NASCAR's Hailie Deegan Learns How to Drift, Breaks McFarland's LS Nissan 240SX

Aside from a promising full-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career, Deegan is also looking to make a name for herself in the lucrative and fun YouTube vlogging age. And it seems that she has all the right stuff to break into a world previously dominated by men. But if ladies such as Emelia Hartford are any C8 hint, Hailie will also do fine.

Of course, things do happen by trial and error. Case in point, that one day when the pro stock racer decided to learn another skill of the trade – aka drifting. She did it with help from none other than Cletus McFarland and at his Freedom Factory all-out fun location. Well, it all started great, with lots of cool tomfooleries – including a passenger ride in McFarland’s drift Corvette.

But that machine is above a learner’s skill level, so Deegan also gets introduced to “Rocket,” an LS-swapped Nissan 240SX that should offer her a much nimbler teaching curve. One important thing to note here is that Hailie thoroughly enjoys herself and it’s clear she loves cars and thrashing them around. So, with a neat driver’s POV, she starts taking the drift bull by the 240SX horns from the 8:05 mark.

First attempts are just casual drifts going in a circle, but it’s pretty obvious she’s a natural and the talent soon starts taking over. With each attempt, her skill improves and at one point Cletus even gives us the sign of victory once she masters what looks like a figure-eight course. Unfortunately, their joy is a bit short-lived.

As far as we can tell, sometime during the runs one of Nissan’s sensors failed and the car started overheating. In the end, the water pump decided it was time to quit its duty... and thus all the drifting fun ended prematurely. Not the ending they expected, that’s a bit obvious. Luckily, they kept the smiles up... at least for the camera.