From a 2007 Richardson-Netzloff-Harmon entry to the 2026 No. 47 at Chicagoland, a part-time Xfinity team that lived on owner-points deals and start-and-park entries.
Mike Harmon Racing is a part-time Xfinity team formerly known as CHK Racing and Elite 2 Racing. It has fielded the No. 74 and No. 47 Chevrolets since 2011 and 2020, and its best owner points finish was 30th in 2020.
Mike Harmon Racing is an American stock car team that has run part-time entries in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for many drivers over more than fifteen seasons. It fields the No. 47 and No. 74 Chevrolet Camaro SS, and it has carried a long list of names under different owners and banners, including CHK Racing and Elite 2 Racing.
How did Mike Harmon Racing come together?
Mike Harmon first owned the team with two co-owners, Donnie Richardson and Eddie Netzloff, in its opening years. The operation was known as Richardson-Netzloff-Harmon Racing in 2007 and as Elite 2 Racing in 2008, before Harmon became the sole owner in 2009 and renamed it Mike Harmon Racing.
That name lasted until 2023, when Michael Clayton Sr. and Gary Keller, who had co-owned JD Motorsports, came in as co-owners. Through all of those changes the team kept its part-time character, and it has made more than 250 entries over its Xfinity history.
A part-time Xfinity team that survived a stolen trailer, a 75-point penalty and years of start-and-park entries to keep two cars on the grid.
What was the team's presence in the Xfinity Series?
The team has been active in the Xfinity Series since 2007, with the exception of 2010. Since 2011 it has primarily fielded the No. 74 and, more recently, added the No. 47. Its best owner points finish was 30th, which came in 2020.
Much of the team's history is built on start-and-park entries, where a car is taken to the track and withdrawn rather than run for a full race. That approach kept costs down and gave the team a place on many weekends.
How did the No. 74 car start?
Harmon debuted the No. 74 in 2011 at Auto Club Speedway. He started and parked after three laps and finished 43rd. The next race was at Texas Motor Speedway with J. J. Yeley behind the wheel, and he parked the car after five laps. Harmon made fourteen starts that season and Yeley made two, all of them start-and-park efforts.
In 2012 Harmon kept starting and parking the car. Kevin Lepage, Rick Crawford, David Green and Scott Riggs each drove one race. The team then began bringing in many new drivers, and in 2013 Harmon himself drove only seven races.
That season Kevin O'Connell gave the team its best non-superspeedway finish up to then, a 22nd at Road America while staying on the lead lap. Harmon also recorded the team's best result to that point at Daytona, where he finished seventeenth on the lead lap.
What were the mid-2010s seasons like for the team?
Harmon ran most races in 2014, and the team still started and parked most of them. Lepage and Mike Wallace got seat time too, as did the Reuse brothers. The best result that year was a 24th at Mid-Ohio for Bobby Reuse, six laps down.
In 2015 Harmon attempted 29 races in the No. 74. He started and parked in twelve of them and failed to qualify at Talladega and Charlotte. The Reuse brothers returned, and Jordan Anderson drove at Bristol. Harmon scored the team's best Daytona result that year with a 24th after starting nineteenth, seven laps down.
In 2017 the car carried the sponsorship of Veterans Motorsports Inc., a firm that creates work for former service members. Under the agreement the team took on veterans as staff. The team then had a carousel of drivers in 2018 and 2019, finishing 40th and 34th in owner points.
How did the partnership with Rick Ware Racing work?
In 2017 the team and Rick Ware Racing partnered to field a No. 17 Dodge Challenger at the Johnsonville 180 at Road America. The team picked Nicolas Hammann, a road course ringer and 2014 GT Academy USA winner, to drive it. He finished 29th after starting 40th.
The two teams joined again in May 2019 for the No. 17 at Charlotte. The partnership came after Rick Ware Racing decided to scale back a planned full-time entry. The No. 17 fielded fifteen entries in total that season and finished 44th in owner points.
What changed when the Rick Ware partnership ended?
In 2020 the team ended its partnership with Rick Ware Racing but kept running two cars. The car was renumbered No. 47, the inverse of the No. 74. Joe Nemechek drove most of the races in the first third of the season, and Kyle Weatherman drove most of the rest.
Bayley Currey, Tim Viens and Josh Reaume also drove races for the entry, and the No. 47 team finished 34th in owner points. That year the team also suffered an unusual loss. On 17 August 2020 thieves took the hauler, trailer, pit box and tool box of the No. 47 from a Cracker Barrel lot in Kingsland, Georgia, on the drive home from Daytona. The equipment was valued at approximately US$400,000, and it had not been found as of 2022, despite a reward.
Who drove the No. 47 after the theft?
Weatherman was promoted to the No. 47 full-time for 2021. He qualified for 30 of 33 races and finished 24th in the driver standings and 31st in owner points. On 7 January 2022 it was announced that Weatherman and the team had parted ways, with no replacement named at the time.
In 2022 Gray Gaulding attempted the Daytona race and did not qualify, and Brennan Poole drove for most of the season. In 2026 the team brought the No. 47 back at Chicagoland in partnership with Team Stange Racing. Dawson Cram was the driver, with Carson Ware, David Starr and Natalie Decker taking other races.
How did the No. 74 run from 2021 onward?
In January 2021 the team announced that Bayley Currey would compete full-time in the No. 74. That made the No. 74 and No. 47 MHR's two full-time entries, the first time the team had tried to run two full-time drivers. Currey went on to earn a team-best top ten, crossing the line seventh at Phoenix Raceway.
Eleven races later, Currey was reduced to part-time when Jesse Iwuji replaced him at Pocono. Dawson Cram and Tim Viens took turns in the car, as did Carson Ware, C. J. McLaughlin, Gray Gaulding, Harmon himself and Ryan Ellis. The team finished 40th in owner points.
What penalty did the team face after 2021?
On 22 November 2021 NASCAR suspended crew chief Ryan Bell for the first six races of 2022. The reason was a vehicle testing rule breach, after the No. 74 was brought to a charity event at Rockingham Speedway and driven around the track. The team also lost 75 owner and driver points for the start of 2022.
The team appealed. The US$50,000 fine was moved from the crew chief to the owner, Mike Harmon. On 27 January 2022 MHR won its final appeal, which rescinded Bell's suspension and the fine but kept the points deduction.
The penalty had lasting effects. The No. 74 was not fielded again in 2022, as the team turned its attention to the No. 47, possibly because of the 75-point hole it had to climb out of.
How did the No. 74 struggle to qualify in 2023 and 2024?
In 2023 the team hoped to return the No. 74 to full-time competition with Ryan Vargas as primary driver. That plan never materialised, because Vargas attempted only the first three races and failed to qualify for all of them. Dawson Cram joined for Phoenix and Atlanta, and Argentine driver Baltazar Leguizamon tried to qualify at COTA without success.
Kaden Honeycutt qualified at Martinsville and finished 38th. Harmon himself tried Talladega but failed for the seventh time in the car's first nine attempts. Cram later attempted eight races between Dover and Indianapolis, qualifying for two at Charlotte and Michigan, where he finished 36th and 28th.
In 2024 Stanton Barrett failed to qualify the No. 74 for the season opener at Daytona, and Ryan Vargas also failed at Martinsville. Jade Buford tried three races without qualifying. The team finally got into a race at Pocono with Cram, after JD Motorsports withdrew its No. 6 entry, but Cram wrecked on the second lap and finished 38th.
How did the No. 74 owner points help the team in 2025 and 2026?
In 2025 Carson Ware failed to qualify at Daytona but made the field at Atlanta, where he qualified 35th and finished 32nd. Cram drove the car at Phoenix, where a late caution took him out, and the No. 74 was sponsored by Realty.com for the next three races. Cram qualified at Las Vegas but failed to make Homestead-Miami Speedway or Martinsville.
In 2026 Cram failed to qualify at Atlanta. Before Phoenix the team acquired owner points from the Alpha Prime Racing No. 4 car, and that let Cram make the race. After missing Las Vegas and Martinsville, the team acquired another set of owner points, from the Barrett Cope Racing No. 30, and Cram qualified at Rockingham to finish 35th.
Gray Gaulding drove the No. 74 at Bristol, Cram returned for Kansas and Talladega, and the team withdrew for Texas. It then formed an alliance with Joey Gase Motorsports to field that team's No. 35.
What other numbers did the team run?
The team also ran cars in other numbers at different times. In 2014 it fielded a second car, the No. 77, for Roger Reuse to race against his brother Bobby at Mid-Ohio. The car was a late entry and did not score points. In 2008 the team used the No. 84, the reverse of the No. 48, under the Elite 2 Racing name.
In 2014 Harmon failed to qualify his No. 74 Dodge at Dover, and he took over Rick Ware Racing's No. 87 for the race. He finished 39th.
How did the Truck Series and ARCA programmes fit in?
The team's Truck Series programme began in 2009 with the No. 42, where Harmon drove four races and failed to qualify at Talladega. The No. 74 Truck debuted in 2011 with Harmon as driver, and Anderson drove nineteen races for the team in 2015.
In ARCA the team fielded the No. 06 Chevrolet for Dexter Stacey at Daytona in 2013, where Stacey started 39th and finished 20th. Harmon ran the No. 24 full-time in 2008, and he had bought the No. 38 team from Oostlander Racing after two races in 2007.
