Something Isn't Right.

By Mark Young

Yesterday Elliott Sadler announced that he would be leaving his #38 Robert Yates Racing ride at the end of the year.  This follows Dale Jarrett's earlier announcement that he would be leaving RYR to drive a Toyota next year for Michael Waltrip in 2007.  To me this is one of the biggest travesties in the history of NASCAR outside of the drivers who have perished while driving a stock car.

Robert Yates has been a mainstay in NASCAR for around twenty years and has quite a history within the sport.  He has had great drivers behind the wheel of his race cars, Davie Allison, Ernie Irvan, Ricky Rudd, Dale Jarrett, and Elliott Sadler who have all won races at stock car racing's highest level.  Now in a matter of a month or two the future of his organization is in a hole so deep that they can't see the light.

Something must be terribly wrong within the organization for both drivers to leave in the same year.  Granted the performance coming out of the Yates stables is far from stellar but he has been working feverishly to regain the competitive edge he once had.  There was a time where every competitor feared the Yates cars as they had the most powerful engines in the series under their hood.  But Jack Roush weaseled his way into that situation and what advantage Yates' teams held over the field had been neutralized.  This "cooperative" was processed under the smiling faces of the Ford people in Detroit as they knew it would help get the blue ovals into victory lane but I don't think any of them had a single ounce of concern as to what this would do to Yates' teams.

He must have been doing something right to keep his primary sponsors as long as he has.  Granted the drivers who represent his team and those sponsors do a great job representing their products, but in today's economic climate of racing where some cars feature up to four different primary sponsors during the year Yates was able to do his deal with the three same companies on the hood.

I am deeply sickened by the turn of events Yates is facing as many teams align themselves for 2007.  Whether these events are directly or indirectly pointed at Robert something is terribly wrong with this picture.  Robert is in the back of the crowd on Halloween night holding an empty sack while everyone else has theirs filled with treats.  Can Robert manage to recover from this and sign at least one quality driver and primary sponsor for next year?  This is one NASCAR racing fan that hopes he does and can turn this thing around.