McLaughlin Begins Asphalt Effort at New Smyrna

A First Time for Everything … “There’s a first time for everything”, and 2019 will be Max McLaughlin’s first full plate of asphalt racing. The Super DirtCar Series stand out comes to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East (NKNPSE) to chase a championship in his first full season of asphalt racing in his career. The son of six-time NASCAR XFINITY Series race winner, Mike McLaughlin, will make his series debut at New Smyrna Speedway on Sunday night.

 

The Dirt on “Mad Max” … “Mad Max” has competed full-time on the Super DirtCar Series Big Block Modified tour the past three seasons. McLaughlin is the owner of two straight Most Popular Driver awards and finished third in the series standings in 2018. In 2017, McLaughlin scored victories at Fulton Speedway and Brewerton Speedway and notched a preliminary feature victory at Super Dirt Week. Last season, McLaughlin made his one and only career NASCAR start in the Gander Outdoors Truck Series at Eldora Speedway. “Mad Max” has two asphalt starts to his credit, both in late models at Caraway Speedway and South Boston Speedway.

 

Chassis Selection … Crew chief Robert Huffman and the No. 1 team prepared chassis No. 002 for McLaughlin’s series debut. This Toyota Camry is new to the HRE stable but was in competition last season. 

 

Tune In …  NBC Sports Network will have tape delayed coverage of the opening round of the KNPSE tour. Fans can follow the action on Sunday night with live timing and scoring on www.hometracks.nascar.com, and by following @Hattori_Racing on Twitter and Hattori Racing Enterprises on Facebook.

 

 

“This has always been something I’ve wanted to do. I’ve always wanted to go asphalt racing. It’s all new to me. They’ve proven they’re a championship capable team. In the truck series, they got it done last year, and I know they’re capable of winning races on the K&N side too. They won Watkins Glen last year and were definitely the dominant car. If I do my part and work hard at it, learn everything I can, I don’t see any reason we can’t walk away as champions.”

 

HRE PR