Good things finally happening for Yates

Mike Harris

Thursday, Nov. 18, 1999 | 9:44 a.m.

HAMPTON, Ga. - Robert Yates had second thoughts about becoming a NASCAR team owner almost from the day Davey Allison talked him into it.

"There have been a lot of times when I wished I hadn't done it," said Yates, who in 1989 bought Harry Ranier's team, which included driver Allison. "There have been good times, but there have been some real sad ones, too."

The grief came after Allison's death in a helicopter crash in 1993, and replacement Ernie Irvan's near-fatal crash the next season.

"After both of those, I didn't know how I was going to go on," Yates said.

But his perseverance paid off. He now has his first Winston Cup championship, courtesy of Dale Jarrett, who won the title last Sunday by finishing fifth at the Pennzoil 400 in Homestead, Fla.

Jarrett came aboard in 1995 as little more than a journeyman doing a one-year stint while Irvan healed. Jarrett wanted his own team but couldn't get it started. So, when Robert Yates Racing expanded to a two-car operation in 1996, Jarrett stayed on.

For Yates, one of the great engine builders of the last two decades before buying the team he worked for, second thoughts gave way to second guessing. Jarrett had just one win in 1995. Allison and Irvan had won repeatedly in the same car.

"A lot of people couldn't figure out why I hired Dale," Yates said. "They said he wasn't good enough to take over the No. 28 for Davey and Ernie."

Although Jarrett won the pole in his first drive for Yates, 1995 didn't go well.

Fans of the No. 28, driven by many Hall of Famers throughout the years, were incensed over Jarrett's performance. They booed him during a parade that May in Charlotte, N.C.

"That, I guess, was the low point," Jarrett said. "There were a lot of people that thought Robert should have gotten somebody else."

"They wanted Davey and Ernie."

Yates could understand that, and Jarrett's reaction to failure in one of sport's best cars. Jarrett had just 14 top-10 finishes in 31 races in 1995, and wound up 13th in the points.

"It was probably a little hard for Dale to believe he couldn't get in that car and do some of the things he had seen Davey and Ernie do," Yates said.

But he takes the blame, saying the team fell behind on technology. He said Jarrett, sensing the disastrous season was not entirely his fault, wanted changes.

"Dale was pushing for different chassis stuff and there were some times we struggled, when I got yelled at," Yates said. "The car just wasn't good.

"But I don't think there was ever a day when I lost confidence in Dale Jarrett."

That turned out to be a good decision in 1996, when Jarrett moved to the newly formed No. 88 team after the return of Irvan. Yates took a gamble, giving Jarrett crew chief Todd Parrott.

Astoundingly, a second-string driver with a rookie calling the shots in the pits won the stock car racing's crown jewel - the Daytona 500 - the first time out of the garage.

"Robert believed in me, in this team," said Jarrett, whose father, Ned, won two NASCAR titles. "He put me with Todd Parrott, a new crew chief, and a whole new team and let us grow together. I'm glad we could give this gift to him."

For Yates, this has been a nerve-racking year, even with four victories, 23 top-fives and 28 top-10s in 33 starts entering Sunday's season-ending NAPA AutoCare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Jarrett, who had finished third, second and third in points his three previous seasons in the No. 88 car, started 1999 as one of the favorites to win the title.

He took the lead for good on May 11, in the 11th of 34 races this season, and turned it into a virtual runaway by August.

Still, Yates agonized.

"I haven't slept through many nights," he said. "You would think after 30 years it would be just a normal business and you could eat before a race. Before my very first race at Darlington in 1967, I was a nervous wreck, and nothing much has changed.

"There were times this year when I wished somebody would knock me out and not wake me until we won the championship."

Now, he is able to relax and enjoy the success.

"Except for being president of the United States, I guess this has got to be second best," Parrott said after Jarrett wrapped up the title.

"Actually, I think this is better," Yates said.