Aggressive Hailie Deegan among drivers to watch in truck race

But when it comes to racing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, she’ll probably always have a warm spot.

NASCAR’s heir apparent to Danica Patrick made headlines at the LVMS dirt track in 2018 when she earned the pole position in the steppingstone K&N Series and went on to lead 13 laps. In a 2019 return engagement, she earned her second K&N Series win by bumping her way past the race leader on the final lap.

Despite starting her rookie season in the trucks with 24th- and 28th-place finishes at Daytona, she’ll be one of the drivers to watch in Friday night’s Bucked Up 200 at LVMS. She was in the hunt for a top-10 finish on the Daytona road course before suffering a flat tire on the last lap.

“Still happy I got to run all the laps and gain a lot more knowledge about these trucks,” Deegan said afterward.

The driver of the No. 1 David Gilliland Racing Ford is making the transition to full-time NASCAR driver after padding her resume with three victories in the K&N Series — all involving contact with another car, including one driven by a teammate.

“Deegan doesn’t care what anyone on or off the track thinks, and she has repeatedly made it clear she’s here to win races, will do so at any cost, and then climb out and tell you all about it,” Racer magazine’s Kelly Crandall wrote in 2019.

Undeterred by criticism on and off the track, the native of California’s high desert attributes much of her elbows-out style to her dirt track upbringing. While her aggressive tactics have ruffled feathers and fenders, Cup Series superstar Kevin Harvick took positive notice after racing with Deegan.

“If I had to pick one person to say, ‘All right, that’s the person (my team) would want to represent and has the most potential’, it would probably be Hailie Deegan,” the former Cup Series champion said of the young racer.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.