Hayden was born in Owensboro, Kentucky. He started road racing with the CMRA, often against racers many times older, and at age 17 was racing factory Honda RC45 superbikes while still in high school.
In 1999, in just his second full season in the AMA Supersport Championship, Hayden won the title aboard a privateer Honda. That same year he won his first Grand National Championship race at the Hagerstown Half Mile and took Rookie of the Year honors. In 2000 he moved to the AMA Superbike Championship riding a Honda RC51 for the factory American Honda racing team, finishing second — only five points behind multiple-time champion Mat Mladin. In 2001 he finished third, behind champion Mladin and runner-up Eric Bostrom.
In 2002, still riding the Honda RC51, Hayden won the Daytona 200 en route to becoming the youngest ever AMA Superbike champion, defeating reigning triple champion Mladin. He also competed at the FIM World Superbike Championship round at Laguna Seca, earning a fourth in the first race before a collision with Noriyuki Haga relegated him to 13th in the second. On the dirt track, Hayden won four events in 2002: Springfield Short Track twice, Springfield TT, and the Peoria TT — the last despite starting from the penalty line and beating 13-time Peoria winner Chris Carr.
Immediately after winning the AMA Superbike title, Hayden was tapped to join the Factory Repsol Honda team. In his 2003 rookie year he finished fifth in the championship with 130 points, earning Rookie of the Year. He scored his first MotoGP podium at the Pacific GP after Makoto Tamada was disqualified for an illegal overtake in the final stages, giving Hayden third. A second third place followed at the Australian round, where he crossed the line 0.031 seconds ahead of Sete Gibernau.
In 2004 Hayden finished eighth in the championship with 117 points, scoring two podiums and retiring five times. The 2004 season was overshadowed by the rain-affected Italian GP where he qualified second before retiring, and by a broken right collarbone sustained in a dirt-bike crash that caused him to miss the Portuguese round.
In 2005 Hayden rallied. His breakthrough came at the United States GP at Laguna Seca, a circuit absent from the MotoGP calendar since 1994. Hayden took his first-ever MotoGP pole position — beating Valentino Rossi by 0.354 seconds — and converted it into his first Grand Prix win, crossing the line 1.941 seconds ahead of Colin Edwards. He finished third in the championship with 206 points, scoring six podiums.
After strong early results in 2006, Hayden took the championship lead in Turkey. At the Dutch round at Assen he won from fifth on the grid: he overtook leaders including John Hopkins and pole-sitter Hopkins, then passed Colin Edwards under braking for the back chicane on the penultimate lap. Edwards ran wide onto synthetic grass and crashed, giving Hayden the victory and extending his lead by 46 points over Rossi.
At the penultimate round in Portugal, Dani Pedrosa — Hayden's own teammate — attempted to overtake on lap five and lost the front, taking both riders out. The retirement handed Rossi the championship lead by eight points going to Valencia. At Valencia on race day, Rossi dropped to seventh on the opening lap. Hayden moved to second, chasing wildcard rider Troy Bayliss. On lap five, Rossi lost the front of his Yamaha and slid out. He eventually finished 13th while Hayden took third behind the Ducati machines of Bayliss and Loris Capirossi, collecting 252 points to Rossi's 247 and winning the 2006 MotoGP world title by five points — breaking Rossi's five-year consecutive streak.
On September 22, 2006, Hayden signed a two-year extension with the Honda Racing Corporation, using number 69 again in 2008 after Casey Stoner claimed number 1 as the 2007 champion. In 2007 Hayden finished eighth with 127 points. Highlights included back-to-back podiums at the Dutch and German rounds, and a third place at the Czech Republic GP where he qualified 0.280 seconds behind Stoner. He retired at the US round after colliding with John Hopkins at turn two and failing to re-establish competitive pace. Hayden confirmed at a Dorna press conference on September 12, 2008, that he would be leaving Honda.
In 2008, friction with the Repsol Honda team deepened when Dani Pedrosa was allowed to switch from Michelin to Bridgestone tires mid-season without consulting Hayden. Hayden's best results that year came at the inaugural Indianapolis race (second) and at the Australian GP (third, his last podium as a Honda rider). He finished sixth in the championship.
Hayden joined Ducati for 2009, partnering Casey Stoner. Early in the year the GP09 was described as "pumping" through corner exits, hampering grip. Hayden's 100th Grand Prix was the Qatar opener, where a qualifying highside required three stitches to his chest, yet he finished 12th in the rain-delayed race. He took his first Ducati podium at Indianapolis 2009, finishing half a second ahead of Andrea Dovizioso — becoming the first Ducati rider other than Stoner to stand on the MotoGP podium since Loris Capirossi at the 2007 Japanese GP. He finished 13th in the championship with 104 points.
In 2010 Hayden had surgery in the off-season for arm-pump (compartmental syndrome). He finished seventh in the championship with 163 points, his highlight a third place at the inaugural Aragón GP, where he passed Jorge Lorenzo on the penultimate corner on the last lap, diving to the inside through turns 14–15 to prevent Lorenzo from retaking the place at turn 16.
On August 28, 2010, Hayden signed a two-year Ducati extension and was joined by Valentino Rossi for 2011. Hayden finished eighth in 2011 with 132 points; his sole podium came at the Spanish round, aided by a last-lap mechanical failure for Colin Edwards. The season ended at Valencia when he was eliminated on the opening lap in a four-bike collision caused by Álvaro Bautista, leaving him with a broken wrist.
In 2012, Hayden was ruled out of the Indianapolis round following a qualifying concussion at turn 14, and a fractured right hand kept him out of the Czech GP. He finished ninth in the championship with 122 points — for the first time in his MotoGP career, he did not score a podium during the season. 2013 followed a similar pattern; he finished ninth again with 126 points, the season disrupted by an engine failure at the Malaysian GP.
Hayden signed with the Aspar Team from the 2014 season, riding open-specification Honda RCV1000R motorcycles alongside Hiroshi Aoyama. His 2014 season was heavily disrupted by a wrist injury that required two rounds of surgery, causing him to miss several races. He finished 16th in the championship with 47 points.
In 2015 he rode the Honda RC213V-RS alongside Eugene Laverty. His best finish was 11th at the French GP, where he was also the top Open-class finisher. He scored the last points of his MotoGP career with 15th and 13th places at the Aragón and Japanese rounds respectively. During the season Hayden also made two one-off MotoGP substitute appearances for Honda: replacing the injured Jack Miller at the Aragón round (15th) and replacing the injured Dani Pedrosa at the Australian round (17th).
On October 8, 2015, at the Japanese GP press conference, it was announced that Hayden would join the Ten Kate Racing Honda squad for the 2016 Superbike World Championship, replacing Sylvain Guintoli alongside Michael van der Mark.
Hayden finished fifth in the 2016 championship. At Assen he took his first World Superbike podium (third). His sole win came at Sepang in damp conditions: he overtook Alex Lowes at turn two, went around the outside of Tom Sykes at turn five, led Jonathan Rea for most of the race, and held a four-second gap in the closing stages to take victory — Honda's first Superbike win of the season.
For 2017 Hayden remained with the team, now operating as the Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team and partnered by Stefan Bradl. His best result of the season was a seventh-place finish in Thailand. His final race was the second race of the Motul Italian Round on May 14, 2017, where he finished 12th. He was 13th in the championship standings at the time of his death.
On May 17, 2017, Hayden was struck by a Peugeot 206 CC while riding his bicycle at the intersection of Via Ca' Raffaelli and Via Tavoleto in Misano Adriatico. He had been out running earlier that morning with Kevin Schwantz, who declined a later bicycle ride. The crash was captured by a home surveillance camera. Hayden was taken to Rimini hospital with severe injuries and later transferred to the Maurizio Bufalini Hospital in Cesena. He suffered a traumatic brain injury, broken femur, broken pelvis, and multiple fractured vertebrae, and was placed on life support. He died on May 22, 2017, at age 35.
An investigation published in September 2017 attributed 70 percent of the blame to the driver — who was traveling at approximately 73 km/h in a 50 km/h zone and showed no evidence of braking — and 30 percent to Hayden, who had been traveling at 20 km/h and entered the intersection without heeding the stop sign.
Hayden scored three MotoGP wins, 28 MotoGP podiums, and one World Superbike win across his Grand Prix career. He was named FIM Legend in November 2015. In 2017, the AMA Horizon Award was renamed the Nicky Hayden AMA Horizon Award in his honour. At the 2018 Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas at Circuit of The Americas, turn 18 was officially renamed "Hayden Hill". On June 8, 2018, the City of Owensboro unveiled the Nicky Hayden Memorial Sculpture, created by George Lundeen. Mayor Tom Watson declared June 9 as Nicky Hayden Day, corresponding to his racing number 69. Hayden was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2018 — bypassing the traditional five-year waiting period — and into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2021.
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