Bobby McCarty to make NASCAR debut at Loudon

Bobby McCarty has been the class of late model racing in the CARS Tour, winning the championship thrice in 2018, 2019, and 2021. On 16 July, he will see if he can turn his successes into something good for the struggling Mike Harmon Racing team in the NASCAR Xfinity Series as he makes his series début at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He will drive the #47 Chevrolet Camaro.

“We are excited to see what Bobby can bring to the table at New Hampshire Motor Speedway,” said Harmon. “His long career in racing and his accomplishments within the series is impressive, we look forward to seeing him behind the wheel of the #47.”

Racing in the series since 2017, McCarty was the first driver to win three CARS Late Model Stock Car championships after capping off a three-win campaign in 2021. He also won at South Boston Speedway‘s Late Model Stocks that year, the same location where he clinched the CARS title. He has twenty-four wins across his career including ten in the CARS Tour.

“I want to thank Mike Harmon Racing and my sponsors, Kirk and Lynette Ipock at Solid Rock Carriers and Barry Nelson with autobynelson,” McCarty commented. “Without them, this wouldn’t be possible.”

While certainly a major opportunity for him, the 29-year-old faces an uphill battle with a small MHR operation that has failed to qualify for ten of sixteen races in 2022 with Gray Gaulding, Brennan Poole, and Ryan Vargas. Gaulding holds the team’s best finish of the year when he placed twenty-first at Talladega in his lone start so far, while Poole has attempted the bulk of the schedule but failed to finish the four races that he made. Vargas, who did not qualify for last Saturday’s Road America event, finished twenty-third in his début for the team at Portland. The #47 is currently forty-second in owner points.