No. 88 team cancels tests at Indianapolis

Both of Robert Yates Racing's teams showed up at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for testing later this week.

	Dale Jarrett

But only one of them will actually run at Indy on Tuesday and Wednesday. Dale Jarrett's No. 88 team packed up and went back home to North Carolina on Monday.

"Our game plan was to come here on Monday and set up so we could get prepared to have two good days of testing here," general manager Doug Yates said. "It's such a big race, and we feel there's a lot of things that maybe we can learn here that will help our program in other places.

"We decided, in light of how the 88 team ran yesterday, that we're gonna send those guys home and re-group. Maybe some things we learn here with the 38 will apply and they can come back next week and test."

Jarrett finished a disappointing 30th in the Tropicana 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. He was never a factor all race and ended up three laps down.

Sadler will stay and test the No. 38 this week, and RYR could bring Jarrett and the No. 88 team to Indy next week.

The car Jarrett used at Chicago was a new Ronnie Hopkins chassis, and the team planned to test it at Indy, too. But since he ran so poorly, Yates said there was "no reason to unload the car" at Indy.

Sunday's race at Chicago was the latest in a series of poor runs for Jarrett. The 1999 Winston Cup champion has finished 20th or worse 11 times this season and stands 29th in the points standings.

"It was probably our worst day of the year," Yates said of Chicago. "It feels like we're trying to start over with a new race team halfway through the season, and that's not an easy task with the way the competition is these days. ... I was actually just talking to Dale on the phone, and I think he's got some good ideas.

DALE JARRETT  •  Driver Page  •  2003 Stats  •  Driver vs. Driver

"We're not giving up by any means. We know we've got a Winston Cup champion as a driver and we've got a bunch of good guys on our race team. Right now, we're just missing something."

Rumors surfaced in Chicago about Jarrett's status with RYR, but Yates said he wants Jarrett to "finish out his career in that car." The team is working on a contract extension for Jarrett, whom Yates said is signed through next year. Sponsor UPS is signed through 2006.

"It's embarrassing to us and Ford and UPS, and that's really the biggest thing," Yates said. "We're gonna have good and bad days, but UPS is a great sponsor, and we're letting them down right now. That's what we've got to do a better job of and that's a lot of our responsibility. The big brown truck doesn't need to run in the back."