Ahead of the upcoming ARCA Menards Series East season, Michael Maples will contest the full season in his No. 99, Frontstretch has confirmed.
“Michael is gaining a lot of confidence behind the wheel and is showing steady improvement,” Maples Motorsports Operations Manager and anchor driver Ryan Vargas told Frontstretch. “With crew chief Chris Vanscoy at the helm, he and the team hope to find themselves in the mix on a regular basis. He’s excited to enter an exciting East schedule, with Rockingham Speedway and Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway being ones he’s particularly excited about.”
Maples is the controller and operations manager at DonRay Petroleum, which has adorned Maples Motorsports’ entries.
In addition to owning MMS, Maples also pilots the No. 99 full time in the ARCA Menards Series.
This will be the second time Maples has contested both the full national division and East seasons. He also ran full time in both series in 2024, finishing seventh in the East standings and eighth in the national standings.
Maples has 12 career East starts in addition to his 42 career main series starts. He earned his lone top 10 in the main-series race at DuQuoin State Fairgrounds in 2025.
MMS will field two full-time East entries with Maples in the No. 99 and Austin Vaughn in the No. 19.
The organization has not decided on a crew chief for Vaughn, and sponsors are to be announced.
“Goals are to contend, realistically,” Vargas continued. “Despite Austin’s mechanical woes and IRP incident, he still finished P4 in the standings. We would love to be mathematically in the championship hunt and put forth a strong effort.”
Vaughn made his ARCA debut in 2024 at DuQuoin, then made six national starts, including the full East season, in 2025 split between his family-owned team and MMS. He scored his career-best finish of fifth in the East standalone race at Flat Rock Speedway.
MMS fields four full-time entries in the main series, and those four cars will participate in the four combination races featuring the main and East series.
Alongside Maples in the No. 99, Tony Cosentino pilots the No. 1 full time in the main series. After two main series races, Vargas is third in points, followed by Maples in seventh and Cosentino in 40th. The team’s fourth entry, the No. 19, is 49th in the owner point standings.
Mark Kristl joined Frontstretch at the beginning of the 2019 NASCAR season. He is the site's ARCA Menards Series editor. Kristl is also an Eagle Scout and a proud University of Dayton alum.