Mike McLaughlin

From ArticleWorld

Mike McLaughlin is the name of a former NASCAR Busch Series driver born in 1956 and living in Waterloo, New York. McLaughlin raced regularly in the Busch Series but also participated in the Winston Cup and the Craftsman Truck Series during the latter part of his career. At his peak ‘Magic Shoes’ – as McLaughlin was nick named – was the most popular driver in the Busch Series.

Biographical

Mike has a long and distinguished record in racing. As far as the average starting age of a racer is concerned, he started his career as a racing driver at a fairly ‘late’ age of 20. He began by racing Modified as well as Supermodified ranks on both dirt and asphalt and ran his first Busch Grand National race in 1984 where his overall season point standing was 14th. He ran just one more race that season and two in the next, when he finished 11th in the season point standing. McLaughlin got his first big win in 1988 when he became the Featherlite Modified Series, NASCAR Touring champion with 16 career victories.

Continued success

In 1992, McLaughlin finished fourth in the Busch North Series and in 1993 he came in third. McLaughlin got his first Busch win in 1995 and this was also the year when he got one Bud Pole and had 9 top five and 14 top 10 finishes and finished 3rd in the season point standings. Three years later, in 1998, McLaughlin raced to two wins, got one Bud Pole and was among the top five in 11 races and among the top ten in 16, thus, finishing third in the season. McLaughlin got his 6th Busch Grand National win in 2001 and finished 4th in the season point standings, in 2002, even though he did not have a single win. That year, he was among the top five in 7 races and among the top ten in 17.

McLaughlin announced his retirement at the end of the season in 2004 and is currently employed as a test driver and fabricator with Joe Gibbs racing.