With the attention building around her recent performances, the upcoming Sonoma weekend could be one to remember for Hailie Deegan. 

The Bill McAnally Racing driver will be participating in her 7th race of the ARCA series on 26th June. So far, she has managed to bag four top 10 finishes and sits fifth in the standings. However, Deegan is hoping to get her first win for the team while also becoming the first female driver to win at the 1.99-mile raceway.

If she wins at the Sonoma Raceway, she will become the second woman to register a win in the ARCA Menards West Series, Gracie Trotter being the first in 2020. Deegan's win will also be a first for BMR at the track, a popular storyline that the team waits desperately to change.

Ahead of taking over the first road course of 2026, the No. 16 Bill McAnally Racing driver expressed her confidence in returning to a track where she has previously raced. 

"I always look forward to the challenge of road courses. Sonoma is a place I’ve raced a few times before in the ARCA car and in the truck series. We were really fast the last time we raced the ARCA car there in 2019. Bill [McAnally] and the team came so close to winning at Sonoma last year, so we’ll look over their notes and apply everything we can to have a good run on Friday," Deegan said, as reported by Speedway Digest.

As stated by Deegan, the BMR racing driver has put in laps at the raceway when she raced in the ARCA Menards Series West back in 2019 with Bill McAnally Racing itself. She claimed pole position during that visit.

With prior experience under her belt and four top ten finishes so far this season, Deegan will be looking to get BMR their first victory at the Sonoma Raceway. 

While the Sonoma Raceway comes with its own challenges, the No. 16 driver displayed a strong performance at Shasta Speedway. 

Hailie Deegan's top-10 streak broken at Tri City

Deegan arrived in her sixth race at the Tri-City Raceway with three consecutive 7th-place finishes at Tucson, Shasta, and Colorado, in that order. But an unfortunate crash on Lap 108 forced her to retire at 14 place.

Deegan started third and ran inside the top five in the opening portion. She was running eighth when a caution flew at Lap 103. Five laps after that, a bump from Drew Dollar made her turn and hit the outside wall hard, ending her race.

“We ended up qualifying 3rd and ran in the top-3 in the beginning of the race. We just struggled with the long run speed towards the end and got caught up in a wreck. Hopefully we can change our luck at Sonoma,” Deegan said after the race, as reported by her team BMR.

Heading into Sonoma, Deegan will look to bounce back from this as she looks forward to making history.

You can read more on the Daytona Racing Digest!

Written by

Chionia Libania Colaco

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason