AM Racing taps Joey Logano as Xfinity fill-in for Hailie Deegan at Chicago

AM Racing announced Monday that Cup Series regular Joey Logano will fill in as driver of its No. 15 Ford this weekend, replacing Hailie Deegan for Saturday’s Xfinity Series event at Chicago’s Street Course.

Logano — a two-time Cup Series champion and the circuit’s most recent winner Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway — is set for his first Xfinity Series start since 2019 in The Loop 110, scheduled Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET (NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). He is a 30-time winner in Xfinity competition. Logano’s most recent race in Xfinity came in August 2019 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

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Deegan’s rookie season in the Xfinity Series has been a struggle, with an average finish of 26.8 and just four results of 20th or better through 17 races. That slots the 22-year-old driver in 27th place in the Xfinity Series standings — last among drivers who have entered every event.

AM Racing president Wade Moore said that the organization intends to learn from Logano’s experience and guidance in the hopes of providing a competitive spark for the second half of the Xfinity season.

“The level of competition in the Xfinity Series is as competitive as it‘s ever been,” Moore said in a release from the team, which will have primary sponsorship from Klutch Vodka on the No. 15 entry this weekend. “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.”

Logano finished eighth in last year’s Cup Series inaugural on the Windy City streets. The weekend also produced a season-best result for AM Racing in its first Xfinity season, with Brett Moffitt driving to fourth place in the team’s No. 25 Ford.

“Racing in the rain on Chicago‘s Street Course last year was a challenge within itself,” Logano said. “Any extra seat time is always a positive for unique tracks such as this one. Driving the NASCAR Xfinity Series cars are 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.”

Deegan was signed to Ford’s driver development program in December 2019. Her jump to the Xfinity Series for 2024 was announced last October in a multiyear deal with AM Racing after three seasons in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.