Michael McLaughlin (born October 6, 1956) is an American former professionalstock car racing driver. Nicknamed "Magic Shoes", McLaughlin was a perennial fan favorite, winning the Most Popular Driver award in 1997. He also scored several wins and top-five points finishes in the points standings in theNASCAR Busch Series.

McLaughlin grew up in New York State and began his professional career at a later stage than most other drivers, competing in his first race at the age of twenty in a dirt modified he built. He then ran regularly at his home track,Maple Grove Speedway, before moving up into theDIRT Modified series.

McLaughlin lived a few blocks from Maple Grove Speedway and built his first car in the garage at home. According to his mother, he drove the car to the track on his first night of racing.^[2]

In 1984, McLaughlin made his Busch Series debut at theMello Yello 300 atCharlotte Motor Speedway, driving the No. 73Pontiac home to a fourteenth place finish. He ran one more race that season, the October Charlotte race. Unfortunately, mechanical problems ended his day early. He raced twice more the next season, posting an eleventh place run.

McLaughlin then advanced into the NASCAR Modified ranks for Sherwood Racing, owned by Bill Corazzo and run by Clyde McLeod. His crew included Corazzo's nephews,Paul Corazzo Jr., who would go onto his own racing career in both open wheeled formula cars and Sprint car winning championships in both many times,Greg Zipadelli, who would later win Sprint Cup titles as crew chief, and Greg's younger brotherScott Zipadelli, who is also now a top level NASCAR crew chief. Mike won the 1988 championship in the Winston Modified Tour, now known as theWhelen Modified Tour. He has sixteen career wins in the modified series.

McLaughlin also drove for Harry and Mike Greci in theBusch North Series, finishing 3rd in points in 1993. McLaughlin became the first driver ever to win both ends of the Modified/Busch North doubleheader atNew Hampshire Motor Speedway.

In 1990, McLaughlin returned to the Busch Series, driving the No. 51Coors Extra GoldOldsmobile in six races. Despite two wrecks, McLaughlin had two top-five finishes and caught the eye of many in the sport. He ran eight races the following season, but was unable to duplicate his success. After part-time runs in 1992 and 1993, McLaughlin finally ran his first full-time schedule in the Busch Series in 1994, driving the No. 34Fiddle FaddleChevrolet forCicci-Welliver Racing. Despite not making two races, McLaughlin posted three top-fives and finished 13th in points. He also ran twoWinston Cup races for Cicci-Welliver that year, finishing 22nd and 27th atNew Hampshire andWatkins Glen, respectively.

In 1995, McLaughlin got his first taste of Victory Lane, winning theGM Goodwrench/Delco 200 at Dover, and collected thirteen additional top-tens on his way to a third place points run. After a winless 1996, McLaughlin won twice in 1997 (including at his hometrack at Watkins Glen) and was named the series' Most Popular Driver. 1998 saw him addGoulds Pumps as his primary sponsor, and he won two more races, and matched his career-best finish of third in points.

After going winless in 1999, McLaughlin shockingly announced he would depart from Cicci-Welliver at the season's end, citing a need for a change. He and Goulds left for the No. 48 Chevy fielded byInnovative Motorsports in 2000. Unfortunately, the season was a struggle and McLaughlin could not get the cars up to speed. Despite two fifth place finishes, McLaughlin jumped ship just weeks before the start of the 2001 season to the unsponsored No. 20 owned byJoe Gibbs Racing. McLaughlin shocked the NASCAR world by winning theNASCAR Subway 300 at Talladega, albeit controversially. Despite the win, the team could not continue to run unsponsored, and McLaughlin moved over to theMBNA No. 18 for the remainder of the season. He finished seventh in points.

In 2001, McLaughlin wasTony Stewart's back-up driver for theCoca-Cola 600. Stewart was running theIndy 500 the same day and McLaughlin was to have started the race if Stewart did not arrive on time. Stewart eventually arrived in Charlotte just minutes before the command to start engines and finished third.

In 2002, McLaughlin went winless once again, but was able to muster a fourth-place finish in points. However, Gibbs wanted to move his sonCoy into the No. 18, and McLaughlin was forced to find a new job. In October 2002, McLaughlin announced he would run with a new team,Angela's Motorsports in the 2003 season. The team showed up at that season's Speedweeks, and theirFord Taurus was the fastest in testing. After that, problems began arising, and weeks before the season started, Angela's Motorsports closed its doors. It turned out that the team's owners had been behind in paying their bills, and their debtors took over the operation and shut everything down. McLaughlin appeared to be out of a job, but after word leaked out, fans began donating money to allow McLaughlin to run the Daytona race, and with sponsorship fromXM Radio and withDarrell Waltrip's DWStore.com, McLaughlin drove the No. 39Jay Robinson Racing Ford at the season-opening event, qualifying fourth but finishing 29th after a wreck in the closing laps. The financial windfall could not get McLaughlin a full-time ride, although he returned to Cicci Racing to run seven races, posting one top-ten finish. McLaughlin went unemployed in 2004 until the end of the season, when he replacedBobby Hamilton Jr. atTeam Rensi Motorsports after Hamilton left to join Nextel Cup teamPPI Racing, posting a second-place run at theStacker 200 Presented by YJ Stinger.

McLaughlin became a test driver and development driver coach for Joe Gibbs Racing, and opened his own racing fabrication business. As of 2009, McLaughlin is also building bobsleds for theBo-Dyn Bobsled Project, supplier of sleds to the US Olympic team.

McLaughlin's sonMax currently races in theSuper DIRTcar Series. Max formerly competed forHattori Racing Enterprises in theARCA Menards Series East, winning a race in 2019 atWatkins Glen International, as well as one race in theNASCAR Xfinity Series at the same track in 2023,^[3] and one race in theNASCAR Camping World Truck Series atEldora Speedway in 2018.^[4][5][6]

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time.Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

² Competed only in companion events withBusch North Series as BNS driver and ineligible for Busch Series points

• Official website
• Mike McLaughlin driver statistics at Racing-Reference

• Living people
• 1956 births
• People from Waterloo, New York
• Racing drivers from New York (state)
• NASCAR drivers
• American Speed Association drivers
• Joe Gibbs Racing drivers
• Northeast Dirt Modified Hall of Fame

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata