Car owner Joe Gibbs said that Daniel Suarez will run a limited NASCAR Xfinity schedule this season with the driver’s move to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series to replace Carl Edwards this season.
Edwards announced Wednesday that he was leaving the sport, effective immediately. With little time before the start of the season, Joe Gibbs Racing moved Suarez into Edwards’ seat.
Gibbs said the organization will continue to run three Xfinity cars in 2017. Gibbs said that Suarez, who won last year’s Xfinity title, will compete in about 10 Xfinity races this season. Gibbs said the team’s other Cup drivers – Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth – will “chip in” and run select races. Any Cup driver with more than five years of full-time experience are limited to a maximum of 10 Xfinity races. They also cannot compete in any of the final eight races of the Xfinity season, which is the regular-season finale and the seven Chase races.
Matt Tifft is scheduled to drive the full Xfinity Series for JGR this season.
