For the first time in team history, Mike Harmon Racing will feature two full-time drivers. On Saturday, the team announced Bayley Currey will return to their flagship #74 Chevrolet Camaro for the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series season to complete their two-driver lineup.
After sitting out the first two races of the 2020 Xfinity season, Currey joined MHR to contest much of the calendar in the #74 (though his first start at Fontana was in the #47). Although he failed to qualify in his first run with the #74 at Phoenix, he ran all but four of the remaining races. He scored nine top-twenty finishes with a best run of twelfth at Texas in the fall; all three of the Texas native’s starts at his home track for MHR, including his debut with the team in 2019, ended with top twenties.
Currey has also raced in the Cup and Truck Series, and earned points in the latter despite running just six races in 2020. His lone Cup start in 2020 was a thirty-eighth-place finish at Bristol in June, while his best Truck finish was twelfth at Darlington. He has two top tens at the Truck level.
“I am extremely excited to run full time with Mike Harmon Racing,” Currey stated. “I feel that we continued to build our program all year in 2020, and I see us only getting better next year.”
The news comes a day after the team revealed Kyle Weatherman, who also ran much of the 2020 schedule, will partner Currey in the #47 car. Both drivers will be the first full timers for MHR. The team, which has raced in the Xfinity Series since 2008, primarily had their owner Mike Harmon in the #74 but the most he had run in a season for MHR was twenty-seven in 2015. Prior to Currey and Weatherman’s arrivals in 2020, Harmon was the only driver to have made double-digit starts for the team in a year.
“We are extremely excited to have Bayley Currey drive for our team, for the full 2021 season. Bayley is a talented driver, and an integral part of our team,” read a statement from MHR. “Bayley has all the qualities you want in a driver: integrity, desire, passion, and determination. We’re excited for the 2021 season!”
Besides Currey, the #74 was also piloted by Weatherman, Harmon, and Gray Gaulding during the 2020 season. The car finished thirtieth in the Xfinity owners’ standings. Weatherman holds the team’s best finish of eighth—their maiden top ten—at Kentucky in the #47, while Currey’s twelfth at Texas is the #74’s highest placement in a race.
