The newly minted Maynard Ashley Racing team won’t look any different, really, on the racetrack.

However, news Saturday that Max Out Motorsports (formerly Justin Ashley Racing & Davis Motorsports) and JCM Racing merged to form Maynard Ashley Racing will have ramifications more on the business side of the operation.

This new organization – separate from Maynard Wilkerson Racing in Funny Car and JCM on the Top Fuel side with Tony Schumacher – will campaign the Phillips Connect Toyota Dragster that Justin Ashley drives and Mike Green and Tommy DeLago tune. The move is immediate.

Maynard Ashley Racing is a partnership between JCM Racing, led by emerging leaders Joe and Cathi Maynard, and Max Out Motorsports LLC, a new partnership between Justin Ashley, Dustin Davis, and Jim Epler.

Ashley said the first three seasons made “a wonderful, excellent, fantastic chapter, but it’s time for the next chapter. It’s about growth. It’s about stability on and off the racetrack. And now is the right time.

“This new team shows growth. It shows strength. It shows stability. And we want to be out here, doing this for a very long time because this is what we love to do. And it's a business on and off the racetrack, and that's where our focus is,” the young driver said. “I have a lot of gratitude. I feel very blessed to be in the position that we're in now, to be able to announce today the formation of our new partnership . . . to be able to take our program to the next level. 

“Joe and the Maynard family have done such a fantastic job. We really want to be a part of their group,” Ashley said. “It’s getting a lot of really great people together to be able to discuss business and be on the racetrack. … It’s a blessing, and the fact that Joe, Cathi, and their team have decided to join forces with us, I feel, validates our team and all that we’ve been working for.”

Joining them is the Eric and Kim Lehman family, who from the inception of JCM have been partners. Maynard Ashley Racing’s goal is to take advantage of JCM’s vast resources and expertise – including the military experiences of U.S. Army veterans – to reshape the way business and racing can mesh.

Joe Maynard said, “Cathi and I are very pleased to bring our family’s passion for the sport and drive for excellence into the Maynard Ashley Racing partnership. This relationship will provide greater opportunities for our JCM Racing team, our racing partners and sponsors, our driver development program, and veterans of all ages. Justin is a young and highly skilled driver/partner that represents all that is positive for Maynard Ashley Racing, Max Out Motorsports, and JCM Racing.”

Ashley’s driving skills are regarded highly, and he proved his commitment to on-track performance Saturday. In defeating Austin Prock in the final round of the Top Fuel Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, Ashley became the first two-time (and a back-to-back) winner of the bonus race that awards Countdown to the Championship points and a tidy $10,000 payout.

He said of the Challenge, “This deal does mean a lot to us. It's a new deal. Everyone's kind of getting used to it, but [we’re] really grateful for Mission Foods and how they've put on this challenge. I think that anytime you add an additional opportunity to race and collect bonus points along the way, I think it's special – not to mention the $10,000 cash always helps, as well.

“This was a great day. I think we did a good job of running well and setting the tone for ourselves going into tomorrow. Tomorrow's a new day, but I’m really proud to be able to represent Mission Foods and Philips Connect, Toyota and our whole team today,” Ashley said.

Moreover, he said the bonus race helps prepare a driver for race day.

“I was in the car earlier and actually thinking about how this helps get you set up for race day. You know in Round 1 you always get those butterflies and not as much in qualifying, but I had them today in Q2,” he said. “I think it does kind of mentally help from a driver's perspective, just kind of getting raised to a mode you try every time to approach each run the same. But only to a certain extent can you actually do that. To be able to put the driver’s in a position to get ready before Sunday, I definitely think it provides at least a little bit of an advantage.”