Hailie Deegan lights up SEMA with Mobil 1

Hailie Deegan was at SEMA Show to show off a cool project with sponsor Mobil 1, but her excitement extends to all aspects of her racing career.

It’s probably unfair to try to sum up racing wunderkind Hailie Deegan in one word, but if you had to do it, “exuberant” would be a good choice. Even talking to the 17-year-old from Temecula, California for two minutes is enough to get the feeling she’s living the dream.

The current part of that fantasy come to life has Deegan at SEMA Show in Las Vegas, where she unveiled a personalized 2019 Toyota Tacoma build with sponsor Mobil 1. As she explains in her mile a minute manner, it’s a lot like her own 2018 Toyota Tacoma, which is to say probably nothing like yours.

“My everyday truck isn’t your typical everyday truck,” Deegan told FanSided by phone from SEMA. “It’s pretty prerunnered out. Everything you can pretty much put on a Tacoma to make it not stock, we put it on there.”

How did she feel about getting to show it off to the world?

“I’m so pumped,” Deegan said. “When Mobil 1 came to me and told me they wanted to partner up and do a build, I was super excited, because my primary sponsors for my K&N car are Mobil 1, NAPA and the TRD program, so it’s cool for all that to collide and do this build.”

Deegan has had plenty of things to fuel her enthusiasm in 2018. Even casual NASCAR fans know that she won a K&N Pro Series race in September, becoming the first woman to ever do so and the first female driver to take the checkered flag in any NASCAR touring series in 30 years.

But that victory was just the culmination of a series of goals Deegan had set for herself at the beginning of the season, her first as a full-time stock car driver. She famously took to Twitter after her breakthrough at Meridian Speedway to show that she had checked the last item off her list.

There was still more to come, though, as Deegan was named Rookie of the Year for the K&N West Series — another first for a female driver — and captured yet another pole in her final race of the season. If you don’t think she was psyched about that, you haven’t been paying attention yet:

https://twitter.com/NASCARHomeTrack/status/1056355391490076672

The future seems bright for Deegan, who isn’t yet sure what her 2019 plans entail. If she has her druthers, she’ll reload her checklist with a new top goal.

“I’d like to go for a championship,” she said. “That’s kind of like my final goal.”

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One thing you can take to the bank is that Deegan will still celebrate every triumph like it’s her first. Yes, it’s easier to be overflowing with energy when everything is going your way, but she also understands how much work it is to accomplish what she is trying to do, and she plans on making sure everyone shares in her good times.

“Anyone that hangs around me knows that’s how I am 24/7,” Deegan said. “I don’t think anyone’s going to change that. There’s a lot of drivers out there that just get out of the car, and it could be their first win, and they just don’t seem all amped up. And I feel like, ‘I’d be going crazy if I just did what they did.’ I like taking advantage of those opportunities to show that there’s a whole lot of work that goes into this, and every single day, every single hour of work that I put into this, it’s for those moments. I want to show people how exciting it is for all that work to pay off.”

For now, that hard work has led her full circle to close out the year at SEMA with Mobil 1, one of the sponsors on her car when she grabbed that first win. It feels right, and for Deegan, it’s got her pretty excited.

Naturally.