Mike Harmon will make his 250th NASCAR XFINITY Series start on Saturday at Auto Club Speedway. The Birmingport, Alabama native made his series debut at South Boston in 1996. Harmon has a best finish of 17th at Talladega in 2008 and at Daytona in 2013. His best career start came at Myrtle Beach in 1996 where he qualified 13th."For years I ran short tracks, southeast mostly with some great success," said Harmon. "We won a lot of races and championships, but I always wanted to run full time with NASCAR on the bigger tracks. I got the opportunity to do so in 1995. We ran seven races, enough to know I really wanted to pursue my dream but needed to go back to short tracks for a while until Gregg Mixon gave me the opportunity to run some XFINITY races in 2001-2002. James Whitener joined in 2003, we ran all races finishing 23rd in points."
The 23rd place finish in XFINITY Series points sits as his career-best finish in the standings. Harmon also has a 25th and 27th place finish in points with the most recent result of 27th in 2016.
"After that, I did a lot of ARCA Series races, I actually have over 100 ARCA starts working my way back to the XFINITY Series. I converted my ARCA team to an XFINITY team because I can rely on the winnings to get me back to the track each week. I have a limited budget that I can depend on each week. These race cars run on cubic dollars, not cubic inches which are tough for 40 teams to maintain."
"l appreciate life first, l appreciate the opportunity, the ability to do so, I've learned from a lot of racers and mechanics that have passed away. l appreciate all of them and what they did for our sport and for me to make this possible. I appreciate my family for understanding and helping me make all of this possible. I definitely could not have done this without all the volunteers, sponsors and partners through the years. l wish l could name them all but, they all know what they did for me.Harmon had a crash at Bristol which has become the image of Mike Harmon whenever he's brought up. In 2002, Harmon was practicing his XFINITY Series car and the car hit the crossover gate that is inside the wall and then his car was hit by Johnny Sauter. Harmon would somehow manage to walk away
"I really appreciate the Lord because l know he's spared me more than once and more than l want to think about. I really appreciate my mom who is my biggest fan, even though she says my sister Denise and me are responsible for her silver hair. I appreciate my dad for making me man enough to do this and got me headed in the right direction."
During a string of seasons that have seen many different teams compete in the XFINITY Series, Mike Harmon Racing have powered through the hard times to continue and a few good times along the way. Mike would also go on to thank all of his sponsors during our interview with him.
"I would like to personally thank my sponsors from the past and our current sponsors for the 2018 season, I appreciate every single one of you, they have helped me run better, be more competitive each week, I still have the desire to do this like I was still 19 years old. Those sponsors include Shadow Warriors Project, Horizon Transport, KoolBox, Hitman RaceWear, RGB Imaging, Heroes Media Group, HANRO Engraving, Monshi Wealth Management, AFM Graphics, Professional Printers Inc., and The Danny Dietz Memorial Fund. Also, I would like to send a special thank you to our men and women serving this great nation! Thank you for allowing my team to honor you all!"
Photos - Mike Harmon Racing
Article by - Christian Koelle
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