NASCAR Driver Hailie Deegan Skipped Last Week’s Race Due to Death Threats

NASCAR driver Hailie Deegan missed last week's Freedom 500 at the DeSoto Speedway in Bradenton, Florida.  She posted a video on YouTube earlier this week explaining that unexpected absence.

Deegan explained in the video that she and her boyfriend, Chase Cabre, received death threats from a person who lives close enough to her race shop to have the couple reach out to police.

From The Daytona Beach News-Journal:

"His official words were, not that he's going to kill Chase, but that he's going to come ... and be the last thing Chase ever sees," Deegan says in the 15-minute video.

Deegan starts the video by explaining she missed the event because of a personal matter between her and Cabre.

A few minutes into the video, Deegan — who was voted the Truck Series' Most Popular Driver last year — then says that everything started with an "eight-page, handwritten letter" written to her truck team, David Gilliland Racing, stating that "he" was dating Deegan for multiple months and was in love with her.

"It kind of scared me a little bit, because I'd dealt with stalker situations before," said Deegan. "I went home that day, looked up the guy's name on the note, and figured out that he was getting catfished by a fake Hailie Deegan account."

Catfishing, put simply, is a deceptive activity where a person creates a fictional persona or fake identity of a person on a social networking service.

"They say anything they have to to get money out of that person," Deegan continues in the video.

Deegan later said that the fake account went on to accuse Cabre of holding her "hostage," beating her and physically abusing her.

"None of that is true," Deegan says in the video. "But it makes them feel a lot of anger toward Chase. Then this guy gets wrapped up in this whole deal believing Chase beats me."

Cabre, who appears in the video alongside Deegan, goes on to say that he then saw another threatening social media post later that night after dinner.

Following that admission, the YouTube video then plays a 30-second clip of a sound bite from the alleged person threatening Cabre.

"At that point, someone who lives, I wouldn't say close, but not too far away from where it would be possible," Cabre says. "It makes you a little worried inside. Then, Hailie said ... let's call the cops."

Let's hope this situation is taken care of without anyone getting hurt.  And let's hope Hailie's able to return to the racetrack.