After a decade of working with JD Motorsports, Gary Keller will move to fellow NASCAR Xfinity Series team Mike Harmon Racing for the 2023 season. Now known as “Mike Harmon Racing with Gary Keller”, the team announced the new partnership on Saturday.
Keller joined up with JDM in 2012, branding the outfit “JD Motorsports with Gary Keller”. He formerly ran a team in ARCA along with the NASCAR Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series in the early 2000s. Among those to have raced for his team include Charlie Bradberry, Willie Green, Kenny Hendrick, Andy Hillenburg, and Tim Sauter.
Gary Keller Racing even attempted a few Cup Series races in 2004 with Mike Wallace, though they failed to qualify in four tries. Wallace reconnected with Keller at JD Motorsports when he was a full-time driver for them in the Xfinity Series; they rekindled their association for a road course slate in 2020, five years after Wallace’s last races.
Outside of NASCAR, Keller is the owner of Disaster Services of Environmental Specialist, LLC, in his native Ohio. His company provides water structure disaster support such as flood recovery and mold cleanup.
“Gary coming on board is a blessing to MHR which will be known now as Mike Harmon Racing with Gary Keller,” said team owner Mike Harmon. “I’m very happy that Gary believes in us he sees the passion and the hard work that we put into our racing. It’s the shot in the arm we need here at MHR with Gary Keller.”
MHR will hope the partnership can bring new life to the team, who struggled in 2022 as their #47 car qualified for just eleven races. Driven by nine different drivers, the #47 placed forty-third in owner points with Ryan Vargas scoring its best finish of twenty-third at Portland. Others to race the car included Harmon himself, Stanton Barrett, Brandon Brown, Dawson Cram, Gray Gaulding, Bobby McCarty, Brennan Poole, and Tim Viens. Viens also piloted a second car, the #74, at Daytona but missed the show.
