Hailie Deegan silenced the rumors of her future plans by announcing that she will be driving the No. 13 truck for ThorSport Racing for the 2023 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season. The news comes as ThorSport Racing will also be changing manufacturers by returning to Ford following a two-year run with Toyota.
The 28-year-old Deegan from Temecula, California, is coming off her second full-time campaign in the Truck Series, where she recorded a career-high two top-10 results, including a career-best sixth-place result at Talladega Superspeedway in October while driving for David Gilliland Racing. With an average-finishing result of 22.1 throughout the 23-race schedule, she concluded the season in 21st place in the driver’s standings and was named the 2022 Truck Series Most Popular Driver, which marked the second consecutive season where she claimed the accolade.
Deegan, who joined Ford Performance as part of its driver development program entering the 2020 season, moves to ThorSport and remains a Ford competitor following two full-time seasons with David Gilliland Racing, which is set to be rebranded to TRICON Garage and change manufacturers from Ford to Toyota.
Through 46 career starts in the Truck Series, Deegan has achieved three top-10 results and an average-finishing result of 21.4. Her best result in a Truck Series standings is 17th place, which occurred during her rookie season in 2021. Prior to the Truck Series, Deegan finished in third place in the 2020 ARCA Menards Series standings after finishing in the top 10 in all but three of the 20-race schedule. She is also a three-time winner in the ARCA Menards Series West
Deegan’s move to ThorSport Racing completes the team’s driver lineup for the upcoming Truck season as three-time Truck champion Matt Crafton, two-time Truck winner Ty Majeski and the 2021 Truck champion Ben Rhodes will be remaining with the organization. While all three competitors made the 2022 Truck Series Playoffs, Majeski and Rhodes both recorded victories and transferred all the way to the Championship 4 round, where they finished second and fourth, respectively, in the final standings. Christian Eckes, who drove for ThorSport this past season and recorded his first series victory with the team at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in September 2021, will not be remaining with the organization as he will be moving to McAnally-Hilgemann Racing.
With her plans for the 2023 season set, Deegan’s first campaign with ThorSport Racing is set to occur at Daytona International Speedway on February 17. The event’s coverage is slated to occur at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
