Hailie Deegan had two consecutive third place finishes in the last two races of the ARCA Menards Series West season, and during Saturday’s Madera 150 at Madera Speedway, she was able to improve that position by two spots.
Driving the No. 16 5.11 Tactical Chevrolet SS for Bill McAnally Racing, Deegan started out the day by earning the third fastest time in Sioux Chief PowerPEX qualifying. After running top five for the entire race, she found herself running second with under 30 laps to go. Following some more late cautions, she outduelded Trevor Huddleston in a two-lap thriller to pick up her fourth career ARCA Menards Series West win, and her first of 2026.
It was Deegan’s first win in the West Series since Colorado National Speedway in 2019, back when K&N was still the title sponsor of the series.
“I told myself today, ‘If I’m there, I’m capitalizing on it. I’m going to do everything I possibly can to win this damn race,” Deegan said post-race. “We had a car capable of winning it. The guys at Bill McAnally Racing gave me an amazing car.”
After being released from her NASCAR Xfinity Series (now O’Reilly Auto Parts Series) ride in 2024 mid-season, she made the transition to open-wheel racing, competing full-time in the Indy NXT Series for HMD Motorsports the next year. She made the move back to stock cars in 2026, competing for the team that first gave her an opportunity.
“I’m tearing up right now; it’s been a long time since I won a race,” Deegan continued, fighting back tears. “I just want to say thank you to everyone, everyone that still believed in me. It’s been hard. Just to see everyone still supporting me these days, it’s amazing. It doesn’t go unseen, and I appreciate every single one of you.”
For the second race in a row, Huddleston pulled off a dominating performance, only to lose the win on the final restart. Although he was disappointed at not getting his third win in a row at Madera, he continued to increase his points lead over Mason Massey after his late troubles.
“I could of won differently, but it doesn’t matter,” Huddleston said post-race. “At the end of the day, the three-peat wasn’t in the cards for us. We’re in a points battle, and sometimes unfortunately, that’s the problem with points battling is sometimes you gotta be the pinball and not the ball.”
Kenna Mitchell, making her third start in the West Series, picked up a career-best third place finish for Kelly Souza’s Central Coast Racing. Robbie Kennealy grabbed his sixth top five finish of the year with a fourth place effort, and Mason Massey, after rebounding from a late spin, completed the top-five positions.
Joey Iest finished sixth, with Ethan Nascimento, the latest series winner, settling for seventh. Will Robinson, Andrew Chapman, and Eric Rhead completed the top-10 spots.
The ARCA Menards Series West competitiors will return on Friday, October 2, at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Bullring for the running of the Kyle Busch Classic. The event is scheduled to be broadcasted live on FloRacing at 9 PM EST.
Madera 150 Race Results
- #16 Hailie Deegan
- #50 Trevor Huddleston
- #13 Kenna Mitchell
- #1 Robbie Kennealy
- #19 Mason Massey
- #88 Joey Iest
- #21 Ethan Nascimento
- #25 Will Robinson
- #55 Andrew Chapman
- #66 Eric Rhead
- #77 Donald Witkowski
- #4 Wyatt Flowers
- #15 Mia Lovell
- #51 Tyler Tomassi
- #5 Eric Johnson Jr. (-2 Laps)
- #04 Ian Wood (-4 Laps)
- #72 Josiah Reaume (-5 Laps)
- #05 David Smith (-5 Laps)
- #7 Gavin Ray (OUT)
- #38 Ray Bolinger (OUT)
- #71 Cole Denton (OUT)
