It was announced this week that Hallie Deegan will be moving to full-time Xfinity Racing in 2024. She’ll be driving for AM Racing in the #15 Ford Mustang with a teammate who has not been finalized yet. Let’s take an early look at what next season holds and how this move affects both the Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series landscapes.
Xfinity: Hopes and Expectations
With Hallie moving up what will likely be one of the top (and one of the only) Ford teams in Xfinity next year what can we hope to see and where can we realistically set our expectations? Well let’s get the obvious out of the way. Her truck tenure has been disappointing for sure. Finishing her 3rd full time season she (as of now) only has 5 top 10s in her career at this level.
She does however have 3 ARCA West wins to her name and did collect a top 15 and finish on the lead lap in her lone Xfinity start last season at Las Vegas. I truly believe that as we’ve seen with other drivers (such as Derek Kraus) that the current Xfinity package rewards drivers for racing the track as much as it does for racing their competition if not more so, this ends itself to Deegan’s offroad background from before she came to NASCAR where things are more in the drivers hands than they are in the Truck Series where that isn’t always the case outside of restarts. Both take talent and should be recognized as such they are just different skillsets to have and execute well.
So with me being hopeful that her skills can translate where do I have my expectations for Deegan in 2024? Well, I’m a firm believer that it takes a team about halfway through the season to find “what works” for them. So with that said I expect Deegan to be competing for 8-13th range of positions fairly consistently by the end of July. Now I know anything can happen but with the Ford backing that AMR is going to be getting and the right tools and people around her, I believe Deegan is capable of not only where I’ve set my expectations but possibly far exceeding them to become a staple of the NASCAR Xfinity series.
Thorsport: What’s Next?
Let’s start with the easy one first, with Deegan moving up this leaves a Thorsport truck open for next year. The first question on everyone’s minds is who gets this ride? Well, I have it narrowed down to an obvious, not-so-obvious, and a dark horse option for the #13 truck. The obvious choice in my opinion is Grant Enfinger. With GMS closing down after this year, the man and his team would be a great tool to overhaul the Thorsport team and make them possible championship contenders again.
The second (and more for fun) option is Frankie Muniz, Muniz had a good season in ARCA this year until it completely derailed with issues outside of his control, him taking his rookie season with the oldest team in the Truck series garage could be a great foundation if he’s serious about furthering his stock car racing career.
The third and final option in my opinion is Noah Gragson. The much-maligned driver has had his world fall out from under him this year through his actions and the consequences of them. A ride at Thorsport could be a way for Gragson to “reset” his career in a similar fashion to when JHN made the move down to KBM a few years ago (albeit for different reasons).
Photo Credit: @puffadda
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