Remembering Robert Yates

We remember Robert Yates, master engine builder and team owner -

1969 Grand National recap with American 500

1971 Yankee 400, MRN call

One of nine children to Reverend John Clyde Yates, Robert raced dragsters out of the Charlotte, NC area as a youth in the 1950s, graduated from Wilson Technical College with a degree in mechanical engineering.  He began working with Holman-Moody Racing and by the latter 1960s he was part of a two-time championship organization.  

In 1971 Bobby Allison joined the team, bringing much-needed Coca-Cola sponsorship with him.   The Holman-Moody team erupted that year with Yates horsepower.

A brawl between owners John Holman and Ralph Moody tore apart their team at the end of 1971.   For 1972 Bobby Allison was asked by Junior Johnson, his race team now under ownership of Charlotte Motor Speedway president Richard Howard, to bring his Coca-Cola sponsorship to the new Chevrolet team, and former Holman-Moody engine builder Yates was hired as well.   The result was one of the most spectacular performances in NASCAR history as Allison erupted to ten wins and over 4,300 laps led.

The highlight of Allison and Yates' 1972 season was the Southern 500 and a spirited fight with David Pearson

Cale Yarborough took over the Junior Johnson Chevy in 1973 and won back-to-back Southern 500s, part of seventeen wins for Cale in the 1973-75 period

Yates was Junior's engine builder until 1976.   In August of that year he was hired by a team in its fourth season of existence - DiGard Racing.   After DiGard opened a new shop in Charlotte- having spent its first four seasons based in Daytona Beach near the speedway - the team with Darrell Waltrip as driver and a lucrative sponsorship from Gatorade - success began to arrive.   The 1977 Winston 500 was one of the first explosive triumphs for the DiGard team.  

Waltrip won twice with DiGard before the team hired Robert Yates, but from Yates' hiring as engine builder Waltrip erupted to twenty-four wins and a bitterly close 1979 championship bid.   The most celebrated win of that season was his Rebel 500 shootout win.

Waltrip got into a bitter contract fight with DiGard and left after 1980, and after a winless 1981 with Ricky Rudd the team signed Bobby Allison, who exploded to win the Daytona 500 in his first start in the Gatorade 88.   Allison had a marvelous 1982 season with eight wins, including Pocono's wildly fought Mountain Dew 500.  

Six more wins and the title followed in 1983 - but it was the beginning of the end for DiGard.   "If there is such a thing as excess money, we had it," Yates once said.   The team won twice in 1984 and just once in 1985.

Robert Yates engines did win two more races in 1984, with the slapped-together Curb Motorsports team, which was supposed to be amalgamated into Rahmoc Racing, a deal that fell apart at the last hour.   Yates supplied the engines for the Curb Motorsports team but on the morning of the 1984 Firecracker DiGard tried to seize the engine the team had in a fight over payments; Richard Petty paid Yates for the engine and wound up edging Cale Yarborough for the win, his 200th.

Yates left DiGard in 1986 and was hired by Harry Ranier's #28 team for 1987; Lorin Ranier lobbied for rookie driver Davey Allison, a driver Yates initially didn't want.   Allison was nonetheless signed and erupted to four victories in his first two seasons.   Late in 1988 Yates purchased the Ranier team and became a full-fledged team owner, and his first win was the 1989 Winston 500.

Despite success the Yates team went through several crew chiefs, including Yates' old Holman-Moody teammate Jake Elder, seen here in the 1990 Summer 500 at Pocono

By 1991 Yates and Allison had won eight times together, but it wasn't until Larry McReynolds quit Kenny Bernstein's team and was hired by Yates that the combination began storming to another level, shown in 1991's eye-popping Michigan 400 shootout.   Their 1992 became their most famous and most heartbreaking, but it only got worse - Davey was killed in 1993,a tragedy that nearly ended the team; everyone pulled themselves together and by September that year Yates and Ford succeeded in picking up former Chevrolet driver Ernie Irvan.

Irvan erupted to win five times in 1993-94 with Yates' #28, but a near-fatal crash at Michigan derailed their season and Irvan would not return for over a year.

Dale Jarrett subbed for Irvan in 1995 and rather than let him go, Yates formed a second car for Jarrett, and with it Jarrett seized control of the team, winning some twenty-five times and the 1999 title.    Irvan left after the 1997 season and one final win - ironically at Michigan.   The Yates team then wasted two seasons with Kenny Irwin in their #28 before signing Ricky Rudd for a three-season span and three wins.

But the sport's economics would no longer work for the team as the decade from 2000 onward went, and declining competitiveness made crashes hurt worse, such as Elliott Sadler's Talladega flip.   The sad part is Sadler broke through with two wins in 2004.

By the end of 2008 the end of Robert Yates Racing was looming, one of several teams either erased or forced into marriage with other organizations.   Doug Yates, Robert's son, merged the engine shop into Roush Racing's organization and Robert had retired.  

So has ended the story of perhaps the most gifted engine builder racing has seen, and the legacy is one Yates and racing can be proud of.