Not many racers enjoy enormous success both on the track and in the aftermarket industry like Richard Maskin has.

Maskin was a successful Sportsman racer in the 1960s, and he parlayed those experiences into becoming a renowned Pro Stock engine builder, crew chief and team owner. Now, however, he has decided to go a different direction with his career.

“I’m officially retired from Pro Stock,” the 62-year-old Maskin said. “There are a couple of reasons, one that all of the teams that are doing well have brought their engine programs in-house, and I choose not to own and race a car. The reasons for that are financial. It’s not affordable and it’s not a profit center and it can’t be. As an advertising vehicle, I believe we have got all the bang for our buck that we’re going to get.”

Not many racers enjoy enormous success both on the track and in the aftermarket industry like Richard Maskin has.

Maskin was a successful Sportsman racer in the 1960s, and he parlayed those experiences into becoming a renowned Pro Stock engine builder, crew chief and team owner. Now, however, he has decided to go a different direction with his career.

“I’m officially retired from Pro Stock,” the 62-year-old Maskin said. “There are a couple of reasons, one that all of the teams that are doing well have brought their engine programs in-house, and I choose not to own and race a car. The reasons for that are financial. It’s not affordable and it’s not a profit center and it can’t be. As an advertising vehicle, I believe we have got all the bang for our buck that we’re going to get.”

Maskin founded Dart Machinery in 1981 in a two-car garage in Oak Park, Mich. Maskin transformed his initial efforts into the Dart Technology Center, which is now based in Troy, Mich., and is a premier manufacturer of championship-winning cylinder heads, intake manifolds, and engine blocks.

Maskin most recently had some engines in Pro Stock cars in 2009, but he has not been involved much with the class this year outside of selling parts to competitors.

“The main thing Pro Stock did is satisfy a personal need I had for success,” Maskin said. “It’s also a good advertisement for us because we do not have to sell our credibility, we know how to do this stuff. Now, we’re branching out from things that are not just high performance. We have a line of products that go from street to the Pro Mods. We do not do any Top Fuel or Funny Car work any longer, but we do a lot of professional racing stuff in all the different venues. We do off-road truck racing, Saturday night specials, off-shore boats, and tractor pulling. Anything with an engine in it, may or may not have a Dart part in that engine. As many blocks and heads that we sell, it looks like most of them do.”

Now that Maskin has put his Pro Stock days in the rear-view mirror, he hasn’t had trouble keeping busy.

“I had to find something to do with my time, once I didn’t have this Pro Stock thing nagging at me every day and it took me probably six months to figure out what that was going to be,” Maskin said. “What it is, is working on engines that are needed out in the field as a result of the General Motors bankruptcy. This has opened the door up for the aftermarket. We just have not done any real advertising or marketing yet.”

Maskin actually started thinking about re-directing his focus away from Pro Stock nearly two years ago.

“I got sick at Brainerd (Minn.) in August of 2008, and as a result of that I lost quite a bit of blood,” Maskin said. “It healed itself, and it appears that all was stress related because of all the traveling you do, and the food you eat and the food you do not eat, and the schedules you have. I was literally anemic for quite a while, and I tried to go back to race at Charlotte (N.C.) a few weeks later (in 2008), and I just didn’t have that energy, and it took about a year to get it back. So, I didn’t travel anymore, but I was still involved here (at Dart) with what we were doing.”

Now, when Maskin wakes up every morning, he has no regrets about his decision to leave the class he had been a part of for nearly four decades.

“I’m healthier now than I’ve been in years,” Maskin said. “I’ve always been able to go a lot of different directions within my career path, and I am still finding new projects to work on continuously, including creating quite a few new parts for Pro Mod nitrous engines. I’m doing what I really love to do, which is engine design and development. The need for our craft has reappeared in different venues with peers who I’ve been involved with for years. We’re expanding our customer base in all different directions. Pro Stock may be the hardest thing anybody is ever going to do. It teaches a work ethic that is invaluable to what I’m still doing. At this point and time, our only limitation (at Dart) is our imagination. We have the manufacturing capability, we have the staff, and the practical know-how. We’re putting it all to use in markets we could not touch before, and the customer is getting more value for his money than ever before.”