Hailie Deegan’s career is at a crossroads. What direction will it take from here?

Hailie Deegan is looking for her next ride in NASCAR, likely wondering what the best route is for her — and teams wondering if she has a future in the sport.

Deegan was the only female driver to have a full-time seat in all three NASCAR national series until her release this week from AM Racing. She has a sizable social media following with 3.2 million followers on TikTok, 1.6 million followers on Instagram and 583,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel.

If she succeeds in racing, she will become a superstar. That’s why so many people were so optimistic after her first few seasons of full-time stock car racing. She won three ARCA West Series races from 2018 to 2019.

Toyota let her go to Ford’s driver development program, and she finished third in the 2020 ARCA Series national standings driving for team owner David Gilliland. She raced in a Gilliland truck in 2021-22, then for ThorSport in 2023.

They were solid teams and she failed to flourish. She didn’t progress much over three seasons, but a move to the Xfinity Series seemed understandable: She had probably learned what she could in the trucks, so why not see if the Xfinity cars were a better fit for her style?

The move to AM Racing could certainly be debated. They were decent in their first Xfinity season with Brett Moffitt, but a relatively new team (they still compete in ARCA and have raced Trucks) in the series. They could grow together.

Instead, they struggled together and decided to split up this week.

So where does she go from here?

Some will say Deegan is a lost cause. With little to no progress in three-plus seasons of national series racing, will she really improve? Will she really get the feel she needs to go fast? She has finished worst in points among Xfinity Series starters through the first 17 events.

And yet, compared to many Xfinity Series drivers, she has raced in stock cars for fewer seasons, with about seven years of experience as she approaches her 23rd birthday. She is still young, and a few years of her NASCAR experience have come during COVID-19 seasons, with no practice on many weekends. So to say she still can’t learn or improve seems a bit short-sighted.

Some might think she focuses too much on her social media presence, but it’s also what has kept her on track so far, as it helps her gather sponsors.

Deegan is the daughter of Brian Deegan, an extreme motorsport rider. He is known for taking risks on a motorcycle.

It may take someone with the same affinity for risk – risk from a financial perspective – to give Deegan a solid chance of success.

Deegan needs to go to a place where she knows she can compete for a few years. She needs to go to a place with a solid structure in place to set reasonable goals for her to improve. She needs to go somewhere with teammates who can help her (although she had that with her truck teams and it didn’t really lead to much improvement). She might even need a program where she runs select races in a variety of series, from Late Models to Xfinity, to help her improve her weaknesses.

“I wouldn’t want to see her go anywhere else,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said on his Dale Jr. Download podcast. “I wouldn’t want to see her leave stock car racing altogether.”

He’s right. Deegan was hailed five years ago as a potential superstar who could help transform the sport.

People saw something in her that made them believe in her. They haven’t seen much in recent years that has made them continue to believe in her. Finding someone who believes in her – a sponsor, an owner, a crew chief – will be key to whether she can make a career in stock car racing.

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including more than 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @Bobpockrass.