NASCAR driver forced to miss race due to death threats

NASCAR Truck Series driver Hailie Deegan missed a Florida event last week as a result of death threats to her boyfriend from an obsessed fan.

While the NASCAR Truck Series had off last weekend following a successful event at Circuit of the Americas the weekend prior, several of the series’ drivers found opportunities to compete in other races across the country.

One of those drivers was last year’s Truck Series Most Popular Driver Award winner, Team DGR’s Hailie Deegan. Deegan had planned to compete in the Freedom 500 at Bradenton’s (Florida) Freedom Factory, formerly known as DeSoto Speedway.

But the 20-year-old Temecula, California native was essentially prevented from doing so as a result of death threats which came from an obsessed fan, described as a “36-year-old guy with a past criminal record”, who lives near her North Carolina home.

The threats weren’t specifically directed toward her; they were directed at her boyfriend, fellow race car driver Chase Cabre. And that’s where things get even more bizarre.

She stated the following in a video posted to her YouTube channel earlier this week.

"“His official words were, not that he’s going to kill Chase, but that he’s going to come … and be the last thing Chase ever sees.”"

Here is the full video, titled “Our Lives Are Being Threatened…”.

What happened was the obsessed fan had been catfished by a fake Hailie Deegan account and tricked into believing that he was dating her.

Deegan stated the following.

"“There was an eight-page, hand-written letter sent to David Gilliland Racing, which is the team I race for in the Truck Series, stating that he was dating me, in a relationship with me for multiple months. That he was in love with me, infatuated with me, that I was his soul mate and it kind of scared me a little bit, because I’ve dealt with stalker situations before. I ended up going home that day, looked up the guy’s name on the note, and figured out that he was getting catfished by a fake Hailie Deegan account.”"

The person behind the fake account was spreading false information about Deegan and Cabre, specifically that their relationship was fake and business-related only. The individual claimed that Cabre abused her and held her hostage. He also sent them an audio message, which was played in the video.

Deegan, who has been dealing with this situation for a few months now, made clear that none of this had any truth to it.

"“Obviously none of that is true. But it makes them feel a lot of anger toward Chase. Then this guy gets wrapped up in this whole deal believing Chase beats me. I wouldn’t really be worried about this if the fact wasn’t that this guy lives near my race shop, where I live, my home and it makes me uncomfortable. It makes me scared.”"

The fact that the fake account tricked the fan into believing it led him to harbor anger toward Cabre, leading to the death threats.

The couple called authorities after the individual in question sent Cabre threatening messages, and those messages have progressively gotten worse. Authorities came to their home and filled out a police report, and they stayed outside their home for the night.

The next Truck Series race, the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 200, is scheduled to take place at Martinsville Speedway this evening, and it is set to be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 8:00 p.m. ET. Notably, Deegan does plan to compete in this race, despite the ongoing issue. Through four races this season, she has three DNFs and a finish of 17th place. She sits in 35th in the point standings.