Yates one of NASCAR's truly good guys

By DAVID GREEN

It did my heart good to get the press release from Ford, announcing the renewal of the car company's support of Robert Yates Racing. There are plenty of really good folks in racing, and Robert Yates is surely among the best of them.

The new agreement scotches rumors that the Yates team might be switching to another manufacturer or even fading from the scene. Times have been hard the last couple of years for RYR, in terms of competitiveness and stability. But Yates and his team have enjoyed much better -- and endured worse.

The team was founded by Harry Ranier many years ago, with a Ranier-owned entry showing up back in the 1960s. About a decade after that, Ranier became a full-time team owner and his was solidly established among NASCAR's elite entries long before Yates became owner of it. That was after the 1988 season, the second for rising star Davey Allison as driver of the Texaco Havoline-sponsored No. 28.

In its third season, 1991, the Yates team moved into championship contender status. Allison won five races and finished third in the Winston Cup points standings. They opened 1992 with a Daytona 500 victory. But after that, a rollercoaster ride of bizarre proportions was about to begin for the driver and his team.

Allison battled through a series of serious injuries that, amazingly, did not keep him out of competition. Before the physical wounds were healed, Allison had the emotional trauma of the death of his brother, Clifford, in a crash during Busch Series practice at Michigan. At the end of the season, Allison went into the final race as the points leader, only to be caught up in a crash that relegated him to a third-place finish, again, in driver points.

The next season brought more tragedy, as Allison was fatally injured when his helicopter crashed in the infield of Talladega Superspeedway in July, after the 16th race of the season. The grief-stricken Yates skipped one race before returning to action, with Lake Speed as interim driver, and then Ernie Irvan came on board to take Allison's ride.

About one year later, Irvan was leading in driver points when he suffered near-fatal injuries in a crash at Michigan. For the second season in a row, Yates found himself in the worst possible dilemma for a racecar owner. Once again, he decided to stay the course and remain active in the sport he loves.

Irvan would recover and return to driving after more than a year out of action, winning two races in 1996 and another in 1997. Yates, who had hired Dale Jarrett at the beginning of the 1995 season, added a second team and installed Jarrett in the new car, the No. 88, as Irvan resumed his duties in the black No. 28.

After 2002, the long-running Texaco Havoline sponsorship ended and the famous No. 28 was retired. Yates changed the number to 38 as Elliott Sadler came on board with a new sponsor, M&Ms. More changes were in store in 2004, as the highly regarded Yates engine shop was united with the facilities of Roush Racing.

Jarrett thrived in the No. 88, winning two Daytona 500s and two Brickyard 400s and, in 1999, giving Yates a long-awaited Cup championship title. He remained with Yates until the end of last season, before moving to the Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota team. Sadler, who won twice in 2004, left the team at mid-season last year to join Evernham Racing and Yates tabbed rookie David Gilliland to replace him.

Yates opened the 2007 season with Gilliland joined by veteran Ricky Rudd, who returned from a year's absence from racing to the Yates team, where he was a driver for three seasons (2000-2002). The team swept the front-row spots in qualifying for the Daytona 500, with Gilliland winning the pole, but so far they have not snapped the winless streak that stretches from October 2005, when Jarrett won at Talladega.

Here's hoping the winless streak ends soon, just as speculation about the fate of the Yates team has been stifled by yesterday's announcement from Ford. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy.