Year in Review: Robert Yates Racing

There's really only one way to describe Robert Yates Racing's 2003 season.

Disastrous.

ALSO  Teams: Robert Yates Racing  Drivers: Dale Jarrett  Drivers: Elliott Sadler

The powerful organization won only one race, in the season's second event, and neither Dale Jarrett nor Elliott Sadler finished in the top 20 in the final NASCAR Winston Cup points standings.

Nothing seemed to work for either driver, including crew chief swaps by both Jarrett's No. 88 team and Sadler's No. 38 team. Not since Yates expanded to two teams in 1996 had the organization suffered through such a difficult year.

"We obviously slipped in 2003 from where everyone expects us to be, and that is everyone from our sponsors, to the media and most importantly, to ourselves," Yates said.

	Shawn Parker (right) moved over to Jarrett's team in the spring, but it didn't help the No. 88 team get back to victory lane. Credit: Autostock

What went wrong? Plenty. From bad luck to broken parts to, plain and simply, poor performance, Robert Yates Racing didn't have a Robert Yates Racing-type season.

The year started innocently enough, as Jarrett, with new crew chief Brad Parrott, won at Rockingham. The 88 team moved up to second in the points standings, and all seemed well.

Meanwhile, Sadler and his team, led by crew chief Raymond Fox and car chief Shawn Parker, started the season with five top-10 finishes in the first nine races. And he won a pole at Darlington and had the dominant car at Texas before a tire cut down.

That seemed to be a theme for Sadler's team all season. He led laps in the Coca-Cola 600 and the EA Sports 500 but finished neither because of accidents. The wreck at the second Talladega event started an unfortunate string of three consecutive races where Sadler crashed out through no fault of his own.

There were some bright spots for Sadler: the pole at Darlington, another pole at Talladega, the run at Texas, leading 35 laps and a top-10 finish at Pocono -- and solid qualifying efforts all season. Sadler started on the front row four times and started inside the top 10 in nearly half the races.

The speed was there; the luck and consistency wasn't. In May, Yates moved Parker to Jarrett's team to take over as crew chief, and Sadler didn't have a top-five finish the rest of the season. In August, veteran Todd Parrott replaced Fox as Sadler's crew chief, but the luck didn't change.

	Sadler, Jarrett at Charlotte in May Credit: Autostock

Sadler ended the season 22nd in points, with two poles, two top-five and nine top-10 finishes. But he also had nine DNFs, the same amount as Jarrett.

"It's been hard, probably the hardest stuff I've ever been through in a race car as far as mentally is concerned," Sadler said late in the season. "It's not that we're wrecking ourselves every week, it's just stupid stuff happening, we're getting into other people's situations, and it's just been hard.

"To drive for Robert and Carolyn Yates, and as supportive as they have been to me, has been amazing. I can't ask to be in a better situation than that. Yes, it's been hard, but the guys are really bearing behind me to try to help me get through it."

The nine DNFs set an unfortunate record at Robert Yates Racing. No driver ever had that many in the 15 years Yates has been fielding cars. Last year, by comparison, Jarrett and Ricky Rudd combined for nine DNFs.

Jarrett's first sign of trouble, and his first DNF, came at Las Vegas, where he was hit by Steve Park and crashed out of the race (Sadler, too, did not finish).

Ford to lead Jarrett's team  Dale Jarrett will have another new crew chief, with Mike Ford coming over from Evernham Motorsports to replace Shawn Parker.  Full Story

By the time Texas rolled around, Jarrett had finished on the lead lap only once, the victory at Rockingham. By Martinsville, the Brad Parrott experiment was over. Todd Parrott, Brad's older brother, took a leave of absence from the team, too.

In the interim, engineer Garth Finley was crew chief, but that didn't work, either. Parker got the job in early May, but the fortunes didn't change.

A particularly unfortunate string happened in late April and early May. Jarrett crashed at California, starting a streak of races where he didn't finish five times in seven events.

There was another crash at Richmond, a blown engine at Dover, a fiery wreck at Pocono and a broken transmission at Sonoma. Jarrett had fallen all the way to 29th in the points.

At 10th-place finish helped arrest the fall, and then Jarrett had three more top-10s - all seventh-place finishes - in the next seven races. But then came a crash at New Hampshire and perhaps the worst luck of all. He led 25 laps at Kansas Speedway before blowing an engine with four laps to go.

The season, mercifully, ended with a 26th-place finish at Homestead.

The guys have worked hard, and there hasn't been a lack of effort," Jarrett said. "It just feels good to finally get this season over."

Mike Ford comes overt from Bill Elliott's team to take over as Jarrett's crew chief, and Barry Swift returns to the team as shop foreman.

Will it help? Can it be any worse?