BUILDING CHAMPIONS WITH BRIAN DEEGAN

Brian Deegan talks to Monster Energy’s Eric Johnson about just what goes into sending his daughter Hailie Deegan out to compete in the 2026 ARCA Menards Series West stock car classification, as well as keeping up with his son Haiden Deegan in the 2026 AMA 250SX West AMA Supercross Championship…

“I think a lot of people don’t understand the full commitment of it all,” said the racer who ghosted his Team Moto XXX Suzuki RM125 across the finish line after winning the Los Angeles Coliseum round of the 1997 AMA 125cc West Region Supercross Series. “It’s not just sport and not just racing – but working hard and accomplishing goals.”

A handful of days after Hailie Deegan powered to an excellent sixth place finish in the ARCA Menards Series West Oil Workers 150 at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway, Brain Deegan stopped to chat about his family and their place in American motor racing.

“Yeah, Hailie is old enough now to have her flow and her program going,” explained Deegan, the winner of 16 X Games medals during his Freestyle Motocross and Rally Car competitive career. “To be honest, if I was around her as much as I possibly could be, I’d say we could get even better results out of it. There is only so much time I have. And with Haiden, we had to make the commitment to move from California to Tallahassee because Star Racing moved here. I’ve been around racing long enough to where I’m not guessing. 99-percent of the time, I’m sure of what do to win. I’ve been there and done it a bunch of times. You do what it takes to win. So we moved here to Tallahassee because Star has their engine shop, suspension shop and the full race team on the premises with multiple tracks. There is no better scenario than that. That’s what I created when I built my own off-road race team. I had a race shop and a racetrack at the house. We tested right there. If we had a problem, we fixed it. It is the formula to win. I feel like if these race teams don’t have that, they’re not going to win! At the end of the day, Honda’s got it, right? Honda does it with the Lawrences. Yamaha does it. Kawasaki doesn’t do it. Now you look at Suzuki, and I don’t think they do it. I don’t even know what they do, honestly. You know what my point is. There is a formula that works. KTM does it. They have a race shop and a racetrack right at their shop. It’s just what you’ve got to do.

“And Haiden has been racing on the 250 and I know a lot of people feel like it has been a long time, but it hasn’t,” continued Deegan. “It’s been a very short amount of time. He started racing pro at age 16 and now he’s 20. He did four seasons in the 250 class, just like most all the other people before him. He won as many races as he possibly could win and had a great run. Now he moves up to the 450 and, yes, it’s going to be much harder to win. 100-percent. My point is that, yes, only one guy can win.

“You’ve got to be all in,” furthered Deegan. “That’s the way it is. I mean if you’re not all in, you’re just not going to be a champion. You may win some races here or there and you may be good enough to get a factory ride and make $300,000 or $400,000 a year, but I promise you that you ain’t retiring on that.”

Deegan continued on to explain Haiden Deegan’s highly anticipated move to race the 450cc Yamaha this approaching summer..

“Haiden has been riding the 450 the last few weeks and getting ready for outdoor motocross. Legally, he can still ride a 250 the rest of the year. He could go race the 250 outdoors and go race SMX. He definitely could go do that and move up to 450 supercross next year. I think the best thing for him is to move up in the outdoor series because it is longer motos and gives you more time to do your thing. I just think it’s going to be a better transition. He can get an outdoor season under his belt and see where he stacks up. He can go do SMX, which is basically supercross without whoops. He can get that under his belt and take what you learn into the off-season. In the off-season you can work on your tweaks and go race 450 supercross, which is the hardest form of racing on a motorcycle in the world. It just is.”

The masterplan is for Haiden Deegan to make the graduation up to the 450 class come the opening round of the 2026 AMA Pro Motocross Championship set for Fox Raceway in Pala, California on May 30, 2026.

“Haiden is a winner, so I think he’s going to want to win,” pointed out Deegan. “There is no other way around it. We train for one thing. We don’t train to see how he is going to do. We train to win. We look forward to it. We love the good challenges and the good battles. Winning is awesome and winning is great. It was awesome to go win all these 250 races. It’s going to be another level going to 450. It’s nothing that we haven’t been up against before as far as challenges. You’ve just got to get in there and figure it out.

“We’re super fortunate and super blessed to have such a cool chapter of life right now, you know? To experience that is just awesome as a parent and as a father. Yes, this is all, to me, exciting because it’s close to my heat because it is one of my passions. I love racing dirt bikes. I love dirt bikes. It’s great that Haiden can take it serious. That’s the main thing. When you see your kids go all in on something, that’s the most exciting thing. And for Haiden you never know. Carmichael and Reed said as far as champions are concerned, you’re born that way. I didn’t agree with that at first. I said, ‘No, I think you build champions.’ The more I think about it now, I think you’re born with a certain skill set mentally and physically that helps you be a champion. And you have to feed that. It takes more than just the kid, though. It takes a whole structure to do it.”

And Brian Deegan is quite pleased to see his daughter Hailie now back in a stock car.

“I’m glad she went back to ARCA West. I feel like she jumped into NASCAR at a young age and it was during COVID. Her first time in a NACAR Truck was a green flag lap at 180 miles per hour. It was a tough entry into the sport. I mean she’s matured over the last three or four years. I feel like she’s kind of starting over. I feel like this is kind of a reboot. The goal is to move back into Trucks full-time with Bill McAnally Racing, which is an awesome Truck team. And McAnally has just been a good guy. He’s a family-based team owner that really does care about the drivers. And I asked her, ‘Do you really want to race?’ She said, ‘Yeah, I want to race.’ I said, ‘Alright, if you’re going to race, you’ve got to go all in.’ That’s what it’s going to take. She’s laying it smart and just getting the laps. She needs to keep working at it, for sure.”