On April 21, 2021, McLaughlin appeared on a podcast and announced that he would return to Reaume Brothers Racing to compete in five Truck Series races for the team, beginning at Kansas in the No. 34. His schedule also included the race at Charlotte. He also revealed that he would be competing in the Xfinity Series for five races, one of them being New Hampshire, but he did not announce which team he would be driving for.[5] He would end up driving for both MBM Motorsports and Mike Harmon Racing in the Xfinity Series in 2021.
In 2022, McLaughlin returned to RSS Racing to drive part-time for the team in the Xfinity Series in the team's Nos. 38 and 28 cars. He did not run any Truck Series races that year.
On January 30, 2023, it was announced that McLaughlin would run 18 races in either the No. 35 car or No. 53 car for Emerling-Gase Motorsports in the Xfinity Series in 2023.[6] After it was announced on February 2 that team co-owner Joey Gase would drive the No. 53 car at Daytona, it was also revealed that McLaughlin (and Brad Perez and other EGM co-owner Patrick Emerling) would drive the No. 53 with the No. 35 car having one full-time driver.[7]
In 2024, McLaughlin started the Xfinity Series season driving for RSS Racing again in their No. 38 car part-time. That year, the CEO of SciAps (McLaughlin's longtime sponsor), Don Sackett, began to dabble into NASCAR team ownership in a collaboration with RSS and the entry was fielded under the banner of Viking Motorsports. After McLaughlin failed to qualify for two of the first four races of the year, Sackett was disappointed with him and replaced him with Matt DiBenedetto for the rest of the season.[8] McLaughlin would get another opportunity in the Xfinity Series with SS-Green Light Racing to drive for them in three races: Daytona in August in the No. 14 car and Atlanta in September and Talladega in October in the No. 07 car. He would have a different sponsor, Main Street Auto, in these races.[9]