Assuming no midseason changes, Kyle Weatherman will have a chance to be the first driver in Mike Harmon Racing‘s history to run every race in a season. On Friday, MHR announced that Weatherman will drive their #47 Chevrolet Camaro full-time for the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series season with sponsorship from Wolfpack Racing.
“I’m so excited to drive for Mike Harmon Racing in 2021 with Wolfpack Racing on board,” Weatherman said. “I’m blessed to have this opportunity, and I can’t wait to see what we can all do as a team. I’m working at Mike’s shop full time now, as well as being a mechanic during the week to help build relationships with the team and help get the cars to the race track. I’ve always looked up to Mike, and he told me last year around mid-season that there’s a lot of things he sees in me that he saw in himself, and I’m just really excited to work with Mike full time this year and build myself as a driver and as a person.”
Weatherman, who has starts across all three NASCAR national series, joined MHR for a part-time Xfinity slate in 2020 after sporadic starts for them, Rick Ware Racing, and Jimmy Means Racing in the series the previous year. After running two races in the #74 prior to the season’s pause due to COVID-19, Weatherman ran all but four of the remaining twenty-five events in the #47. He scored the team’s maiden top-ten finish at Kentucky in July when he finished eighth, along with six top twenties during the season.
Other national series starts by Weatherman include the 2015 Camping World Truck Series season finale and eleven Cup Series races from 2017 to 2019.
Unless a ringer or some other development occurs that forces him out of the ride, Weatherman will be MHR’s first permanent driver in team history. Harmon has regularly driven for his own team, but has never entered every race in a season; his lone full-time national series season was a 2002 Xfinity campaign for GIC-Mixon Motorsports, while the most races he has run for MHR was 2015 when he entered all but four races. Until 2020, only Harmon has driven a double-digit number of races for MHR in a season.
While MHR has never enjoyed substantial success in NASCAR, with Weatherman’s eighth place being their first top ten in any national series event, the team saw growth in 2020 with the addition of a second car in the #47; Weatherman and Bayley Currey (#74) would drive the bulk of the schedule. Currey, who also first raced for MHR in 2019, ran twenty-six races in 2020 with nine top twenties and a best finish of twelfth at Texas in the fall.
“We are excited for what is coming next,” Harmon commented. “Coming off an unbelievable season, to partner up with Wolfpack Racing for 2021, just opens the door to what we can achieve.”
Currey will return to the team and the #74 for the 2021 season, though Harmon noted while speaking to Frontstretch in November that a particular schedule was not yet finalised.
Other drivers for MHR in 2020 included Joe Nemechek, Tim Viens, Josh Reaume, Gray Gaulding, and Harmon himself. The #74 finished thirtieth in the owners’ standings, while the #47 tailed in thirty-fourth.
“We are excited to partner with Mike Harmon Racing on the number 47 car driven by Kyle Weatherman for the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity season,” read a statement from Wolfpack Racing, a racing-focused marketing firm. “MHR has always shown great respect and loyalty to our Military and First Responders, which is something we at Wolfpack Racing value and are excited to be a part of. ‘Americas Team,’ Mike Harmon Racing, have shown tremendous improvement in performance and we expect the 2021 season to be nothing less.”
