Carl Edwards has decided to opt out of the road-course double.
With a mediocre practice at Infineon Raceway Friday, the current Sprint Cup points leader will concentrate on the race here in Sonoma rather than tax Edwards with a commute to Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisc., for Saturday's Nationwide Series race.
Billy Johnson, who was practicing the car for Edwards, will substitute in the No. 60 Ford in the Nationwide race Saturday. Johnson was fastest in first practice with a time of 134.871 seconds (108.050 mph). The 24-year-old Torrance, Calif. native has won two of the first six races in the Grand Am Continental Tire Series as Jack Roush Jr.’s teammate.
“I think Billy will do a great job,” Edwards said. “In the end, this puts us in the best position with both teams to perform well, so I’m grateful to be able to make the change and I feel like we are doing the right thing.
“I think this shows you just how much our sponsors and our team are able to work together and change things on the fly. The original plan was for me to miss all of practice in our Sprint Cup car in Sonoma on Saturday, but literally as we finished practice today we found out that Billy Johnson was P1 in the Fastenal Ford Mustang at Road America.
“We also felt like as a team that we needed more practice on the Cup side, so I called the (president and) CEO of Fastenal, Will Oberton, and without any hesitation, he said do what you need to do to have the best result and we are behind you 100 percent."
Johnson made his Nationwide Series debut last year. He qualified ninth in the series race at Watkins Glen International last season, finishing 36th after a wreck. This will be his second Nationwide start.
"He ran at (Watkins) Glen last year," team owner Jack Roush said of Johnson. "He got caught up in an accident that wasn't his fault. But he's been really fast."
This will be the first Nationwide Series race without Edwards since Nashville in June 2005.
