![\"Hailie](\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/HD_Cover_v1_16x9-min.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Performance is what gets you work in the racing business, and Hailie Deegan\u2019s performance in the ARCA Menards Series West (formerly K&N Pro Series West) in 2018, when she became the first female driver to win a race, has allowed the 18-year-old opportunities that could take her to the highest level of closed-wheel motorsports.<\/p>\n
In a joint announcement, Ford Performance Motorsports and the DGR-Crosley team announced Deegan\u2019s inclusion in Ford\u2019s development driver program. Deegan will make her Ford competition debut on Jan. 24, 2020 at Daytona International Speedway, when she races a Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT4 as part of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge endurance race. She\u2019ll take part in IMSA\u2019s \u201cRoar Before the 24\u201d test session in early January.<\/p>\n
This Ford Performance on-track debut is only a portion of Deegan\u2019s Ford Performance program, as she\u2019ll be part of the DGR-Crosley race team, which announced it would be running Ford products during the 2020 ARCA Menards Series season. Driving the No. 4 Ford Fusion, Deegan is scheduled to compete in all 20 ARCA Menards Series races and she\u2019s competing in a select grouping of contests with Multimatic in IMSA\u2019s Michelin Pilot Challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cHailie has shown, in her brief time behind the wheel of a stock car, that she\u2019s got what it takes to be successful,\u201d said Mark Rushbrook, global director of Ford Performance Motorsports. \u201cOur goal is to put her on a path to realize our shared goal of winning championships. 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her first two ARCA Menards Series West seasons, Deegan earned three wins; in 2019 she went to Victory Lane twice and finished third in the final points tally. In 14 starts last season, she had three poles, eight top-five and 11 top-10 results. Deegan made six ARCA Menards Series national starts with a best finish of fifth at Lucas Oil Raceway outside Indianapolis.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could not be more excited to join Ford Performance and DGR-Crosley,\u201d Deegan said. \u201cIt became clear quickly that I align with the Ford Performance vision of driver development and our shared drive to win. It is so 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Hailie](\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/HD_Cover_v2_16x9-min-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Brian Deegan drove a Ford Fiesta in the Red Bull Global Rallycross Championship, winning what turned out to be the series\u2019 finale at San Pedro, Calif. two years ago. Deegan\u2019s father won a gold medal in the Rallycross competition at X Games 17 in 2011 and has driven a Ford Raptor as part of the Lucas Oil Off-Road Series.<\/p>\n
Hailie Deegan recognizes the importance, too, of working with David Gilliland and the DGR-Crosley team. \u201cIt\u2019s 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 closer to accomplishing my goals of winning races.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gilliland, co-owner of DGR Crosley, noted, \u201cThis is a huge day for our organization. It\u2019s been really impressive to see what Hailie has been able to accomplish in such a short amount of time. With her joining our Ford Performance driver development program at DGR-Crosley, the potential for success is endless. I\u2019m super excited to get the 2020 season started.\u201d<\/p>\n
The start of 2020 means an extended sojourn in Daytona Beach, Fla. for Hailie Deegan; after her initial IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Ford Mustang start, partnering with fellow Ford Performance development driver Chase Briscoe, she begins her competitive affiliation with DGR-Crosley\u2019s No. 4 Ford Fusion, Saturday, February 8, again at Daytona International Speedway as the ARCA Menards Series begins its 20-race campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Performance is what gets you work in the racing business, and Hailie Deegan\u2019s performance in the ARCA Menards Series West could take her to the highest level of closed-wheel motorsports.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":68034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3470,3699,5029],"tags":[5614,4399,6267,43,4904,395,41,1632],"class_list":["post-68033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-other-racing","category-racing","tag-anne-proffit","tag-arca","tag-dgr-crosley","tag-ford","tag-hailie-deegan","tag-imsa","tag-news","tag-racing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/HD_Cover_v1_16x9-min.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-hHj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68033"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68036,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68033\/revisions\/68036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}