Postponed Xfinity race creates conundrum for double duty Cup drivers

Before Joey Logano left pit road, he told Motorsport.com it was likely Ryan Blaney would drive the No. 22 Team Penske entry for him on Sunday. Logano is currently fifth in the standings entering the third race of the Round of 16.

Logano to sit out the Xfinity race

“I’m bummed out,” Logano said. “I feel like someone just shot my dog because I really wanted to race. Travis (Geisler, competition director), Todd (Gordon, crew chief) and all of us sat down and talked about it together. If it was a spring race, if it was after the Cup race it would be different.

“But you have to think about what’s on the line? What’s the goal? I run this race to get experience to run the Sprint Cup race and if it’s going to hurt me in any way. I probably shouldn't do it. It just sucks. That’s the part that sucks the most is I have a really good car.”

How good is Logano’s car? Logano, who qualified third, believes his car was fast enough to beat the Gibbs duo of Kyle Busch and Erik Jones, who start on the front row. Logano has a stellar record at the Monster Mile. In his last seven Xfinity starts he has four wins, six top fives and seven top 10 finishes.

Logano said in a perfect world, he would run both races but it’s not in the best interest of the team.

“It’s the same situation that Kyle’s and Austin Dillon,” Logano said. “We’re all in the Chase. I’ll be interested to see what they’re decisions are. I just feel we have to be smart about this. You just don’t know. Anything can happen.

“We all think about what if we get tired 300 laps into a 400-lap race. Is that going to effect us and make us make a mistake? That could be. What if I crash an Xfinity car and I get hurt and need at least 24 hours to get back in the car because the doctors don’t clear me that day? We’d look really stupid wouldn’t we? I owe it to my Cup team to make the right decision.”

The last time NASCAR ran an Xfinity Series and Sprint Cup race on the same day was at Talladega Superspeedway on April 25th, 2010.

Driver changes for Gibbs and Childress too

Joe Gibbs Racing has elected to run Drew Herring to replace Kyle Busch. As for Richard Childress Racing, Regan Smith will replace Austin Dillon behind the wheel of the No. 2.

According to the NASCAR Rulebook (10.4.3.): Any driver change must be approved through the NASCAR XFINITY Series Managing Director. Once the change is made, the replacement driver must drop to the rear of the field. The driver points will be awarded to the starting driver.