Mike Harris, Senior Writer
Mike Harris has covered sports with a heavy concentration on motor sports for 43 years, including the past 40 with The Associated Press. After growing up in Madison, Wis., Harris graduated from the University of Wisconsin in Jan. 1967 and began his full-time journalism career later that year with The Rockford (Ill.) Morning Star and Register-Republic. After 18 months covering a variety of news and sports for the Rockford paper, Harris took a job as a newsman with AP in Chicago. After a brief apprenticeship on the news desk in Chicago, Harris spent five years as Indiana Sports Editor, five years as a sports writer in the Cleveland bureau and became the AP’s Motorsports Writer in January, 1980. Over the next 30 years, he covered every aspect of motorsports, as well as reporting from the LA and Seoul Olympics and the 1980 Super Bowl. Last May’s Indianapolis 500 was the 40th of his career. Along the way, Harris twice won the Frank Blunk Award, as well as the Henry McLemore Award and the Ray Marquette Award, among others. His coverage of the death of Dale Earnhardt in 2001 was honored as AP’s Story of the Year. After retiring from AP in July 2009, Harris decided to continue his career writing for RacinToday.com. He lives in Wake Forest, N.C., with Judy, his wife of 41 years. They have two grown children, Tory Harris and Lanni Isenberg.
Articles by Mike Harris
By Mike Harris | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
While Sam Hornish Jr., is enjoying spending more time with his young family these days, he has missed the weekly racing grind and, particularly, racing in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series.
The former open-wheel racing star lost his full-time Cup ride at the end of last season when Penske Racing cut back [...]
By Mike Harris | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Indianapolis – Most years the driver who wins the pole for the Indianapolis 500 is a favorite to win the race.
This year, not so much.
While fellow front-row starter Scott Dixon and his Target Chip Ganassi teammate Dario Franchitti, starting ninth in the 33-car field, are the co-favorites in Las [...]
By Mike Harris | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Indianapolis – Dario Franchitti loves spending time at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway museum.
It’s a visit he makes every year early in the month of May, before things get too busy and complicated on and off the 2.5-mile oval.
Mostly, Franchitti loves to see the old cars and bask in the history [...]
By Mike Harris | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Indianapolis – Here’s a scene that could very well play out in Sunday’s Indianapolis 500:
The cars line up for a double-file restart with five laps to go in a very competitive race. Pole-winner Alex Tagliani is on the inside at the front, with two-time 500 winner and defending champion Dario [...]
By Mike Harris | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Driving through the credential gate at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first time each year brings back a flood of memories.
Today, as I drove through Gate 9a off Georgetown Road, I thought back to my first time here, in 1970. That day, I drove onto the massive speedway grounds [...]
By Mike Harris | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
This week’s All-Star race is supposed to be fun.
Before NASCAR’s “Have at it, boys’’ edict last year, the non-points race at Charlotte’s big track was the one event where stock car’s biggest stars could let their hair down and do some serious fender rubbing without any serious consequences.
Now, though, with [...]
By Mike Harris | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
What has transpired so far in 2011 for Denny Hamlin is definitely not what he had in mind after the disappointment of last season.
After coming up short while making a great run at a NASCAR Sprint Cup title a year ago, Hamlin likely spent the winter dreaming about how he’d [...]
By Mike Harris | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
A lot of you probably read the classic “Waiting for Godot’’ while you were in school.
Basically, it’s about waiting for something that may or may not ever happen. That’s pretty much the way I feel about the future success of Kyle Busch in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series.
It’s doubtful that anybody, [...]
By Mike Harris | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
To say Regan Smith is due for some good fortune is probably an understatement.
Despite going through his first 102 NASCAR Sprint Cup races without a win, Smith goes into Sunday’s race at Talladega with a feeling of certainty that he is capable of taking the checkered flag. That feeling is [...]
By Mike Harris | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Mr. Consistency is up to his old ways and off to a solid start in 2011.
Former NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Matt Kenseth arrived at Texas Motor Speedway this week with three top-10 finishes in the first six races of the season and holding down ninth place in the points.
Even better, [...]