Hailie Deegan wins K&N West race after spinning teammate Derek Kraus in overtime

Tom Gatto

Hailie Deegan wins K&N West race after spinning teammate Derek Kraus in overtime image

Hailie Deegan muscled her way into Victory Lane on Saturday night.

The 17-year-old NASCAR prospect won the K&N Pro Series West race at Colorado National Speedway after spinning Bill McAnally Racing teammate Derek Kraus in overtime.

Deegan made her power move under the white flag after she and Kraus had made contact moments earlier.

MORE: Deegan among those carrying torch for women in racing

"In the end, Derek ran me hard there so I was going to run him hard back. In the end, that's racing," she said. "We're all going for the kill, so . . . I got the win, that's all that matters. Woo!"

Deegan elaborated while riding away from the track, saying Kraus initiated.

Kraus, of course, wasn't happy with Deegan's move.

He also knows full well he won't get much sympathy with Deegan being in the other car.

McAnally told NASCAR.com that seeing Deegan and Kraus race for the win was "pretty special," but he added that the wreck made the finish "bittersweet."

"That’s what they're here to do: win and develop. They're doing a pretty good job of that," McAnally said.

Online reaction to the finish was mixed, to put it mildly. A sample:

The victory was Deegan's second of the K&N West season and the third of her career. 

Kraus leads the series standings by 12 points over second-place Deegan, so expect the two to race each other hard a lot more.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.