After Catfished Fan Threatened Boyfriend, NASCAR Driver Hailie Deegan Skips Bradenton Race

BRADENTON, FL — NASCAR fans might be wondering why drivers Hailie Deegan and Chase Cabre missed the recent Freedom 500 race at Bradenton’s Freedom Factory.

The Freedom Factory, formerly known as the DeSoto Speedway, is a 3/8th oval track that was abandoned in 2017, and then purchased and restored by Cleetus McFarland. It reopened in late 2020.

On Monday, the racing couple shared a YouTube video updating followers about their reasons for missing the event.

After receiving threats from an infatuated fan being catfished by fake profiles under Deegan’s name, they decided to stay at their North Carolina home to deal with the security issue.

The fan sent an eight-page handwritten letter to her race team in Mooresville, N.C., David Gilliland Racing, stating that he had been dating her for months and that he was “in love with me, infatuated with me, that I was his soulmate,” Deegan said in the video.

Deegan competes in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, driving the No. 1 Ford F-150 for David Gilliland Racing, according to the NASCAR website. The daughter of Motorcross legend Brian Deegan, she was the 2020 ARCA Menards Series Rookie of the Year.

The couple determined that he was being catfished by someone pretending to be Hailie Deegan and trying to scam him for money. The person behind the fake profiles told the fan that Cabre abuses Deegan and that they have “a fake relationship,” she said.

Days before the Freedom Factory event, the fan posted threats to kill Cabre, and has been tagging them both in posts featuring pictures of guns and weapons. The couple said they’ve reached out to the fan to tell them the profiles he’s talking to are fake, but he didn’t believe them.

“This guy lives near my race shop, near where I live, my home, and it makes me uncomfortable. It makes me scared. You shouldn’t be scared at your own house,” said Deegan.

The couple called police after the death threats and skipped the Bradenton race to handle the issue.

“It’s become a nuisance in our life. We don’t really know what to do from here,” she said. “All we can do is try to stay safe in our home, have the cops protect us.”