*Hailie Deegan hit the dirt Sunday at Springfield and tied her best finish of second this season
Hailie Deegan returned to her dirt-track roots Sunday at the Springfield (Ill.) Mile. She qualified her No. 4 Monster Energy Ford Fusion fifth earlier in the day. Several cautions slowed the early part of the 100-lap race, but Deegan stayed out of trouble and was running fourth when the first race break came on lap 36. She pitted for new tires, fuel and adjustments.
The race resumed on lap 39 and more cautions were to follow. Just past halfway on lap 56, Deegan remained fourth. A caution on lap 66 was extended into the final race break on lap 68. This time several of the leaders, including Deegan, elected to stay out to keep their track position.
Deegan was fourth for the restart with 30 laps to go at Springfield. She lost some track position restarting on the outside and fell back to sixth. She was in fifth place for a lap 98 restart. Brett Holmes and Michael Self spun in front of her. Deegan was able to get by them and move up to second place for the ARCA overtime final restart. She gave it her best shot when the green flag dropped, but could not pass local dirt racer Ryan Unzicker who dominated the race.
Deegan finished second, tying her best finish of the season. She continues to lead the Bounty Rookie Challenge with only one race remaining on the ARCA Menards Series schedule in two weeks at Kansas Speedway on Oct. 16.
Deegan on Springfield: "That was a pretty wild race. We had a good Monster Energy Ford Fusion and I had a lot of fun out there today. I think we did a good job of staying out of trouble and being in the right place at the right time to capitalize on other people's bad luck. I thought maybe I had something for Ryan (Unzicker) on that last restart, but he was really fast all day. All in all, it was a good day and we'll get ready for the season finale at Kansas in two weeks."
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