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NASCAR K&N Pro Series West driver Hailie Deegan has one specific goal. She wants to be the first woman to win a K&N Pro Series West race.

Deegan, the 16-year-old daughter of X Games star Brian Deegan, is with the right team with a winning tradition in the K&N Pro Series West. She will be driving for Bill McAnally Racing, which won 11 of the 14 races in the K&N Pro Series West in 2017. Bill McAnally Racing driver Todd Gilliland won his second K&N Pro Series West championship in a row. The team has won the past three K&N Pro Series West championships.

Hailie Deegan started ninth and finished 29th in her first K&N Pro Series race in Florida.

“I want to be able to run in the top three, top five. That’s definitely my goal every race,” Deegan said. “My main goal is being the first girl to win a K&N race. I feel like I have the equipment to do it. I think I am putting in a lot more work than anyone else. I think that will catch up eventually.”

She will be driving the car that Derek Kraus raced last year for Bill McAnally Racing. Knaus won the K&N Pro Series West rookie of the year and the season finale race at Kern County Raceway Park in California. Knaus moved up to the No. 16 car, Gilliland’s car last year, for the team. Deegan moves into the No. 19 car vacated by Knaus.

Deegan is fairly new to stock cars, but not to racing. It is only her second full year in stock car racing, but she has been racing off-road trucks for the past eight years. She will be racing late models with High Point Racing at Irwindale Speedway in addition to racing in the K&N Pro Series.

She admits it took some time before she was comfortable in stock cars of any kind.

“At first I was actually a little nervous,” Deegan said. “Maybe I’m not ready for that yet, because I haven’t had that much time on asphalt.”

She tested with Bill McAnally Racing in October. After the test, McAnally asked if she would be interested in racing for him.

“After that test, I felt like I was ready and that I could do it,” Deegan said. “I’ve just been putting in the seat time to be faster and run up front.”

McAnally told NASCAR.com before the K&N Pro Series season started that he is looking forward to having Deegan as part of his team.

“We look forward to being a big part of Hailie’s development as she takes this next step in her racing career,” McAnally said. “We anticipate great things ahead for everybody, including our partners and fans.”

Hailie Deegan is the 16-year-old daughter of X Games star Brian Deegan.

Her plan is to run the entire K&N Pro Series West and select K&N Pro Series East events. Her first K&N Pro Series was at at New Smyrna Speedway in Florida earlier in February.

“I feel like I’m really comfortable in my car,” Deegan said. “I think it compares more to a late model. It contradicts almost. The late models don’t have much motor, but they’re light. K&N cars, they’re heavy and they have a ton of motor.”

Her first race in the K&N Pro Series did not go as planned. A fuel pump broke in her car early in the K&N Pro Series East season opener at New Smyrna Speedway. She completed on 19 laps and had to withdraw in last and 29th place.

Despite the poor result, Deegan said her team had some successes in their first race together. She qualified ninth for race and maintained her spot once the race started.

“My goal was to qualify in the top 10,” Deegan said. “All of them were fast. All the fast guys came to that first race. Coming out, I qualified ninth, which I felt was really good. I was the youngest one there and the only girl.

“The race went good. I was just running ninth until lap 20 and my fuel pump broke. It was one of those freak things, you can check it, but it broke. I didn’t hit anything. It just broke. There’s nothing you can do about it.”

The first K&N Pro Series West race is March 15 at Kern County Raceway Park in California. In the meantime, she will be racing late models at Irwindale Speedway.

NASCAR K&N Pro Series driver Hailie Deegan will race for Bill McAnally Racing in 2018.

“That’s going to majorly help me in the K&N car,” Deegan said.

Whether it’s in the K&N Pro Series or late models at Irwindale Speedway, Deegan will be racing every weekend until November. She has at least four off-road races she wants to enter as well. He racing schedule is full for the next few months.

“I’m at the track at least four days a week, that’s like the minimum, and like racing every single weekend,” Deegan said. “My last weekend off is going to be this upcoming weekend and that’s it for the year.”

One of the races she is looking forward to is the dirt track race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. With an off-road truck racing background, she said the Las Vegas dirt track will play to her strengths.

“That’s the one I feel like that will be my shining point,” Deegan said. “I came from racing off-road trucks.”

She started racing off-road trucks when she was 8-years-old and won four off-road racing championships.

“I think that off-road truck stuff, that’s definitely helping me in the stock cars,” Deegan said. “I love racing on dirt. That’s my background, That’s where I came from. It’s what I’m really good at naturally. I think it’s transferring over good to stock cars. I know how to move a car around and how to slide a car. It comes natural.”

The K&N brand has become synonymous with stock car racing, Deegan said. K&N has supported Deegan since her off-road racing days and she is grateful to continue her racing career with their support.

“It’s like the K&N Series. Everything is K&N, K&N.” Deegan said. “You don’t even know K&N is the actual company. Everything is the K&N Series, K&N West, K&N East.”

The logo for the K&N Pro Series will feature the new NASCAR mark that will be used throughout the stock car series. The five developmental series, including the K&N Pro Series, are making the change. The new NASCAR mark was introduced in 2017 and replaced the previous one used since 1976. NASCAR worked with RARE Design to develop the new symbol for the stock car racing sanctioning body.

The K&N Pro Series will introduce a radial tire produced by Goodyear in place of the bias-ply type tires the teams in the series were using. The new radial tires are similar to the ones used by teams in the Camping World Truck Series, Xfinity Series and Monster Energy Cup Series.

The drivers in the K&N Pro Series are excited about making the switch to the radial tires. But the tires are more expensive than the bias-ply tires, which increases operations costs for the teams.

Ruben Garcia will race for Rev Racing in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East in 2018.

Ruben Garcia, who won the NASCAR Mexico Series championship in 2017 and will be racing in the K&N Pro Series East for Rev Racing in 2018, said it has been an adjustment racing on the new Goodyear tires, but the results are encouraging.

“The tires are different,” Garcia said. “The tires we used in Mexico we can run pretty hard almost all the time. With the Goodyear tires we use in the K&N Series, you have to take a lot of care of them. That was another thing I had to pay a lot of attention to and get used to in order to run better.”

Julia Landauer, a driver in the K&N Pro Series West, said using the new tires makes sense for drivers who are working their way through the development system in NASCAR.

“I’m glad to see that they made that change,” Landauer said. “It’s a different compound. The radial tires are what they race in ARCA, Trucks, Xfinity and Cup. It seemed a little weird to have a development series -- now they’re more expensive -- but it seemed a little weird to have a development series where you don’t get to race the type of tire you race in all the series above. I think it’s good they made that change.”

The K&N Pro Series will feature longer races in 2018. Some of the events will increase by 25 laps. This will prepare drivers and crews for advancement in NASCAR.

Finally, all private testing will be eliminated at NASCAR-sanctioned events for the K&N Pro Series. Drivers and teams will have an extra day of practice at stand-alone and combined events in the K&N Pro Series.

The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East heads to Bristol Motor Speedway on April 14th. The K&N Pro Series West kicks-off at Kern County Raceway Park in California on March 15.

Ryan Vargas used his experience racing in California when he went to the NASCAR Drive for Diversity combine at New Smyrna Speedway in Florida. He said the track in Florida reminded him of Kern County Raceway Park in California. He went into the combine the same way he prepared for races at Kern County. It paid off with a seat on the Rev Racing team in the K&N Pro Series East.

Ryan Vargas will race for Rev Racing in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East in 2018.

Vargas made his NASCAR K&N Pro Series East debut at New Smyrna Speedway on February 11th and the 17-year-old driver from La Mirada, Calif. expressed his excitement before the season started. “It’s the first race and really my first time in a K&N car,” Vargas said. “That’s where the Drive for Diversity combine was at. It was at New Smyrna Speedway. I attacked it a lot like how I did with Kern County Raceway back at home. It drove a lot like that place.”

Vargas joins a team with a successful history. Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace, both NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series drivers, raced for Rev in the K&N Pro Series East. Daniel Suarez, who races in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, was one of the Rev Racing drivers as he worked his way up the NASCAR ladder.

Vargas said he wants to add to the Rev Racing legacy.

“I definitely want to get a win. I see a whole bunch of banners hung around the shop from Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace, and Daniel Suarez from their past wins when they raced with Rev,” Vargas said. “Hopefully I can get a win by the end of the year and that would be a great goal. But in the end, my main goal is to get rookie of the year and run strong in every race.”

Ryan Vargas is in NASCAR's Drive for Diversity Program and will drive for Rev Racing in 2018.

“These past few years have been very up and down for us,” Vargas said. “We’ve had a lot of great success with my family team. It’s been really hard funding wise. It’s been hard to keep up.”

“To have the opportunity of a lifetime to come here and race K&N East cars with Rev is very humbling to me. I know I am going to take every advantage of it. I am also really excited to learn as much as I can with this program, learn about the cars, working inside the garage, and getting my fitness on track.”

The majority of Vargas’ experience comes from racing late models, trucks, bandoleros and street stocks at Irwindale Speedway and The Orange Show in California and the Bullring in Las Vegas. He doesn’t have much experience in the K&N Pro Series cars. He will only have one day of testing before his first race at New Smyrna Speedway.

“I’m really excited for it, after talking with a lot of friends who have raced K&N, like my friends Noah Gragson and Will Rodgers, a lot of them have told me that they are just really heavy, but really fast,” Vargas said. “I am going to go into it with the mindset of trying to turn a street stock. Those things are very heavy and very hard to steer. I am going to go into it with a different mindset as well of trying to be as smooth as I can, while being able to get as much as I can out of the car every single race.”

Ryan Vargas speaks onstage after being presented with the Wendell Scott Trailblazer Award.

Vargas also takes pride in his knowledge in the garage. He likes to work on the cars as much as he likes driving them. In his late model days racing at Irwindale Speedway and the Orange Show, he spent a considerable amount of time in the garage and the pits. He wants that to stay the same at Rev Racing.

“When I come off the track I want to be able to say what I need changed on the car,” Vargas said. “Not just come off the track and say, ‘oh it’s tight, oh it’s loose.’ I want to be able to come off the track and say we need to do this adjustment there. There’s still a lot of ground for me to make up though. I’m definitely not the one to ask a lot of questions on cars. I feel like I am at a place right now that I’ve never been. That is where I can actually diagnose a car a lot better than I ever have been able to.”

Having K&N make a commitment to the series makes a lot of difference, Vargas said. He is excited to be part of the K&N Pro Series East as a rookie.

“It means a lot to have a company like K&N to sponsor the series,” Vargas said. “It shows that the series has so much potential that a great company like them would want to jump on board. It also shows that the series itself is a very good series not just to be in, but also to watch.

“It’s definitely been all worth it. All the hard work has come to this. I am grateful for that.”

The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is jumping on the four-wide racing bandwagon. It will be the second track in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series to have four-wide racing. The first four-wide event in Las Vegas will be in April 2018 for the Denso Auto Parts Nationals and the 33rd running of the K&N Horsepower Challenge.

Greg Anderson K and N

zMAX Dragway in North Carolina was the first track to offer four-wide racing. NHRA Pro Stock driver Greg Anderson said it took some time to get used to the four-wide format, but he readily admits it’s a fun event to watch and race in. Anderson, who drives for KB Racing and was the runner-up in the NHRA Pro Stock standings in 2017, said that during the first year of four-wide racing in North Carolina racers had called it crazy and a ridiculous way to race. Some didn’t want to race four-wide again after the first event. “Then the next year it got a little bit easier. The next year, a little bit easier,” Anderson said. “You learn more every year. We didn’t like it to begin with because it was so different. Some of us went out there and looked like fools, made mistakes that you think a rookie driver would make. Once we got a few of them under our belts, it became fine.”

It took time, but the four-wide races in North Carolina turned into one of the more anticipated events. Anderson said the four-wide event in Las Vegas will have the same appeal to drivers and fans. “It’s honestly become one of the more fun races,” Anderson said. “It draws a great crowd, obviously the spectators love it. I think it’s a good move. I’m excited about it.”

Jason Line Las Vegas 4-track

Anderson added that NHRA is not overdoing it either with four-wide events with one or two a year seeming like the right amount.

“If you do it one time a year, by the time it rolls around the next year, you kind of forgotten all the little things you learned the year before how to do it,” Anderson said. “If we do it twice a year, that will make it even easier for us to get a handle on it. The more you do it, the better you get at it. I’m not afraid of it like I used to be.”

Jason Line, Anderson’s teammate at KB Racing, said he isn’t a huge fan of four-wide racing. But he understands how much fans like it and he looks forward to the challenge it brings to racers and crews. “It’s certainly different,” Line said. “If I had to pick and choose, would I choose to race four wide? Maybe not. At the same time it’s something different, exciting. The fans like it. At least they seem to like it. I'm OK with it. It’s definitely different.”

Construction of the new four-lane drag strip is expected to be completed in February.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to do a little bit of drag racing on it in March with some of our local guys to get it broken in before we have the national event,” said Jeff Motley, the vice president of public relations at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “The four-wide has been a huge success at the zMAX Dragway in Charlotte. This is an opportunity for us to bring four-wide drag racing to people on the West Coast who probably never had the opportunity to experience four-wide drag racing.”

Winners Circle Las Vegas

Chris McGaha won the four-wide event in the Pro Stock division in North Carolina last year. Steve Torrence won Top Fuel, Ron Capps won Funny Car and LE Tonglet won Pro Stock Motorcycle. The four-wide event in Las Vegas is the fourth event on the NHRA schedule and is set for April 6-8.

“All in all it’s fun. Still a fun weekend,” Line said. “It’ll be entertaining to watch for sure.”

Jason Line Racing

Bo Butner Celebration

When the 2017 season started, six Pro Stock drivers claimed victory in the first six races and 2018 is off to a similar start with Butner winning at Pomona and Chris McGaha winning at the Arizona Nationals.

Butner’s first win in 2017 came at Texas, the fifth event of the season. He went on to win five NHRA Pro Stock events in his first full season in Pro Stock. “Just never give up,” Butner said after winning the November event in Pomona. “I have a great crew; it’s amazing. They don’t give up on me. But the KB team, what does that say about them? Honestly, I rent a car and a motor and they put me in a championship. It’s just unbelievable. Thank the Lord for everything; He shined on me.”

Greg Anderson Racing

Anderson entered the season finale in Pomona as the leader in the Pro Stock standings. Butner was second, 40 points behind Anderson, who was in pursuit of his first Pro Stock title since 2010. Anderson lost to Butner in the semifinals at Pomona and slowly dropped out of contention for the championship. “There’s always a personal letdown when you don’t personally get it done,” Anderson said. “It’s great for the team. The team had a great year. At the time, it was a tough pill to swallow when I lost at the world finals there. A day or two later, you get over that and realize the big picture was fantastic.”

KB Racing took the top-three spots in the Pro Stock standings. KB Racing’s Line was third in the Pro Stock standings. All three drivers know the bar is set high for the team and they want to continue the success they all experienced in 2017. “I didn’t end like I wanted it to. I didn’t win the championship,” Line said. “We had a good year really. KB Racing as a whole, we finished 1-2-3 Can’t be mad about that.”

Anderson said he thinks KB Racing has the right formula for success. Having Butner win by leasing cars and equipment through KB Racing will give other racers an opportunity to perhaps enter the Pro Stock ranks. “It’s a neat deal, a really cool story,” Anderson said. “It does a lot for the class. It proves to other people they can do it a different way. They can go lease an engine, lease a car from one of the big teams and compete for championships. You couldn’t say that 10 years ago, the class wasn’t like that 10 years ago.”

The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series heads to Gainesville March 15-18 for the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals.