THE MAYNARD FAMILY
“ I ' m not a cold-call guy , but once I get in the door , I typically do well in negotiations and generating interest ,” Joe E . says . “ Randy [ Gloede , president and CEO of Scag ] and I were just talking about that this weekend . In one hour , it went from talking about them sponsoring a team to shaking hands on a full deal . So that ' s what I do well , and then [ Joe C .] does pretty well at building it . I ' m just the germinator , if you will , not the Terminator . [ Joe C .] is the Terminator , I ' ll be the germinator .”
The father-son dynamic plays into the Maynards ’ working relationship , and the two have had to learn how each other handles decisions and negotiations .
“ It ’ s harder on him than me ,” Joe E . says . “ That ' s the truth because I ' m fast with decisions and I ' m demanding and I look at him and he ' ll think , ‘ Crap , he ' s looking at me like he did when I was a little kid . He ' s not happy ,’ which is not true . It ' s just the look I have , but it ’ s been harder on Joe to run the business side of it . He has all of the natural personal skills , but it ’ s me teaching him more of the big business . He knows how to run his own business , and he ' s a lot nicer guy than I am , so it ' s harder on him than me .”
Joe C . agrees that it hasn ’ t been easy . While the two learn the unique business that is nitro team ownership , Joe C . is simultaneously learning the general business lessons that his father has learned over the course of his career .
“ I may not have all the information that I need and I may not know the questions to ask
“ I ' m so glad he picked a guy like Justin [ Ashley ] because he picked a good , young , humble , butt-kicking driver with Mike Green as a crew chief — people I ' ve worked with before . He seems to pick quality people ," says Schumacher .
JUSTIN ASHLEY to get that information ,” Joe C . says . “ You don ' t know what you don ' t know . So , when those times happen , that ' s the hard part because I get to the point where I feel like , ‘ Damn , he just pulled the rug out from under me .’ But then he explains to me , ‘ Well , this is what you need to know . If you ' d have known this , then you would ' ve had the information , you would ' ve made this decision .’ I ' m like , OK , well , then the next time something comes along , I have that in my toolbox to say , ‘ By the way , I need this information first .’ Just yesterday , we had a phone call and there were some tools that I needed that I knew to ask for . So , it ' s getting easier for sure .
“ It ' s not all terrible . It ' s not even partly terrible ,” he adds . “ It ' s a learning process . Eventually , I will be sitting in that seat and my son will probably be sitting in this seat . The only way for me to do that is to go through this gauntlet , and we don ' t have years to do this , or endless zeros to just cover up mistakes . That costs us . We don ' t have that . So , I ' ve got to learn , and it ' s just a trial by fire .”
Fortunately , the Maynards have multiple father-son duos in their network to learn from . One of those is Tim and Daniel Wilkerson . Though Daniel is now the crew chief for Chad Green ’ s Funny Car team , he came up through the ranks learning from Tim as a driver , tuner , and team manager . Both have a business background as well , with Tim owning a successful automotive business and Daniel being an accountant by degree .
AFTER PARTNERING WITH JCM RACING IN MAY , JUSTIN ASHLEY AND HIS PHILLIPS CONNECT TEAM HAVE CONTINUED THEIR RAPID ASCENSION IN TOP FUEL . THE YOUNG GUN WON NEARLY HALF OF THE RACES IN THE NHRA REGULAR SEASON .
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