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Hailie Deegan’s bump-and-run leads to busy week

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Hailie Deegan, the first female winner in the history of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series at just 17, joins NASCAR America to talk about her historic win, her dirt racing background and more.

It’s 3:47 p.m. ET on Monday and the Hailie Deegan victory tour is going full tilt.

On the other end of a phone line, the 17-year-old can be heard in the middle of a social media hit for EspnW.

After talking with NBC Sports for 12 minutes, it’ll be onto an appearance on a NASCAR on NBC podcast and later in the day a visit with NASCAR America.

Since 11 a.m., Deegan has done eight interviews.

“It’s been crazy, non-stop,” Deegan says.

It’s what happens when you become the first woman to win a NASCAR K&N Pro Series race, an accomplishment waiting to be achieved since 1987 in the East Series and since 1954 in the West.

On Saturday night at a .250-mile track in Meridian, Idaho, Deegan knocked down the oldest of those barriers.

But she had to knock a teammate out of the way to do it.

It came on the last lap of the NAPA Auto Parts Idaho 208 (airing at 1 p.m. ET on Friday on NBCSN), in Deegan’s 12th career start.

In her way was Cole Rouse, a 21-year-old driver also seeking his first win.

In Deegan’s ear for the final 13 laps was a cacophony of voices.

“I couldn’t even tell who was on the radio,” Deegan recalls. “I got (owner) Bill McAnally on the radio, my crew chief (Kevin Reed Jr.), got my spotter and maybe my dad (action sports star Brian Deegan), I don’t even know.”

The final 13 laps went by so fast, on Monday she thought it had just been five.

Right before the white flag, Reed told her “Do whatever you got to do to win.”

“And I knew what I had to do,” Deegan says.

Since she was a kid, Deegan has watched many videos of her racing and losing battles for position.

“It’s cool to see me excel on those (videos) and kind of get better,” says Deegan, who thought, “‘Ok, I’ve practiced, I’ve worked on my little bump-and-run things at the kart track for hours and hours. I am able to do them.’”

As Rouse dove into Turn 1, his No. 99 Toyota went high.

Deegan went low. She was so focused, she didn’t even notice the No. 77 of Andrew Koens sitting backwards on the apron.

Halfway through the turn and even with Rouse’s left-rear fender, Deegan gave him “a little budge.”

“We ran after that,” Deegan says.

NASCAR’s newest winner called her historic night in Idaho “probably the most fun I’ve had in America.”

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As her 12 minute interview window winds down, Deegan says she knows more eyes will be watching and waiting for to win again.

There are two races left in the K&N West season and Deegan is fifth in the standings, 67 points back from Derek Thorn.

With so much more attention on her, how will she keep from letting the spotlight of the media circus - tweets from Kyle Busch and NASCAR President Steve Phelps - go to her head?

“Honestly, it just motivates me,” Deegan says. “It makes me feel like I’m privileged to be bombarded with media and have these opportunities, ‘cause not many drivers get to have these opportunities and that’s what these drivers dream about having and that’s what makes their careers. I think being able to have all this going on is a blessing. ... I think that right now it makes me feel like I just want to keep pushing even harder so I can keep kind of checking off my goals.”