Coming from a victory in the K&N Pro series, NASCAR upcoming star Hailie Deegan grabbed pole position in Sonoma but had to settle for 8th in a caution-disrupted race.
Hailie Deegan's weekend started off big on qualifying day by taking pole in Sonoma for the latest NASCAR K&N Pro West race. It was her second pole position of the year, the fourth in her career.
“We went out for qualifying, and it was a decent lap. Maybe we’d be fourth through seventh" - said a surprised Deegan, "We ended up getting the pole, and I was like ‘how’d that happen?’ because we knocked off like four seconds off our time from yesterday. They definitely got my car figured out. We went over a ton of notes, data, got the setup good and now we’re starting on the pole. I’m a little nervous, but hopefully it’ll be good.”
Unfortunately the race didn't start as she had expected, with Hailie Deegan having to give up positions.
From that moment on the race became chaotic and characterized by continuous cautions that slowed down the rhytm but increased the tension on the racetrack.
Deegan drove steadily in the top ten throughout the race and was protagonist of an exciting battle with the Sunrise Ford #6 driven by Jones, with the young lady from Temecula, California, managing to move up to eighth.
However, she was immediately forced to give the position back to her competitor due to a yellow flag appearing a few seconds before completing the move.
The race restarted on lap 46 but was immediately yellow-flagged again for a debris left on the track by Jack Wood's car #78, who made contact shortly after the green flag.
A last-lap restart was again aborted after a contact between Deegan and Alan.
The race thus ended after 3 overtimes on lap 56, putting an end to yet again another crazy race.
Noah Gragson took the victory at Preece's expenses, the latter having lead most of the race but was relegated at the back of the field after a penalty for jumping the restart. Gragson received a similar penalty earlier in the race.
Hailie Deegan took the finish in eight place, without real opportunities to make up positions at the restarts. But after a victory in Colorado and a surprising pole in Sonoma, she now hopes to keep the momentum going through the next races.
Ph credits: NKP/NASCAR