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In the wake of Hailie Deegan being replaced for this weekend’s Chicago Street Race, fans began immediately speculating about her future. Joey Logano’s comments on a recent episode of the Dale Jr Download caused more people, such as dcarp1231 on Reddit and even Kenny Wallace on YouTube, to suggest Deegan may have lost her ride entirely, and AM Racing’s most recent comments have called it further into question. What really happened?
We know a few things about Deegan’s status at AM Racing. First, she’s not racing this weekend, and Joey Logano is taking her place. We also know that has not performed to nearly the level AM Racing expected her to.
Lastly, we know that AM Racing is noncommittal on Deegan beyond this weekend. Bob Pockrass reports that the team is still determining who will race at Pocono and Deegan’s status with the team.
Where it gets more interesting is analyzing the small details of the move. AM Racing Team President Wade Moore did not mention if or when Deegan would be back in the car, but he did admit that the team did not perform to expectations. As for why he brought Logano on board, Moore cited “Knowledge”, “Feedback”, and “Data”. Moore’s statement, in part, is below.
…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.
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.
Wade Moore
Is this really just a one-race deal? Kenny Wallace raised that question in a recent YouTube video. He thinks this could be the beginning of the end of Deegan’s time at AM Racing.
Anytime those teams go, ‘We’re going to put Joey Logano in the car to evaluate our equipment’, that means she’e gone. I hate that for her cuz I like her and I like her whole family.
Kennny Wallace
Wallace’s full comments can be found in the video below.
While Wallace is not an insider to this specific situation, he has been around the sport for a long time. He knows how the sport runs, and he’s seen it from all different facets. His opinion does hold merit.
It’s not unprecedented for drivers to lose their rides mid-season for one reason or another, even if it is rare. One such example is in 2003, when Kenny Wallace was still in the Cup Series, as Jeff Green was dropped from Richard Childress Racing in favor of Steve Park.
As for Logano’s comments, here is what Logano had to say. Specifically what he had to say at the beginning.
[AM Racing] called me last week and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got the seat for the [No.] 15 that looks like it’s going to open up, and do you want to drive it?
Joey Logano
Logano also added that Team Penske is not giving extra support to this deal. Logano will drive AM Racing equipment, which will be a true evaluation of their current position.
It was Logano’s comment that the seat would “Open up,” but not specifically mentioning Chicago at the time, that got fans’ speculations. Dcarp1231 started a Reddit thread discussing it.
Logano is talking in a more casual environment on a podcast, so maybe he just felt that keeping it Chicago-specific was unnecessary. However, it is worth noting that AM Racing did not confirm nor deny that Logano could run more races for the team. The door is open for some crazy things to happen.
In short, we don’t know what will happen with Hailie Deegan beyond Chicago. However, we know that she will not be in the car this weekend, and AM Racing can replace her permanently if they feel it is necessary.
What do you think about all this? Let us know on Discord or X what your take is, and don’t forget you can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and even YouTube.
