The Walnut Cove, N.C. veteran says the goal is simple: he wants to cross an item off his bucket list and win a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race in the north.

“I just think it’s a good opportunity to be able to pool our resources and make a real go of it. If I didn’t think we could go win races wherever we went, I wouldn’t be doing this,” Myers explained. “My bucket list has always included winning a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race and I don’t see any reason why we won’t be able to have a shot to do it.”

On the Loftin side of the mix, a family connection led to the pairing for next year. which will see Loftin return to NASCAR Tour racing for the first time since 2014, when he ran half of the 14 races that season.

“Brian is a good friend of ours. He’s actually the cousin of Justin Link, who’s a key member of our race team … Justin actually works for me and lives in one of my other houses,” said Harvey. “He’s like family to me and that made this fit together well.”

“Most everyone around the racing community down here knows that Brian went through an unfortunate time a little while back, with the loss of his wife, and he had to step away for a while. But we felt this was a great opportunity for him to get back in a race car as well and look forward to working with him. Brian was helping to crew on the car when we ran Chase Dowling at Bristol, but I know he’s excited to be back behind the wheel for this deal.”

For Loftin, who will run a similar schedule to what Myers does next year, the chance to get back into Tour competition with a car as competitive as Harvey’s was one he said was impossible to pass up.

“Man, this is something I’m really excited about,” said Loftin. “Up to now, the timing just was never right (to get back into racing) … with the things in my life and everything that took me away from racing full-time, but the conversation started back up again this year and I’m looking forward to being with a top-notch team that has top-notch equipment.”

“I think anyone would be excited to have a chance to get into Eddie’s stuff and show what they can do. Any time you can go to the race track with resources where you know you can get the job done if you do your job behind the wheel, it makes you feel a lot more comfortable to just go out and perform.”

As far as his previously-announced collaboration with Rob Fuller and Chase Dowling for next year, Harvey confirmed that while the situation would change somewhat, he will still be involved on that front as well.

“This deal changes that situation some, but we will still be involved with Rob, LFR and Chase,” said Harvey. “We have a new LFR car coming, so that will add one more car to our garage … and we’ll have it prepared down here so that they don’t have to transport cars and people down here when they run the southern races next year.”

“We’ll have that car numbered 15 for them; it was just too hard for myself and for my team to commit to the schedule up there (in New England). As far as time away from work and from all of our families, it was just a little too much to ask for us to do the whole schedule up north.”

But as far as the south goes for Harvey, his new driver pairing brings him almost full-circle, back to the days when Andy Seuss and George Brunnhoelzl III were both on the former Southern Tour wheeling cars out of the Ideal shop.

Now he has a shot to work with two former titlists once again.

“It’s pretty neat having two former southern modified champions come aboard our team, seeing as how we had two on our team in the past with Andy (Seuss) and GB3 (George Brunnhoelzl III),” Harvey smiled. “We want to definitely keep it in the region as much as we can. ”

About the Writer

Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network, as well as a periodic contributor to SPEED SPORT Magazine.

Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.

The 23-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.

Email Jacob at: editor@racechaseronline.com

Follow on Twitter: @Speed77Radio or @JacobSeelman77

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