For 2026, Hailie Deegan has both reunited and returned to her roots in the ARCA Menards Series West campaign with Bill McAnally Racing. A graduate of BMR and Toyota early in her career (and after winning races), Hailie moved on to the bigger and supposedly greener pastures of the Craftsman Truck Series and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, as a development driver for Ford.
The ensuing seasons in both trucks and NOAP Series competition quickly derailed a promising career, as she was (in my opinion) moved up too soon and expected to develop on the fly. Torn up sheet metal and tempers quickly became attached to a once high-profile rookie driver.
Photo Credit: Racer’s Behind the Helmet
Following her release from the AM Racing NOAP Series program in 2024, one that was billed as being “future focused”, Deegan cast her lot in a new venture…joining HMD Motorsports in IndyCar’s development series, Indy NXT. This is where she faced her steepest learning curve yet, and would end 2025 14th in the standings.
Fast-forward to 2026, and Deegan has returned to her roots. Signed to drive the No. 16 Chevrolet once again with Bill McAnally Racing…and the signs of improvement are starting to show. Yes, not all races have been perfect (2 DNF’s), but four top ten finishes in seven races run thus far show maturity that was never allowed to develop previously. As of this writing, Deegan also sits 7th in the standings, in a series dominated by a handful of teams that seemingly easily win each race.
Photo Credit: NAPA Blog
So what does all this mean? Once a highly-touted newcomer that got rushed to the big leagues too early, is now making her return under much calmer circumstances, and more importantly is happy and content. All I can ask, is that please BMR….let her develop and do not rush her back to the brighter spotlight yet. Time is needed to develop skills that were unfortunately put on the backburner with Ford.