Versatile race car driver Max McLaughlin made a name for himself over a ten year career of competing in anything and everything at a high level.
In 2024, he spent the year racing for G.R. Smith’s World Of Outlaws Late Model team and experienced success, winning once, taking down five top-five finishes, ten top-ten finishes, and finished 11th in Series points despite missing three of  sHe also ran the Dirt Modified for his former full-time car owner Al Heinke twice last year, once at Weedsport, N.Y. where he finished fourth and at Super DIRT Week in Oswego, NY where he finished sixth.
“I have been fortunate to have been able to win races with pretty much everything I have ever raced,” McLaughlin relexed by phone last week.
“Won in a Supermodified at Oswego, won with the World Of Outlaws Late Models, won Super   Series races with a Dirt Modified. It has been very cool to have been able to win with so many different cars,” McLaughlin reflected.
In the 2024-2025 off-season, though, McLaughlin, now 25 and living in Charlotte, NC, has become an owner of two drastically different, wholly non-racing related businesses.
“I started an IV hydration company, called  sIVMeNow. The operation is overseen by a doctor and a group of nurses. The markets we serve mainly are athletes and those who work outdoors who, by their activity, become dehydrated. We deliver and administer the help they need to get them back on their feet,” McLaughlin explained.
“Football players, NASCAR drivers, NBA players are all among those we help. It’s pretty cool really, helping some high profile sports people stay healthy. It’s mobile hydration at your door step.”
McLaughlin brings to the business some first hand knowledge of hydration needs through his racing experiences.
“I have several friends who are athletes and they preached pretty hard that maintaining proper hydration is one of the most important parts of sports. I personally remember from the NASCAR racing I did that fatigue is real. I was losing a couple of pounds of water weight every race,” he added.
“I did a lot of research on the science of hydration, and came to believe that starting a company was something I could do to make a living outside of racing. There is a b   sig market for the service our company, IVMeNow, provides.”
McLaughlin described his role in IVMeNow.
“I run the day-to-day side, do the marketing stuff. I dispatch the nurses to the customers, communicate with the doctor. There are things we can do, and a few things we can’t do. A lot goes into this, it’s a very hectic and detail-oriented business.”
McLaughlin noted that sports clients, while an important facet of the customer base, are not the only clients IVMeNow serves.
Among the many needs the company can remedy . . . Pick-me-ups for party-goers who wake up with hangovers, those experiencing jet lag, and those afflicted with chronic illnesses.
“I had read about this type of business, saw a market for it, did a lot of research, took a couple of months to figure out how it all could work, and went for it,” McLaughlin shared.
“There is quite an initial capital investment, mainly in the marketing program as well as vitamins and medical products. None of it is cheap by any means. I had been able to make a living racing for a few years, and I had been pretty smart about managing money. Invested it in the company and it’s starting to pay off.”
McLaughlin has also become involved with real estate, specifically buying, refurbishing, and selling with added value for a profit, a process known as “flipping”.
His desire to succeed with two separate businesses he had no real background in became necessary as he contemplated not racing at all in 2025 for the first time since he first climbed into a race car seat as a teenager. He described the developments that led to him being without a ride as the 2025 season loomed.
“I had a great opportunity last year with GR Smith to run his cars in the World Of Outlaws Late Model Series. I went for another deal in the off-season which I thought was going to be a great opportunity. They had hired good people, then at the last minute, the sponsor didn’t come through and they (Niece Motorsports) had to shut the team down,” said McLaughlin.
Reflecting back on the 2024 year season, McLaughlin admitted that when he and Smith teamed up, each knew it might be for only one year. Smith, in fact, did go with another driver (Drake Troutman) while McLaughlin put together his ill-fated arrangement with Niece.
Though committed and invested in two non-racing enterprises, McLaughlin admitted that racing is something he will be returning to, perhaps sooner rather than later.
McLaughlin said he and Niece Motorsports will most likely resume a partial Super Late Model racing schedule beginning as early as July. McLaughlin had run for Niece once at the end of 2024.
Beyond the limited starts with to come with Niece in mid-summer, McLaughlin recently tested a Dirt Late Model he, his father, and Mike Sweet had built for Ohsweken Speedway owner and promoter Glenn Styres.
“We all built it, I set it up, Glenn got in the car for the first time and wound up winning a race with it at Ohsweken,” McLaughlin said.
“That got the racing bug back for me again. I definitely do miss it. What I want to do is build my own program to be be able to come back.”
The experience with Styres strengthened the existing bond McLaughlin and Styres had.
“Glenn had helped me out with my tire bill toward the end of last year with the Modified. He and I have forged a good relationship, though I haven’t actually raced for him. It was great to be involved building him a race car and seeing him win with it the first time out,” McLaughlin informed.
McLaughlin’s situation as the owner and operator of a pair of start-up businesses, plus his work with Styres working on and fixing his race cars has left “Mad Max” feeling ill at ease.
“Racing is what I wanted ever since I was a kid, and right now, it feels weird being away from it. I’ve had to work pretty hard getting two businesses on their feet. Hopefully I can bring somebody into what we are doing and go back racing some time. This is a sport that takes a lot of money to do. At the end of the day somebody has to pay for that. This is a money-driven sport,” he reflected.
“Al Heinke has been a huge supporter of mine. I wouldn’t be where I am right now, in racing and in business, were it not for him. Very thankful for having been with his team and hope he continues to have success. Al has helped me with the Late Model, has actually helped me for the past ten years of my racing career,” McLaughlin said.
“The sport needs people like him.”
Though McLaughlin has actively sought at times in his racing career to court pavement racing series racing, he admits at this point that he’s all in on dirt.
“I love the dirt, always have. Have always had an interest in setting up dirt cars. Love the Dirt Late Models, also have a passion for Sprint Cars,” McLaughlin revealed.
“Don’t really care at this point, just want to get back in a car, and I will, when the time is right.”
In the meantime, IVMeNow is hitting all the right veins and McLaughlin’s house flipping company is ringing all the right door bells.