Deegan prepares for X Games, NASCAR

Brian Deegan is heading to this weekend's X Games entered in three events and considering adding a fourth. He has also started pursuing a career in NASCAR.
Deegan will be competing in Rally Car Racing, the new SuperRally and Speed and Style at X Games. He has been invited to compete in Step Up. When interviewed on Wednesday, Deegan said he was undecided on Step Up.
When it comes to NASCAR, however, Deegan has no reservations. He started racing late model stock cars at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale and wants to move up to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West by November.
He isn't the the first X Games veteran to delve into NASCAR territory. Ricky Carmichael started racing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series a couple years ago.
Deegan said he has talked to Carmichael about the challenges NASCAR present.
"My timetable for NASCAR would be coming through the ranks, like Ricky Carmichael did," Deegan said last week from his Metal Mulisha compound  in Temecula. "I talked to him years ago. He’s like, you gotta do local races, these guys are fast and this is all they do. It’s a harsh reality starting over at something. For me, fortunately I’ve had the opportunity given to me and I want to take it."
Deegan has been in two NASCAR Super Late Model races at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. He plans on returning to the track for a few more races in August before making the jump to the West Series at Phoenix International Raceway.
"I’ll go as I feel right. If it takes two years, oh well. If it takes three, it takes three," Deegan said. "I’m going to go as I feel safe and progress. Obviously I’d like to be there right now, but that’s not how it is."

Photo: Brian Deegan will be competing in Rally Cars and Speed and Style at Summer X Games 16. He is also pursuing a career in NASCAR.

X-GAMES: Deegan tries something new

X-GAMES: Deegan tries something new : North County Times - Californian 07-31-2009

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Brian Deegan, a 10-time X Games medalist in freestyle motocross, will compete in rally cars for the first time in his action sports career. Deegan has been racing off-road trucks in the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series. He will be teamed with 1999 Indianapolis 500 champion Kenny Brack and two-time X Games rally medalist Tanner Foust in Ford Fiestas for this weekend's X Games.
The Fiestas were the fastest in practice on Thursday at the Home Depot Center in Carson, giving Deegan confidence he can add to his X Games medal collection.

Photo: Brian Deegan is about to give a member of the media a ride in his Ford Fiesta on Thursday in Carson. ©2009, Paul Webb, USA LAT Photographic.

Brian Deegan testing his Ford Fiesta for X Games 15 in Los Angeles

Brian Deegan, a 10-time X Games medalist, has turned in his motocross bike for a rally car. This will be the first time Deegan will compete in the rally cars portion of the X Games. He has three gold and seven bronze medals in the X Games.
More on Deegan's debut in rally cars tomorrow.

Ricky Carmichael heading to X Games

Ricky Carmichael has one more NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race before heading to Los Angeles for X Games 15. Carmichael will be in the Truck Series race at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis this weekend. The following weekend, starting on July 30, he will be competing in two events, the best whip and step-up in the X Games. He won the gold medal in best whip at last year’s X Games.
Carmichael is coming off his best finish in the Truck Series. He was seventh in the race at Kentucky Speedway on Saturday night.
O’Reilly Raceway Park marks a stretch of short tracks on the Truck Series schedule. Three of the next five Truck Series races are on tracks that are less than a mile.
“I like short-track racing. To be honest I like racing everywhere,” said Carmichael, who drives for Kevin Harvick Inc. “Anytime I have the opportunity to climb behind the wheel of the No. 4 Monster Energy Chevrolet I get excited. I think that short-track racing is a little more challenging than some of the 1.5-mile tracks because you really have to keep your eyes open as to what is happening around you and it is tougher to pass.”
Because he is competing in the X Games, he will miss the Truck Series race at Nashville Superspeedway in Tennessee.
The race at O’Reilly Raceway Park coincides with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. When Carmichael was racing motocross, he made regular visits to the RCA Dome in Indianapolis. It is where he first met Sprint Cup Series driver Kasey Kahne and the two have developed a friendship over the years.
“I think that for Ricky, the opportunity to work with Kevin Harvick is a huge benefit,” said Kahne, who drives the No. 9 Dodge for Richard Petty Motorsports. “You can tell that he really cares about his team and the input he gives really helps the drivers in that organization. Ricky and I are friends and I have always been a huge fan of his from the motorcycle days. I went with Ricky to a Late Model test at Hickory [Motor Speedway in North Carolina] and watched as he made some laps.”
Carmichael, who seems to have adapted to stock car racing rather quickly, was asked if he ever had any desire to race open-wheel cars. Indianapolis Motor Speedway is home to the Indianapolis 500.
“I have no desire to get into one of those cars,” Carmichael said. “I would much rather be enclosed in a stock car. If I am in danger of hitting the wall head on, I’d like to have a cage around me. I spent the better part of my life out in the open, I think for the next chapter I will stay in something.”