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February 12, 2007
King Of The Mountain; Robert Yates
By Mark Young
What a weekend!! It was great to actually have racing action to write and talk about as opposed to contract talks, fuel cells, and tires. The Bud Shootout was a great race though the finish left a bit to be desired. I give props to Junior for admitting he caused the wreck. I thought about making Tony Stewart King Of The Mountain based upon his dominant performance on Saturday but after qualifying was said and done I just had to change my mind and put Robert Yates on the throne.
Robert Yates racing may soon be considered as the Phoenix of NASCAR, coming up from the ashes of near destruction. Both of his cars are on the front row for the season opening Daytona 500, a pretty awesome feat to have one car on the front row but he has both of them!! Six months ago there were rumors flying about the Yates was going to sell his team, join forces with another team, and just plain quit the sport. Then some things fell into place that gave a glimmer of hope. Todd Parrott left Petty Enterprises to come back home to RYR and became David Gilliland's crew chief. Then Robert announced that Ricky Rudd would return from his hiatus to pilot the #88 Ford in 2007, and finally Mars announced they would sponsor both RYR cars. Pre-season testing came and went and we saw both RYR cars near the top of the speed charts. Were they the real deal or was this just a fluke? Daytona practice this weekend showed BOTH RYR cars on top and now people were really paying attention to what was happening. Then Saturday night we watched Gilliland finish second in the Bud Shootout and a lot of the skeptics started nodding in agreement, RYR is back.
I realize that this is just a small part of the entire Daytona 500 and the 2007 season as well but to have both cars on the front row for the biggest race of the year has got to be the best medicine you could get for a struggling organization with a strong history. So cheers to you Robert and all of your RYR Organization, enjoy your week on top of the mountain.
February 12, 2007 | Permalink
Comments
I'm glad for RYR to be having two cars on the front row at Daytona, but as you said ultimately it doesn't mean much. Even their finishes at Daytona don't mean a lot (unless of course they win), because Daytona is a plate track and it is no indicator of a team's success over the season. Scott Wimmer finished third at Daytona and never had another top ten.
But I'm with you Mark, I'm pulling for RYR too.
Posted by: Kurt Smith | Feb 12, 2007 9:28:39 AM
It's great to see the success that Yates has enjoyed, to this point, at Daytona. But, everyone expects Robert's cars to be fast at the restrictor plate races. A better indication of how the team will do the rest of the season is the test at Vegas. I believe they were both fast, at that test. And, the intermediate tracks are where RYR struggled, last season.
Posted by: Dave | Feb 12, 2007 10:52:09 AM
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