ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Popular female racing prospect Hailie Deegan parked her No. 38 HMD Motorsports machine on pit road of the St. Petersburg street course on Sunday morning (March 2) and was greeted by friends and family alike. While sharing smiles and laughs, however, she clutched her right forearm.
One crew member checked it. After her first career race with no power steering, it was swollen.
Deegan had just completed 45 laps in the IndyCar NXT Series season opening race and finished 14th position. It was an hour-long event in the hot Florida sun, and it was her first racing event without the assistance of power steering. She felt it.
"It's a little bit sore," Deegan told Frontstretch of her arm. "Definitely, this is by far the hardest form of racing I've ever been a part of. By 'hardest', I mean physically, so, it's very physically demanding.
"I definitely need to be in the gym as much as I can be, which I've been the last couple of months, but I think just keep working at it so I can see the improvement myself."
It was a big racing culture shock for the 23-year-old this weekend, as she climbed out of the world of NASCAR stock car racing mid-2024 and has now embraced the world of open wheel racing and IndyCar. It hasn't been an easy transition for her, either. Then again, she never thought it would be.
"It's definitively a challenge, for sure" Deegan told Frontstretch on Friday (Feb. 28) morning. "It's totally different than anything I'm used to."
While there are a number of things to consider when it comes to differences between the world of big heavy stock cars and that of the lightweight open wheel cars, there is one difference that caused Deegan the most grief in her first weekend of Indy NXT racing.
"I think the biggest thing for me is definitely the physical side," Deegan continued on Friday. "Getting stronger. I feel like I'm trying to get stronger in a hurry. Because, in the past, NASCAR is not a super physical form of racing. So, I've never really had to work on certain things like my physical strength. I've been working on that side of things.
"St. Pete, I know, is going to be a curveball for me. Just because I've never been on a street course. I've never even been to this race before, so I'm just trying to take what I can learn from here."
With that in mind, it was probably not a huge shock to see the No. 38 at the bottom of both Indy NXT practice sessions and qualify last with over two seconds of distance between she and 20th place.
But true to her word, Deegan's goal wasn't about pure competition, it was about learning and adapting to a form of racing she was completely new to. On top of all of that, it was about survival.
"I find that my goal is to stay on the lead lap and get all the laps and not end up crashing or doing any damage to the car, using all the valuable time," Deegan said.
Mission accomplished. Although seconds off the pace from the leaders, Deegan did outlast seven other cars that had incidents and mechanical failures throughout the event. While physically sore, she finished 14th in her first open wheel race, on the lead lap and without any damage.
"I thought we accomplished what my goal was for myself this weekend," Deegan said.
But where does she go from here?
"[I need] more strength to be honest," Deegan said. "I think that's something that I'm really struggling with. I think I know what to do. I can watch the footage and tell myself exactly what I'm doing wrong, or I need to fix, but I think the strength side of it is where I'm kind of struggling. I just think that I've never had to be in such a certain type of shape for a certain specific type of racing.
"Like the difference is wild for sure. It's something that you almost can't explain to people. They have to experience it for themselves because you can have no power steering when you're going slow, and it's fine. It's not hard. But the moment you start picking up pace, you have all that downforce on you, and the air is pushing the car down, making it feel heavier in the wheel. So, the faster you try to go, the harder it is."
On the bright side, Deegan will have a few weeks before her next race at Barberville Motorsports Park, a track she's tested at in the past, and she plans to use all that time getting stronger for the next leg of her open wheel journey.
"I'm really looking forward to Barberville because I've been there before," Deegan said. "So going at this first race with a first time on a street [course] and first time even seeing this place, it was a lot taken in at once.
"It's nice now that after St. Pete we get a little span of time where I can keep working on it and keep chipping at it."