Struggles and Retirement From Driving
In 2002, McLaughlin went winless once again, but was able to muster a fourth-place finish in points. However, Gibbs wanted to move his son Coy into the #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 their Ford 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 from XM Radio and with Darrell Waltrip's DWStore.com, McLaughlin drove the #39 Ford at the season-opening event, qualifying 4th 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 replaced Bobby Hamilton, Jr. at Team Rensi Motorsports after Hamilton left to join Nextel Cup team PPI Racing, posting a second place run at the Stacker 200 Presented by YJ Stinger.
Mike became a test driver and development driver coach for Joe Gibbs Racing, and opened his own racing fabrication business. As of 2009, Mike is also building bobsleds for the Bo-Dyn project, supplier of sleds to the US Olympic team.
Read more about this topic: Mike Mc Laughlin (racing Driver)
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