Racing social media sensation Hailie Deegan: '10 Insta posts offsets price for my sponsor'

Indianapolis Star

a day ago

INDIANAPOLIS -- Hailie Deegan comes by her 3.3 million followers on TikTok, 1.7 million followers on Instagram and 605K YouTube channel subscribers honestly. She's a novelty. A 23-year-old woman racing cars on the open-wheel circuit in a sport overrun by men, a lot of those men who are generations down the line with longtime, readymade sponsors at their fingertips.
She is also the daughter of Brian Deegan, one of the most successful athletes in X Games history with 16 medals -- 12 in motocross and four in rally car racing. He was the first athlete to land a 360 in a freestyle motocross competition. Racing consumers fell in love Brian Deegan (like father, like daughter) and his infectious personality. At 51, he has 1.3 million followers on Instagram, 613,000 on TikTok and 73,100 on X.
She is also the daughter of Marissa Deegan, a woman who latched onto technology when others weren't. She had a cell phone before anyone had a cell phone. She was at the forefront of the Blackberry craze. She started her daughter's social media platforms long before that was a thing in the world of racing. And Marrissa Deegan has her own 200,000 followers on Instagram and 34,600 on TikTok.
Deegan has been staring into the lens, being recorded, for as long as she can remember. She has been sharing her life from the time she started in racing at 8 to now, as a driver in IndyCar's primary developmental series Indy NXT for HMD Motorsports.
"I was so used to having cameras around 24/7 that it was almost just like I expected that of myself. Oh, I gotta show my life on social media. Show everyone what I'm doing. Show everyone who I am," Deegan told IndyStar. "And I think people gravitated toward that."
They did. And that has come with a lot of good. But it also has come with the bad.
Given that iconic name in the sphere of racing, Deegan has gotten plenty of comments that aren't so friendly.
Spoon fed. Spoiled. Handed everything on a silver platter.
"I think people think, 'Oh, you race cars. You live in a multimillion dollar mansion, drive around in some million dollar car.' No, it's not," said Deegan. "Really, I live a very normal life. Yes, my job is racing. My job is to keep up with social media, keep sponsors happy, run a merchandise company. Like that's my job."
And it is a tough job. "People don't realize how hard it is to bring in sponsors," Deegan said, to continue the dream she has to race for at least the next 10 years.
That is why Deegan, known as racing's social media sensation, has turned to what she is most comfortable with -- facing the camera and telling the world her story -- to foot the monstrous bills that come with racing a car.
"My dad was highly successful on the two-wheel side of motorsports, which is about two zeros less than what you need to be in four-wheel motorsports," she said. "I'm all sponsor funded. It is not driven by family money whatsoever. Yes, I have the family name, but my parents haven't contributed financially to my racing for a long, long time."
They gave her the start, the unconditional love and the continued endless support. But now it's Deegan's time to carry forward her own dream.
"That's why I've used my social media to bring another value to the table. I could sell a primary sponsorship for a race, but also backend 10 Instagram posts that kind of offsets the price and makes it more favorable for my sponsor," she said. "So they both work hand in hand for me."
When it comes to securing sponsors, Deegan is picky. The money might sound good, but it has to fit.
"I've turned down a lot of sponsor deals over the fact that it doesn't align with me as a person. And so if there's something that truly I would never use this product, I will not do the deal," she said. "It obviously isn't worth it for a company if I don't love the product."
Which brings her to one of her main sponsors, Monster Energy. Deegan drinks an energy drink a day. Perfect match. She also loves cooking, baking and, especially, grilling which makes her deal with Pit Boss another win-win.
"I hate selling stuff that I don't use. People can see right through that," she said. "With social media nowadays, people can see when stuff is so fake."
And that is what makes Deegan's social media so popular -- its authenticity. Most of her posts are either shot at a race track or hanging out with family or her fiance, Chase Cabre, who she met competing against in the NASCAR K&N Series.
Cabre has become not only the love of Deegan's life, but her partner in business.
"He was badass driver and I'm lucky to have him because he's probably the best in-house coach I could have," she said. "He is so talented at racing, but he just didn't grow up with money."
Deegan watches all her film with Cabre and plays a lot of iRacing with him. Cabre is also the man who turns the camera toward Deegan these days, helping to capture her life and racing career on social media.
And like the reactions to her social media, the majority positive, Deegan gets similar reaction as an Indy NXT driver. Mostly positive, some negative.
Deegan, who grew up in Temecula, Calif., immersed herself in motorsports.
"My dad has broken about everything in his body, won championships in off-road racing, rally car racing," she said. "The only thing he never really touched was NASCAR. But also I think with his image, it wasn't necessarily, I guess it didn't fit on brand."
Deegan calls her family "on the edgier side." Her two younger brothers both race. Haiden is a professional AMA supercross and motocross racer, and Hudson competes in youth motocross.
As for her own career, Deegan has plenty of accolades under her belt. She is the only female driver in the Lucas Oil Off Road Pro series, as well as the regional series to win championships (2013, 2015, 2016). She was also the only youth to win the Lucas Oil Off Road Pro series Driver of the Year award (2016).
In Hailie's first season driving in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West in 2018, she scored her first win at Meridian Speedway in Idaho and went on to capture two more checkered flags in the 2019 season, making her the only female to have won races in the K&N Pro Series.
As a current driver in Indy NXT, she ranks 19th out of 25 drivers with 82 points. Not exactly where she'd like to be. But she's working hard and trying to drown out any of the naysayers.
"I really don't value anyone's opinion unless they're above me success-wise. So if some big name driver told me I sucked or I was terrible at this, obviously that would affect me a lot more," she said. "But people who have never done it before, it doesn't really affect me at all. I don't understand how people can feel like they can have an opinion about that when they've never done it before."
Even when she was winning in K&N, there was some negativity.
"At the end of the day, on the outside, I don't know if racing is ready for a fully competitive female," Deegan said. "Everyone says they want to push it, but ..."
Deegan looks up to and has great admiration for Danica Patrick, modern day racing's female trailblazer.
"She's probably, in my opinion, she was the woman that really really made it and did a lot and so I give her full props," said Deegan, who said she knows Patrick faced similar negativity from people as a female driver. "But who cares? She's way more successful than everyone who's talking about her combined."
And Deegan has something Patrick didn't have when she started her career.
"I'm thankful that I did build my social media and invest a bunch of time into it at a young age and didn't just neglect it," said Deegan, "because it's paying off for me right now."