Last week Mike Harmon announced that he, with the support of new CO-owners Donnie Richardson and Eddie Netzloff, is considering a limited Busch schedule for 2007. Harmon is a regular on the ARCA RE/MAX Series and has not competed in the NASCAR Busch Series since Daytona 2004. He did compete on a limited schedule in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2005.

"There's a chance we might run the Busch race at Nashville if everything goes well." said Harmon. "If we don't make Nashville we will attempt New Hampshire, Memphis, Milwaukee and the Busch races that do not conflict with the ARCA schedule. Our Busch car will be painted black and silver like the ARCA car and I have my old Busch number back, so, it will be the #44. However, for the Nashville race only, we will run the #48. "

Harmon is excited about the 2007 season. Bert Oostlander, Harmon's owner for the last 2 1/2 years has decided to pursue other interests which allowed Donnie Richardson, an x-player in the Chicago Cubs organization who was a roommate of 5-time Cy Young Award Winner Gregg Maddux, and Eddie Netzloff, Manager Of Reset Planning for a major national retailer to step up to this challenge and pursue interests of their own while supporting Harmon's efforts.

Speaking about his new CO-owners Harmon offered this, "We all have the same goals. We all know nothing comes easy and in racing it comes 10 times harder than in anything else, so, you really have to be a special breed to be involved in racing. They both bring a lot of excitement to the team along with potential sponsors. We're looking forward to working together and working with sponsors to see how far we can carry this thing."

Richardson, who is in the process of developing a sports complex in Lexington, NC, is actually a race car driver, himself, having competed in Late Model Series and has been cleared with ARCA for short track competition. It's in the works for Richardson to make his ARCA debut sometime this season, however, the exact date and race has yet to be announced.

Donnie and Mike worked together during a portion of the 2006 ARCA season. I spoke with Donnie last week about this new venture and how this alliance came about.

"Mike needed some marketing help," explained Richardson, "and I needed an experienced driver to help me with the learning curve. Mike and I got together because we both completed the team. We've been a very good match. In the beginning I was doing the marketing and Mike was helping me with Late Model racing and getting me up to speed so I could drive the larger cars. Then Mike's owner wanted to pursue his family business, Global Pigeon Supply, and I acquired the team and equipment to give me a lot of flexibility to market the team.""

"Originally when Mike and I got together it was, strictly, to use his experience to help me with the Late Model racing, but, along the line I found out Mike is actually a tremendous race car driver and has a tremendous race knowledge and experience that many people don't have, not to mention that's he's 120% racing. I do believe if Mike gets the tools to work with he can easily be a top 5 or a champion in any series and I honestly believe he deserves that. I do believe that and because I believe that it makes me believe in this project. In addition to wanting to start my ARCA career this year, I now believe I have an asset that I can market and turn it in to a very nice investment, in my opinion. With racing being one of the highest forms of advertising these days, it just makes a tremendous amount of sense to be involved and invest in racing and that's what I've done."

"I've got some folks that we're bringing along, gradually, and introducing them in to racing. I think as their businesses grow we will get the tools we need to move forward in racing. One of those companies is All Sports Armour. They have amazing racing products coming out in the future and I was so taken with them and their products that I immediately wanted to be involved with them. It was the same thing with Mike. We really work closely together, the All Sports Armour folks, myself and Mike. They really seem to bond well with Mike and, obviously, with his tremendous and famous wreck at Bristol. The evolution of racing just goes hand in hand with Mike Harmon and this product of All Sports Armour is absolutely one of the most exciting things I've seen in a long time. We are all very excited with the chance to work together."

CO-owner Eddie Netzloff, who helps coordinates changes within projects going on in the Lowe's stores, is just as excited about this racing effort as Mike and Donnie are. "We're very excited," began Netzloff. "We're learning and there's a couple of different excitements here. There's the excitement of doing this, in general, but then, there's the excitement of actually learning something that's very new to a lot of us. Our goal is to put together a very sound team from the foundation up, a very organized team. All 3 of us share the same thought that if everything is organized and everybody understands what their roles are and what their position entails, I think we'll be very successful."

"Week before last when I was down in Lakeland with the team I was just watching him in terms of being the driver, but, he was also giving a lot of input on everything going on under the hood as well as strategies while the race was going on. He wasn't just focused on making laps and passing cars. He was interested and focused on how he was going to be making his laps and how he was going to be passing cars. That's just a gift I guess because I'm just not sure how he was able to keep up with so many different things going on and still do a good job of driving the car."

"I'm working in corporate office management for a Fortune 50 retail company and will contribute my managerial skills and experience learned there to the team we are building. This is an entirely different organization than what I have dealt with in the past. but, I'm very much looking forward to it. I know it's going to be a lot of hours, and a lot of true racing fans know this, it's not just 2 or 3 hours worth of work each week. It's not just what you see on TV. There's a lot of hours at awkward times, late night and weekends or whenever you have 5 or 10 minutes when you have time to try to make something happen. I'm really looking forward to watching something grow, almost, from the ground up."

"Mike is "old school" and I'll be honest with you, "old school" is one of the things that attracts me to this opportunity. We're going to build something and doing it not necessarily the way it's being done today in terms of all the gadgets and super-dooper high tech stuff. Grant it, we hope to get to that point someday, but, we will build it just like folks use to by putting in a lot of hard work and sweat equity. We want to get it to where it's a machine that runs pretty much on it's own with a tweak here and there. Then we can sit back and enjoy it with all the successes and glories. That's what our goal is."

"I don't mean to sound biased, but, in the last year or so I've noticed a slight decline in some racing attendance and excitement in the upper leagues of racing," Eddie said in closing. "I think the "old school" mentality, very soon, will come back when the new fans realize that the foundation for this sport was folks that had the mentality, the desire, the strength and the skill that Mike does. Very soon I think you will see this sport, as a whole, going back to it's roots, going back where it came from. I think we're going to be successful. At that point, when we look back on all the hard work and sweat equity we put in to this, we're going to be darned proud of what we did. That is going to be the part that I'm going to enjoy the most."

It's no secret to anyone who knows me that I have been a big supporter of Mike Harmon's for years. Over those years I've come to, not only know Mike pretty well, but, to respect him, his drives and his abilities immensely. With Richardson and Netzloff on board and with everyone sharing the same hard work as well as the realistic goals, success is going to happen. It will. It's so fantastic to be able to genuinely hear the determination and excitement in their voices and to actually sense their pride in this venture. I have always said Mike has everything it takes to be a winner. Donnie Richardson and Eddie Netzloff know that, as well.

A new website for Mike Harmon Racing is in the works and will be available soon. We'll let you know as soon as it is up and running. In the meantime sit back, folks, watch and just remember when their success happens, I told you so!

Questions? Comments? Contact Marty Tyler at MTyler@Catchfence.com