Michelle R. Martinelli

For The Win

If NASCAR fans didn't know the name Hailie Deegan before Saturday night, they do now.

The 17-year-old became the first female driver to win a K&N Pro Series race, taking the checkered flag in the K&N Pro Series West race, the NAPA Auto Parts/Idaho 208, at Meridian Speedway in Idaho.

"Oh my god," Deegan said in Victory Lane, via NASCAR.com. "This has to be the best day of my life right here. It doesn't get any better than this. People don't understand how many days, how many hours I've put into this. How much work I've done to get to this moment. It's just amazing … this is the happiest day of my life. We did it."

According to NASCAR.com, like a true pro, Deegan bumped her Bill McAnally Racing teammate Cole Rouse out of the way on the final lap, saying it was a scenario she had prepared herself for:

"I was in bed last night thinking, 'If it comes down, last lap, I'm in second, I'm a car length off of him, what am I going to do?'" Deegan said. "And I found that Turn 1 spot. I knew what exactly I had to do there. I was doing it to some other people just getting right under them to get them a little light to get them, not wrecking loose, nothing crazy, but enough to just get a little under them and make the pass happen. We did that. I knew exactly what I had to do the last lap. I did it, we executed, and we made it happen."

One of the most popular up-and-coming drivers, Deegan had a long list of goals for the 2018 season, and now through 12 of the 14 races on the K&N Pro Series West schedule, she can check all of them off. She wanted to get a top-10, top-5 and top-3 finish; qualify in the top 5 and then the top 3; and win a pole, lead a race and eventually win a race.

Until her Saturday night win, her best finish was second - which she did twice - and she has racked up five top-5 finishes and 10 top 10s.

But Deegan hasn't just caught the attention of those who closely follow the developmental regional NASCAR series.

Cup Series driver Kevin Harvick recognized her talent when he raced against her in a K&N Pro Series event in his Bakersfield, California hometown earlier this year. Afterward, he said of Deegan, via USA TODAY Sports:

"I think as far as potential and reach and just racing knowledge and getting in a car as young as she is, she would be the one I would pluck out of the series and say, 'That's the one we want to be a part of,'" he said.

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