Mike Ashley confirmed with CompetitionPlus.com that he plans to return to competition in 2010 as a team owner on the

NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. He's uncertain if he will drive the nitro Funny Car for the full tour. At a bare minimum Ashley says he will drive a limited schedule with a hired driver filling the remainder of the dates.

Ashley announced shortly following the NHRA Supernationals in Englishtown, N.J., he was selling his interest in Gotham City Racing to teammate Roger Burgess in order to concentrate on his Lend America business.

Mike Ashley confirmed with CompetitionPlus.com that he plans to return to competition in 2010 as a team owner on the

NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. He's uncertain if he will drive the nitro Funny Car for the full tour. At a bare minimum Ashley says he will drive a limited schedule with a hired driver filling the remainder of the dates.

Ashley announced shortly following the NHRA Supernationals in Englishtown, N.J., he was selling his interest in Gotham City Racing to teammate Roger Burgess in order to concentrate on his Lend America business.

The three–time Funny Car national event winner and two-time Pro Modified world champion anticipates testing as early as September 2009 in preparation of 2010. He will field a Pro Modified team next season with NHRA Pro Modified Rookie of the Year winner Joe Baker as driver and Chuck Ford as tuner.

"When I took off the economy was in bad shape and that directly affects my industry, I felt like my first responsibility was to make sure that the 600 employees at Lend America would be protected," Ashley said. "I also wanted to spend a lot of time with my family; I thought it was a responsible decision to focus all of my efforts 100% on Lend America. I feel like the time I took off in 2008 and the way things are heading, I feel like in 2009 things will start to become stabilized."

Drag racing is currently in the midst of one of its toughest economic crisis with many teams sidelined for 2009 by lack of funding. Ashley confirmed that he's stepped ahead of the curve in retaining a major sports marketing firm to represent his team and through the huge marketing efforts of his Lend-America mortgage banking firm, he's already gained more than a few companies eager to align with the race team.

At this point, Ashley says, securing his major sponsor should be nothing more than a formality.

I think given what's happening NHRA has made the proper moves. I think it's going to take more, I think they're going to have to look back on cutting the schedule. I know it's something that they don't want to do but I think it's something that they are going to have to do if they expect people to come out. The combination of corporate sponsorship leaving the sport and the impact of the economy on personal money is going to force them to do it.

"We already have some talks underway; some of them are companies that are involved in Lend America's work," Ashley admitted. "It's no secret that Lend America has a large marketing budget. Some of them connected to Lend America's world and some of them are not."

Ashley has already begun to build his infrastructure by bringing back former team manager Angelo Angelico as well as former crewman turned sponsor specialist Tom Abbot to co-ordinate his sponsorship relationships.

Ashley has been keeping close ties in the sport during his absence and has watched from the sidelines as team after team has been either forced to scale back or park. The situation bothers Ashley, however he believes those displacemed are resilient to the point they will return sooner than later.

"It's terrible," Ashley added. "The economy has had an impact in every major business in America and drag dacing is a business. As much fun as it really is, it's also a business. Unfortunately the economy has now had its impact on Drag Racing. Within every crisis there is opportunity and I think those drivers, like Rod Fuller, these people are excellent people I think as these things start to come back they will be able to find the proper funding and will be able to get back out there and race on the track. My concern is the NHRA, they may not have a full field of fuel cars, and they're going to have to make some decisions."

With that said, Ashley believes the leaders of the NHRA have handled the economic crisis as well as they could under the circumstances, but clearly the time is coming that the sanctioning body may have to adjust for the future.

"I think given what's happening NHRA has made the proper moves," Ashley explained. "I think it's going to take more, I think they're going to have to look back on cutting the schedule. I know it's something that they don't want to do but I think it's something that they are going to have to do if they expect people to come out. The combination of corporate sponsorship leaving the sport and the impact of the economy on personal money is going to force them to do it.

"If they are wanting to attract more racers they are either going to have to come up with a mini-series that could be like 12 races within the series that would allow racers to show up for 12 races of the 25 race schedule or they are going to have to cut back the total number."

Adjusting to a thousand-foot race course after Scott Kalitta's fatal Englishtown accident is just one example Ashley points out confirms the sanctioning body's ability to react to adverse situations.

Ashley was next in line to run behind Kalitta.

"That was smart to keep people safe," Ashley said. "So I think they are nimble enough to make a decision – I just hope they do something soon."

He confides he's only able to precipitate this comeback through early preparation for the current economic crisis and the comeback is the end result. Lend America stands as one of the more successful mortgage banking firms in the United States.

"It starts the same way we built our race team, having an honest belief in what you are doing and being able to see the forest through the trees," Ashley said. "I always felt that Lend America always had an excellent business plan. We saw this coming, [that's] why we stopped doing subprime loans in 2005 when they started to get out of hand. We never once did these risky adjustable, optional stock loans and these things. I think that we had an excellent business plan.

"Teamwork was the glue that held the company together, we all believed in what we were doing and put our heads down and did it and survived. It's still a tough market and we still have a ways to go. We're still not out of the woods yet, I think with God's help we'll be okay. I think that's another thing, you have to have faith. There are three rules I live my life by: God loves me, everything God does is in my best interest and there's a lesson in everything God does. If you follow those three things you can be successful in anything you do."

That's why Ashley anticipates being successful in 2010.