How much can one team take?
By Liz Allison, Turner Sports Interactive
November 14, 2001
3:52 PM EST (2052 GMT)
It is hard to believe that yet another tragedy has struck the No. 28 team owned by Robert Yates.
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Liz Allison
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Last weekend, during the Cup race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, three crewmembers of the Texaco team found themselves caught up in a pit road accident involving Ricky Rudd, Casey Atwood and Ward Burton.
John Bryan, the jackman for Rudd, was released from a local hospital in Miami Sunday with a concussion, sprained knee and bruises. He returned home Sunday evening.
Kevin Hall, the front tire carrier for the No. 28 team, was treated and released from the track infield care center on Sunday afternoon with bruises and cuts. He also returned home late Sunday.
But Bobby Burrell, the front tire changer for Rudd, was not as lucky. He sustained injuries to his head and was immediately airlifted to the intensive care unit in a Miami hospital where he is still being watched closely as he recovers from the hard fall.
This is yet another hard blow for a team that has a long list of difficult times.
Robert Yates purchased the famous No. 28 team from Harry Ranier in 1988. He had a young hard-driving, second-generation driver by the name of Davey Allison behind the wheel.
Robert and Davey meshed like most drivers and car owners could only dream of. They had a lot of success between the years of 1988 and 1993. Davey would give Robert his first win as a car owner and the two men shared many victories during that time.
Robert received a heart-wrenching call on July 12, 1993. Davey Allison had been involved in a helicopter accident and was not expected to live.
Davey died during the early morning hours of July 13. Robert had not only lost his driver, but he had lost his dear friend.
The Texaco Havoline team struggled to make it through that tough 1993 season. Plans had to be made for the future of Robert Yates Racing -- a future that now did not involve their young spirited driver, Davey Allison.
After many different fill-in drivers through the midway point of the race season, one driver stuck out as the new permanent driver for the No. 28 team. Ernie Irvan was named the driver of the coveted seat and took over the wheel late in the '93 season.
Ernie again brought spirit back to the team that so desperately needed some good times. Ernie and the Yates team seemed to be on a good roll until Ernie suffered a near fatal accident at the Michigan International Raceway in August 1994.
The team again was not sure if they would in fact lose another driver and friend.
It became quite evident that Ernie would not be back in the racecar for some time so again the Yates team found themselves looking for another driver, at least temporarily.
Dale Jarrett got behind the wheel of the No. 28 car for the 1995 season with the thought that, at some point, Ernie would return to the No. 28 and a second race team would be started for DJ.
Ernie did return to racing with Yates and even though they did make it back to Victory Lane, things were not quite right with Irvan and Yates. So it was decided that Ernie would make a move to another team, the No. 36 M&M's owned by the MB3 group.
Luck was not on Ernie's side as he suffered another very serious accident again at Michigan in a Busch series car in 1999 and only a few weeks later at Darlington he announced his early retirement. This saddened Yates for not only was Ernie his former driver but a friend as well.
Robert Yates surprised many people when he announced the signing of another young driver to take the seat of the No. 28 car, Kenny Irwin.
Kenny would drive for Robert for two seasons, 1998 and 1999. Neither Kenny nor Robert was happy with their efforts together so they agreed to go their separate ways.
Sadly Kenny Irwin would loose his life at New Hampshire International Raceway in July 2000 while driving for Felix Sabates. Ironically it was almost exactly seven years after Robert Yates lost his first driver, Davey Allison.
Again the Yates team found another driver but this time it would be veteran racer Ricky Rudd who was still looking for his first Winston Cup title. Ricky signed with Robert in 2000 to drive the No. 28, which had now become a question mark of many. The question being that maybe that No. 28 had taken on a bit of bad karma.
The Yates team desperately wanted to turn things around; and until this past weekend's incident, good luck had been showing its face at the door of the No. 28 team lately.
One can only hope that Bobby Burrell will continue to recover well from his injuries sustained from Sunday's events and that nothing but good things will happen to this team, which is long overdue for some free and easy times.
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No. 28 crew chief Michael McSwain
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This year, clinching the Winston Cup title seems to be out of the question for the Robert Yates team with Jeff Gordon's lead as it is; but do not count them out for future championships.
Championship teams are ones that overcome every obstacle and still come out on top. I cannot think of many teams that have had as many obstacles to overcome over the years. The Yates team has continued to stay competitive every year. At this point they are sitting second in Winston Cup points. This is quite an impressive feat.
I applaud these guys for their hard work and dedication to this sport. I hope that one day a championship trophy will land in their hands because they certainly deserve it.
NOTE: Liz Allison's column appears every Wednesday on NASCAR.com. To reach Liz, you can contact her at liz.allison@turner.com.
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