AM Racing announced on Monday that the 2X Cup Series champion Joey Logano will be driving the #15 Ford during the Xfinity Series race at Chicago this weekend in place of Hailie Deegan. While the team did not explicitly mention so, there is reason to believe that the recent poor performances of Deegan have led to such a call being made.
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The 22-year-old driver got a golden opportunity in 2024 to disrupt the male-dominated NASCAR scene. Despite less-than-impressive three full-time years in the Craftsman Truck Series, AM Racing gave her a ride in the Xfinity Series. Unfortunately, the gamble hasn’t worked out so far. Deegan has an average finish of 26.8 and just four results of 20th or better in the first 17 races.
This has put her in 27th place on the driver standings – last among the drivers who’ve made every start. It’s rather apparent that AM Racing was hoping for a better going than this to their season. That’s precisely what they stated in their team release as well. It read, “We haven’t had the success on track that we were hoping for in the first half of the season.”
Hailie Deegan has the least amount of points of any NASCAR Xfinity Series driver with starts in every race this season.
Brett Moffitt finished 15th in the point standings for AM Racing in 2023. It’s very clear that something needs to be done.
Chicago will provide some clarity.
— Austin Konenski (@AustinKonenski) July 1, 2024
“When the opportunity to have Joey in the car at Chicago became a possibility, we felt we needed to take advantage of the knowledge and feedback that a two-time NASCAR Cup Series Champion could provide to our teams’ growth.”
By putting Logano in the car in Chicago, the team hopes to receive some valuable feedback that can be used to fare better in the season’s second half.
Logano hopes to make use of the extra track time to aid his Cup Series race
The upcoming race on Saturday will be Logano’s first Xfinity Series start since 2019. A 30-time second-tier winner, he will be hoping to add to the tally.
Logano finished in eighth place last year in the inaugural Cup Series race at the Chicago Street Course. NASCAR had then forbid drivers from participating in both the series but the window is open this year.
The Team Penske driver said, “Racing in the rain on Chicago’s Street Course last year was a challenge within itself. Any extra seat time is always a positive for unique tracks such as this one. Driving the NASCAR Xfinity Series cars is a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to climbing behind the wheel of the No. 15 AM Racing Ford Mustang, with high hopes to wheel it to the front.”
