rushed up the ladder and ultimately get slapped in the face with a boatload of high-level competition against which she is simply not ready to compete.

After two seasons in K&N Pro Series West, she is definitely ready for the jump to the ARCA Menards Series, and she proved it with a second place finish in her season debut at Daytona International Speedway.

It’s not like she’s jumping into a fourth Team Penske Ford at the Cup level, or even joining the team at the Xfinity level. Heck, she’s not even a full-time Truck Series driver yet.

This is exactly what needs to happen for her to be successful, and whether Toyota or Ford is the superior manufacturer at this point, she had the big picture in mind when making this move.

Can she become what Danica Patrick ultimately couldn’t?

Yes.

For several reasons, she is absolutely capable of doing it.

First of all, Deegan is not the next Danica Patrick, but that’s not a bad thing whatsoever. Patrick is labeled a “pioneer” in racing for “paving the way” for female racers. Fans, drivers and even by many of her critics have issued her this label, and justifiably so when you consider everything her career consisted of.

But for Patrick, the buck stops there, especially in NASCAR. For Deegan, based solely on the definition of “pioneer”, she can’t replicate that.

However, she can ascend to a higher level, a level at which she can become NASCAR’s first true female superstar.

Unfortunately, Patrick never took it beyond the aspect of simply being Danica Patrick.

She competed in 191 races over the course of her seven-year Cup Series career, including 180 in her five full-time seasons with Stewart-Haas Racing.

Yes, she brought fans to the track. She sold T-shirts. She sold diecasts. She shot ratings up. She was one of the sport’s most popular drivers in an era when it was basically Dale Earnhardt Jr. and then everybody else as far as popularity is concerned.

All good stuff. But it’s all good stuff you’d expect from a pioneer who is paving the way for others.

Competitively, it was another story. She managed only seven top 10 finishes, with a best finish of sixth place at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 2014. She led only 64 of the 53,561 laps she completed, and her average finish was a disappointing 24.1. She never qualified for the playoffs, recording best finishes of 24th in the championship standings in the 2015 and 2016 seasons.

Can Deegan take it to the next level?

For Patrick, she entered NASCAR at the Xfinity level at age of 29 after competing in IndyCar for seven seasons. From 2005 to 2011, she was one of the more consistent drivers at America’s top level of open-wheel racing, even placing third in the 2009 Indianapolis 500, but she won just one race in 116 starts back in April of 2008 at Twin Ring Motegi.

Even in the Xfinity Series, her performance left a lot to be desired, and it indicated that she was rushed straight to NASCAR’s second highest level, even though she had competed in IndyCar.

She recorded seven top 10 finishes in 61 starts, including four during the 33 races of her lone full season with JR Motorsports in 2012. Her top finish was fourth place at Las Vegas Motor Speedway that year, and she only finished in 10th in the championship standings.

Had her name not been Danica Patrick, that would not have come close to warranting a Cup Series promotion the following year.

But, once again, she was rushed, and it did, and she took the pole position for the Daytona 500 — and of course, now she’s the next Richard Petty/Dale Earnhardt.

Then reality happened, and a top 20 finish became considered a decent effort.

This isn’t anything against Patrick in NASCAR, either. Look at how Dario Franchitti’s NASCAR stint worked out (“worked out” being a bit generous as far as word choice) after he won his first IndyCar title in 2007. Same concept, but worse; his best finish was barely better than Patrick’s average finish.

And he is a four-time IndyCar champion, a three-time Indy 500 winner and a 31-time IndyCar race winner; only the legendary A.J. Foyt has more than he does in all three categories.

But Deegan, as noted above, is taking a different approach. She is climbing the NASCAR ladder, and her success at the bottom in the touring series is why she has ascended to a higher rung. She has earned that promotion.

She isn’t entering a completely new form of racing and expecting to have success after winning just one race in 116 attempts in a completely different series, and she isn’t making unreasonable jumps due to the overreaction of sponsors and teams after she experiences the slightest bit of success.

At the age of 18, less than half of Patrick’s (37), and with three wins in K&N Pro Series West, Deegan is already far more accomplished in NASCAR than Patrick ever was.

And at the age of 18, she has every bit of potential to keep adding to that resume to become the superstar that Patrick couldn’t.

Can Hailie Deegan become the female NASCAR superstar that Danica Patrick simply could not become during her five-plus seasons of competition in the Cup Series? If her career continues down the path that it is on, there is absolutely no reason to believe that she can’t be competing on Sundays, and for more than just lead-lap finishes.