Hailie Deegan completes Ford switch

Hailie Deegan has confirmed that she will switch to Ford Performance from Toyota and will compete full-time in the ARCA series in 2020 for DGR-Crosley driving the #4 Ford Fusion.

The 18-year-old was previously on the books at Toyota as one of the manufacturer’s development drivers. She made her K&N Pro Series West debut in 2018, competing in the series full-time alongside a partial K&N East campaign.

The daughter of motocross and rallycross star, and long-time Ford driver, Brian Deegan won her first NASCAR race at Meridian Speedway in the penultimate round of the 2018 West series, and added a further two wins in Las Vegas and Colorado this year. She also competed in six ARCA races in 2019, achieving four top-10 finishes.

“I could not be more excited to join Ford Performance and DGR-Crosley,” Deegan said. “It became clear quickly that I align with the Ford Performance vision of driver development and our shared drive to win.  It is also extra special to get to race with Ford, a family company, that already had ties to my family. Growing up watching my dad race a Ford, and now to be able to do the same thing is very cool.

“It’s also important to me to be teamed up with a hardworking group such as DGR with like minded vision and goals. We are all committed to work as hard as it takes to finish on top.  I look forward to the upcoming season and learning as much as possible to get me closer to accomplishing my goals of winning races.”

Alongside a full ARCA campaign in 2020 for DGR-Crosley – which also recently announced a switch from Toyota to Ford – Deegan will also compete in select sports car races in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge, driving a GT4 Ford Mustang.

“Hailie has shown in her brief time behind the wheel of a stock car that she’s got what it takes to be successful,” said Mark Rushbrook, Ford Performance Motorsports’ global director.  “Our goal is to put her on a path to realise our shared goal of winning championships and part of that is gaining experience on tracks such as road courses and superspeedways.  We feel this year will serve as a good foundation for what lies ahead.”

As well as the confirmed ARCA and sports car programmes, Deegan admitted that there is also the possibility that she could compete in the NASCAR Truck series at some point in 2020 as well.

“As of now truck racing, it is a possibility,” Deegan told Fox Sports. “We’ve kind of put all our resources together to go ARCA racing so if some other deal decides to come up, if someone wants their face on the side of a car, we could be tuck racing, but as of now we’re ARCA focused.