NASCAR insider gives update on AM Racing No. 15 car, Hailie Deegan's status going forward
Hailie Deegan’s NASCAR future is suddenly uncertain after her Xfinity Series race team, AM Racing, announced earlier this week that Joey Logano will replace her in the No. 15 Ford this Saturday in the Chicago Street Race.
Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports, on site in downtown Chicago, sought to get an update from AM Racing on Deegan’s status going forward. Those within the race team told Pockrass that it’s “TBD” on who will be in the car next Saturday at Pocono, as well as Deegan’s status going forward.
AM Racing didn’t mention Deegan in its announcement that Logano would be taking over in Chicago, but admitted the results this season haven’t been up to standard.
“The level of competition in the Xfinity Series is as competitive as it’s ever been,” said Wade Moore, AM Racing team president. “It is our goal at AM Racing to field a competitive race team through our technical alliance with Stewart-Haas Racing and provide any of our drivers the best equipment and opportunity to be successful on track each weekend.”
“With that being said, we haven’t had the success on track that we were hoping for in the first half of the season. 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.”
Moore added: “We intend to take the feedback and data from the Chicago race weekend and apply it to building better race cars each week so AM Racing can have a stronger second half of the season.”
Hailie Deegan out at AM Racing?
Deegan, 22, has had a rough go in her first full-time season in the Xfinity Series. She has failed to record a top-10 finish through 17 races and sits 27th in the points standings. Deegan has finished P20 or worse in eight consecutive starts.
Deegan has yet to publicly comment, though she has removed AM Racing from her X bio. Logano, meanwhile, said AM Racing approached him about the seat.
“They called me last week and said ‘Hey, we got the seat here for the 15 that seems like it’s going to open up and do you want to drive it?’” Logano said. “I thought well, I think so. Let me clear with my boss Roger [Penske] and make sure that’s okay and there’s no sponsor conflicts. Once I had all that cleared, it just seemed to make sense on really both ends. That’s what a good deal is when it works on both sides of the deal.
“When you think about AM Racing, they were looking to have an experienced driver in there and get kind of get an idea of where their program’s at and see if I can help them from that perspective. I was looking at it and saying ‘Man, I can get more laps on the Chicago Street Course, can’t be anything bad with that either.’ I felt like that was worth it to me.”