Mike Harmon
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Mike Harmon (born January 24, 1958 in Birmingport, Alabama), is a race car driver. Currently, he drives the #38 Oostlander Racing Pontiac in the ARCA RE/MAX Series, and the #54 Chevy for Capital Motorsports in the Busch Series. In the past, he drove in the NASCAR Slim Jim All Pro Series, finishing 8th in points in 1997. He has also racked up 300 feature wins in short-track competition during his racing career. In 1999, he signed with Donlavey Racing to compete for NASCAR Winston Cup Rookie of the Year honors with Big Daddy's BBQ Sauce sponsoring as part of his package deal. Unfortunately, Big Daddy's never paid, and Harmon was reportedly fired from the team during preparation for that year's Daytona 500 when he refused to let another driver try to get more speed out of the car.
Harmon is also famous for an incident at Bristol Motor Speedway in August 2002. Harmon was practicing his #44 car for GIC-Mixon Motorsports, when he crashed into the track's infield entry gate in Turn 2. The gate was improperly secured and swung open when Harmon crashed into it. Harmon's car then impacted the end of the concrete wall head-on. The impact was so violent, the car literally split in half. The remnants of the vehicle were then struck lightly by the car of Johnny Sauter. Amazingly, Harmon walked away from the crash unharmed. As a result of that crash, a similar crash by Michael Waltrip in the early 1990's, and the inability to get ambulances out of the infield without having to stop the race, Speedway Motorsports, Inc. installed a tunnel under the track for traffic to enter and exit the infield.
He is married to his wife Debra, and both have one child.
