Deegan 1st woman to win in K&N West Series

Hailie Deegan became the first woman to win a NASCAR K&N West Series race as she executed a bump-and-run move on her teammate for the win Saturday night at Meridian (Idaho) Speedway.

The 17-year-old daughter of heralded X Games motocross rider Brian Deegan won in her 18th start on the NASCAR K&N circuit, which consists of an East Series and West Series. Neither series had seen a female winner before Deegan.

“This has to be the best day of my life right here,” she said in a NASCAR news release. “It doesn’t get any better than this.”

Deegan, who had four top-5 finishes including two runner-up finishes in the series heading into the event and sits fifth in the series standings, nudged teammate Cole Rouse out of the way on Turn 1 of the final lap of the NAPA Auto Parts/Idaho 208.

“I was in bed last night thinking, ‘If it comes down, last lap, I’m in second, I’m a car length off of him, what am I going to do?'” Deegan said. “And I found that Turn 1 spot. I knew what exactly I had to do there.

“I was doing it to some other people just getting right under them to get them a little light to get them, not wrecking loose, nothing crazy, but enough to just get a little under them and make the pass happen. We did that. I knew exactly what I had to do the last lap. I did it, we executed, and we made it happen.”

Rouse, who has 10 top-5s in the series but is looking for his first win, was not pleased.

“She doesn’t lift and drives into me, gets me completely sideways,” Rouse said. “We were going to win that race if it was run clean, but unfortunately it wasn’t.

“I’m just going to go into the next two races, not give her any slack and we’re going to win both of those.”