 | | General manager Eddie D'Hondt is following Dale Jarrett out the RYR door, although not by choice. Credit: Autostock |
By David Newton, NASCAR.COM
May 23, 2006
06:19 PM EDT (22:19 GMT)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- General manager Eddie D'Hondt on Tuesday became the first casualty in the restructuring of struggling Robert Yates Racing to make the Yates family more involved. D'Hondt's release came less than two weeks after veteran driver Dale Jarrett announced he would leave RYR after this season to join the new Toyota Nextel Cup team owned by Michael Waltrip. It came with speculation that Yates might also lose Jarrett's primary sponsor, UPS, to Waltrip. "As Robert [Yates] pointed out, right now he doesn't need a general manager,'' D'Hondt said. "He needs a sponsor and the people to make the cars run better.'' RYR is winless in the first 11 races this season and had only one win last season, a victory by Jarrett at Talladega. The organization that made Jarrett the 1999 Cup champion has only four victories since 2003. Jarrett is 12th in points this season and teammate Elliott Sadler is 15th. Sadler hasn't won since California in September of 2004. Neither driver made the Chase a year ago. "This is a performance-based business and we have to evaluate the performance of where our cars are now,'' Yates said. "That begins with understanding our cars.'' D'Hondt said he has no bitter feelings toward Yates or the organization that he joined in March of 2003. "We just haven't met our performance objectives,'' he said. "Part of my job is to bring in people that can get the job done and get our cars winning races. We just didn't do that. We have been struggling, and changes had to be made.  |  | | Elliott Sadler will be pulling more double duty for RYR. Credit: Autostock |
| |  | SADLER TO 90 CAR | MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- As part of the reorganization at Robert Yates Racing, Elliott Sadler will move back into Yates Racing's No. 90 Ford entry in the Busch Series, beginning with Saturday's Carquest Auto Parts 300 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
Several weeks ago, the team announced Sadler would concentrate on his No. 38 Nextel Cup car, but the Yates family, looking at the bigger picture, decided the Busch program needed Sadler's continued hands-on input.
Although Sadler's renewed schedule has yet to be determined, Yates -- who a spokesperson said remains committed to development drivers Stephen Leicht and Matt McCall -- canceled Leicht's entry for Lowe's and replaced McCall with Sadler.
Both drivers will be chosen to compete in select Busch races this season.
Jerry Pitts will assume crew chief duties for the No. 90, replacing Raymond Fox III. Pitts most recently served as crew chief for Leicht and McCall in the ARCA Series.
The No. 90 car is currently 28th in the Busch owner standings, with one top-10 finish in 12 starts.
-- Team Release
|
|
"I guess the first change was to be with me.'' D'Hondt admitted the team has fallen behind in areas such as engineering. "I brought the people there that I thought would help us turn it around,'' he said. "I still feel like they're very good. It just goes to show the things we do are extremely hard and everything has to be exactly right. I don't know that we had everything right.'' D'Hondt added that Jarrett's departure, the uncertainty of UPS and the four-race suspension of Jarrett's crew chief, Slugger Labbe, served as distractions that made chemistry a problem. "Anytime you have that much change or potential for change, it definitely disrupts the team,'' D'Hondt said. Yates said the formula he used to produce 53 of his 57 wins from 1989-2002 simply wasn't working. "We stayed small and didn't grow as fast as the technology in the sport has grown,'' he said. "What worked five years ago doesn't work now. Our goal is to figure out a technical direction and find the right people to lead that direction. "This isn't a quick fix and it is going to be a process for us.'' Yates' son and RYR's head engine builder, Doug, said the release of D'Hondt is part of a process in which the family will take a more aggressive role in running the organization. One of the family's first moves was to move Raymond Fox III from the Busch operation to the Nextel Cup shop to work with Sadler's team and seve as a liaison between the Busch and Cup teams. |  | | Doug Yates Credit: Autostock |
|
"Raymond is very key to our organization," Doug said. "The Busch program is important to us, but we need his help elsewhere in the company and right now that is at the Cup shop where he's worked since we started this organization. "Eddie did a good job for us. But this is our company and Robert and I have decided we need to get our arms around our company. We're not happy with where we're at as a race team. We need to reassert key people, including ourselves." D'Hondt is confident the organization will rebound. If not, he expects more changes. "If they continue to run poorly, then UPS doesn't stay on board, I imagine so,'' he said. "Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe UPS seeing they're willing to make wholesale changes to make things better, that's what they're looking for.'' | 
