Who would have thought that Hailie Deegan’s 20th-place finish at Charlotte would cost Joe Williams his job? Deegan currently ranks 26th in the Xfinity standings, and her best finish was on March 2 in Las Vegas, which seems like an eternity ago. Hence, AM Racing felt a change was necessary, and the axe fell on Williams, who has been in charge of AM Racing’s NASCAR Xfinity Series program since its inception and worked with Brett Moffitt last season and Hailie Deegan in the first 12 races of 2024.

With AM Racing currently ranked 29th in Owner’s Points, the situation was getting precarious. The only question was: who will bear the brunt of it? Contrary to fans’ opinion, AM Racing announced in a statement that they had parted ways with Crew Chief, Joe Williams, with immediate effect.

The statement read, “Effective today, AM Racing has parted ways with Joe Williams, the crew chief of Hailie Deegan’s No. 15 Ford Mustang. AM Racing Competition Director, Matt Lucas, will step in as interim crew chief for this weekend’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Portland International Raceway and next weekend at Sonoma Raceway.”

Even though Lucas will come in with experience, he hasn’t been in this role for a NASCAR Xfinity Series event in five seasons. He last worked with Joe Gibbs Racing affiliate XCI Racing in the team’s part-time schedule. Earlier this year he worked with Reaume Brothers Racing and Lawless Alan in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

Lucas has been the Competition Director at AM Racing since 2024. Additionally, he has been part of championship-winning teams such as Joe Gibbs Racing and Hattori Racing Enterprises.

He has enjoyed recorded two victories, both with Joe Gibbs Racing and Matt Kenseth in 2013, in his 100-plus starts as a crew chief in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Having worked on and off as crew chief in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, it remains to be seen if his appointment brings a change in fortunes for the team.

However, it is yet to be announced if he will remain the crew chief of the #15 Airbox Ford Mustang team even after the series’ next two events in Portland and Sonoma.

The decision might seem tactical to bystanders, but the fans were keen to point out that Williams was not only to be blamed.

Hailie Deegan or Joe Williams? Fans make their opinion very clear

Fans’ opinion was heavily tilted towards Hailie, and not in a positive way. And hence, the decision to part ways with Joe Williams was met with much criticism on social media. Bashing the driver’s performance, and suggesting an alternative to AM Racing a fan wrote, “Fired the wrong Person. Should’ve fired Hailie.”

Deegan is yet to register a top five or a top-10 finish this season and already has three DNFs to her name. Her recent 20th place finished at BETMGM, left her 26th in the drivers’ standings on 139 points. Hence, some fans felt that perhaps doing away with Joe Williams was not the correct call.

Sharing the same sentiment, another fan wrote “I don’t think the problem is the crew chief. Why was she moved up? She didn’t have hang of the trucks yet. What made anyone think she would do better here?” 

Williams joined AM Racing during the 2022 offseason and guided the family-owned team. With Williams overseeing things, they built a competitive Xfinity Series program from the ground up with driver Brett Moffitt during the 33-race Xfinity Series campaign in 2023. Under William’s leadership, Moffitt clinched one top-five and nine top-10 finishes. Thus, when he was appointed as Deegan’s crew chief, AM Racing hoped for similar results, but that has not been the case.

A fan even highlighted Joe Williams and his years of experience and achievement, calling him ‘underrated.’ “Let go of one of the most underrated crew chief’s in the game.. Looking forward to seeing him thrive again in a different environment.” Perhaps, a change might be a blessing in disguise for Williams, at least that’s what the comment implied.

During the 2022 season, Williams earned his first career Xfinity Series crew chief victory at SS GreenLight Racing with Jeff Lefcourt with driver Cole Custer at Auto Club (Calif.) Speedway. In addition to earning the team their first Xfinity win, he also guided their driver Joe Graf Jr. to his then-career-best effort at Talladega Superspeedway in April 2022. Thus this decision still leaves fans wondering why the team decided to do away with a crew chief with a proven track record.

On the contrary, some fans were more balanced in their views. They were supportive of Deegan and her journey here in NASCAR, but at the same time, were against the firing of Joe Williams.

One such fan said, “I think Hailie can do it but they should put an experienced driver in the seat for a race just to test the equipment before axing the crew chief js.”

However, as it is more often than not, some people were backing up Hailie Deegan as well. “Yall are such haters leave Hailie alone,” read one such comment.

Only time will tell if the decision to fire Joe Williams was the right one. It will be interesting to see how the team performs in the two races at Portland and Sonoma. Do you think interim crew Matt Lucas will still be in charge after the two events? Was sacking Joe Williams in place of Hailie Deegan the right decision? Let us know in the comments.