After a dismal rookie season in Indy NXT following four underwhelming seasons across two NASCAR national series, Hailie Deegan is set to return to a familiar organization for the 2026 season.
Deegan has reunited with Bill McAnally Racing for the 2026 ARCA Menards Series West season. She competed for the team in the same series back in 2018 and 2019 and won a total of three races, but she has not been back to victory lane since.
Deegan, who won at Meridian Speedway in 2018 and at both the Las Vegas Motor Speedway dirt track and Colorado National Speedway in 2019, is set to drive the No. 16 Chevrolet for the team throughout the 13-race 2026 season. Her previous stint with the team came when they were still with Toyota.
Hailie Deegan back in ARCA Menards Series West
Since her two seasons in ARCA Menards Series West, which saw her finish fifth and third, respectively, in the championship standings, things have not gone nearly as smoothly for the 24-year-old Temecula, California native.
She finished third in the 2020 ARCA Menards Series standings with DGR-Crosley, but without winning a race, and she was immediately brought up to the NASCAR Truck Series with David Gilliland Racing.
After two underwhelming seasons saw her score just three total top 10 finishes, she moved to ThorSport Racing in 2023. Despite scoring only two more top 10 results, she was promoted to the Xfinity Series with AM Racing for 2024.
Despite her struggles in the Truck Series, some tried to defend her by suggesting that the Xfinity Series cars would suit her driving style better. It didn't take long for that completely unfounded theory to be tossed out the window.
Halfway into the 2024 season, AM Racing cut ties with her, as she had scored just four top 20 finishes and nothing higher than a 12th in 17 starts.
She decided to switch gears entirely in 2025 by joining HMD Motorsports in Indy NXT, the open-wheel racing series one level below the NTT IndyCar Series. Her struggles continued, as she was usually more than a second off the pace and being lapped on any given weekend.
To her credit, she finished every race, but she was usually the lowest placed driver who did not experience some sort of an issue. She finished the year tied for last place in the standings among full-time drivers, without a top 10 finish in 14 starts.
Oddly enough, Deegan has probably experienced her most success this decade in SRX, a now defunct summer stock car series founded by Tony Stewart, Ray Evernham, Sandy Montag, and George Pyne. She recorded two runner-up finishes in 11 career starts, along with three other top five efforts, and she finished seventh in the standings in her lone full season in 2023.
All things considered, Deegan's move back to ARCA Menards Series West, and with a familiar team, is probably the best move she could have made at this point in her career.
She has proven herself capable of having success at this level with this team, and perhaps after what the past few years have shown, there won't be pressure on teams, manufacturers, and sponsors to rush her up the ladder and into series for which she is clearly not ready.
The 2026 ARCA Menards Series West season is scheduled to get underway on Saturday, February 28 with the West Coast Stock Car Motorsports Hall of Fame 150 at Kevin Harvick's Kern Raceway in Bakersfield, California.