Max Naylor’s plan for the 2008 season was a lot different than what he’s experienced thus far. He’s on the right track now since failing to qualify in four of the first eight races and yet to make his way past the opening round. That’s a free fall considering he earned two pole positions in 2007.

“The things started coming around after Vegas,” Naylor said. “We’ve got to go back because we were chasing phantoms for the first few races of the season. We have to get everything set back to where it was. I think we’ll be good from this point on.”

The largest phantom Naylor chased started in the paint booth when, in the process of repainting the car to accommodate his new Vegas Fuel Energy Drink sponsorship, overspray corroded many of the electrical connections on his Dodge Stratus. Max Naylor’s plan for the 2008 season was a lot different than what he’s experienced thus far. He’s on the right track now since failing to qualify in four of the first eight races and yet to make his way past the opening round. That’s a free fall considering he earned two pole positions in 2007.

“The things started coming around after Vegas,” Naylor said. “We’ve got to go back because we were chasing phantoms for the first few races of the season. We have to get everything set back to where it was. I think we’ll be good from this point on.”

The largest phantom Naylor chased started in the paint booth when, in the process of repainting the car to accommodate his new Vegas Fuel Energy Drink sponsorship, overspray corroded many of the electrical connections on his Dodge Stratus.

Before finding the culprit, Naylor found his frustration level growing because he admitted his car was better than it performed.

“I think it always bothers you,” Naylor said. “I knew we had a good car and had a good crew. We knew we had something wrong and we tried every which way we knew to find what was wrong.”

Naylor ran the 2007 season with backing from Jagermeister and by all accounts, appeared headed for a multi-year program with the spirits company. He elected to discontinue the program in 2008 when Jagermeister was forced to scale back their efforts.

“We were very fortunate to have had the program with the folks at Jagermeister,” Naylor said. “They had one person in the company that wanted to make a change. They didn’t want to lose the entire relationship with us but they weren’t going to be able to go us what we needed to be competitive.

“Our choice was to either take a step backwards or run the risk of losing it and see if we could put something together down the road that was going to be better. That’s the choice we made.”

Naylor could have easily felt shortchanged with the end result of the scenario, but he chooses to view the situation in a different light.

“Companies have to make decisions everyday they feel are the right ones to make,” Naylor said. “Truly this was a successful program. During our two year run, I think we went from under 2.8-million cases to six million a year. I’m not so arrogant to think we were responsible for that but I think we did have a major part of it.

“They still support us in little ways and they may be interested in coming back. You don’t burn your bridges and people make decisions, it doesn’t mean they are right or wrong. They just do what they feel is right. “

A staple of Naylor’s programs has always been in promotional appearances. He’s not doing as many this season as he did with Jagermeister sponsorship, but he’s confident this is an important component of any sponsorship activation.

Naylor visited an elementary school earlier this week and his visit was inspired. The parents of a Jr. Dragster racer contacted Naylor when he was told at a career fair by a school counselor that being a professional drag racer was not a real job.

“The parents emailed me and we took the whole team down there as well as the transporter,” Naylor said.

Naylor never had a guidance counselor try to squelch his efforts.

“I’ve always been fortunate to been in a position through hard work and planning to get to where we wanted to be,” Naylor said. “Everyone out here has the chance to do what they want to in life. You just have to have determination and enough education to do what you want to do. I don’t think anyone has the right to tell you that you can’t do something.”