Joe Gibbs Racing announced Tuesday a driver change for the XFINITY Series’ American Ethanol E15 Presented by Enogen at Iowa Speedway (June 19, 1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Under recommendations from his doctor, Matt Tifft will sit out for the main event as he undergoes treatment for a disc condition in his back, as reported via a team release from the organization.
Instead, Sam Hornish Jr. will sit in the driver’s seat of the No. 18 Toyota for the 250-lap event.
Tifft, a Joe Gibbs Racing development driver, has had six starts in the NASCAR XFINITY Series this season, including top-10 finishes in his last two races, at Talladega and Dover.
Hornish Jr., a full-time Sprint Cup Series driver in 2015, also competed in three XFINITY Series events last season for Biagi-DenBeste Racing.
Tifft also had been scheduled to run the NASCAR Camping World Series’ Speediatrics 200 in the No. 11 Red Horse Racing Toyota, and German Quiroga will fill in for him in that series.
Quiroga drove the No. 11 Toyota at Texas Motor Speedway last weekend, bringing the Red Horse Racing Tundra home in eighth place.
“I’m really excited to have the chance to race at Iowa this weekend. It wasn’t originally in the plan, so I’m thankful to Tom DeLoach and Red Horse Racing for giving me this opportunity,” Quiroga said in a team release. “I’ve been successful at Iowa in the past, so I’m confident that we’ll have a good Toyota Tundra and be able to pick up a good result.”
Under recommendation of my doctor, for treatment of a back condition with a disc, I will not be competing this weekend. I will be looking to
— Matt Tifft (@Matt_Tifft) June 14, 2016
Get back to competing as soon as possible, and thank you for the kind words and wish good luck to my @JoeGibbsRacing team at Iowa! (Cont)
— Matt Tifft (@Matt_Tifft) June 14, 2016