Tommy Baldwin will now oversee racing operations at Bill Davis Racing. Credit: Autostock

Baldwin: Making move to Yates was a mistake

Promise of team ownership fell through, opinions differed

SPEEDWAY, Ind. -- In hindsight, Tommy Baldwin admits to making a poor business decision by leaving Evernham Motorsports for Robert Yates Racing. He appreciated and admired Ray Evernham's leadership practice; loved his driver and crew.

	Tommy Baldwin served as Elliott Sadler's crew chief for the first 20 races of 2006. Credit: Autostock
	CH, CH, CH, CH, CHANGES Robert Yates Racing told its organization on Monday that its two Nextel Cup crew chiefs, Tommy Baldwin and Slugger Labbe, would no longer be with the team.  •   Complete story, click here •   Snider:  RYR still cleaning house, but is it all good?

But opportunity only knocks so many times in this life. And dream opportunities, well, they might only knock once. This seemed one such proposition for Baldwin.

RYR, Baldwin said Friday, lured him away from Evernham by offering part ownership of a third Nextel Cup Series team, one that obviously failed to materialize.

An RYR team representative said Friday the announcement of Baldwin's ownership stake was to be made during the 2005 season's final weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but the deal fell through late and the announcement canceled.

"I don't like to look back, but I probably made a real bad business decision leaving Evernham's," Baldwin said. "I had no problems with the way Ray ran his business, how he had the structure going.

"The real reason I left was I was offered to be part-owner of a third Cup team with the Yates organization. It just ended up being a poor business decision on my part, but you'll have that in big-time business and auto racing.

"That's the main reason I left, but things just didn't work out. When I got there things changed."

So when the opportunity arose to oversee all competition-related decisions at Bill Davis Racing, Baldwin was intrigued.

He approached RYR co-owner Doug Yates to inquire whether such an opportunity might be available at RYR, but said Yates was unable to commit.

"With all the change and all the stuff they had going on, not knowing what direction they were going, [Doug Yates] basically said, 'Hey, don't miss that opportunity if you've still got it. I don't know what we've got going on here. I haven't made up my mind, but I don't want to see you in three or four months unhappy or not being able to do the position,'" Baldwin said.

"That's all it was. So I said, 'OK, that's all great.' We shook hands and I told him I appreciated his honesty and decided to take this. That's all it was."

Baldwin said his departure had nothing to do with the fact that drivers Dale Jarrett and Elliott Sadler were leaving after the season, and even said he expects the new driving corps -- which wasn't specified but is expected to be comprised of Stephen Leicht and David Gilliland -- to be impressive.

He was also quite complimentary of Yates' staff, but questioned whether the collective intelligence was properly focused.

"There are so many smart people over there at the Yates organization it's scary, and it's all about utilizing them. None of the people are getting utilized the correct way right now -- not saying that's not going to happen in the future," Baldwin said.

"Robert has a totally different view on the business, how it should be run, than I do. That's a big reason I decided to move on. I can't say nothing bad about it. His name's on the building and he's been successful his whole life. That's his prerogative. We just had different views."

Baldwin's view on RYR is simple: start over.

"I think in order for them to get better they have to get all the way down to the bottom and start over, and I think that's what their thinking is," he said. "Sometimes you have to do that -- in any business.

"You have big companies all over the world having to do this. They have a lot of good sponsors, a lot of good people backing them. They're going to get back to being good, it's just all about timing."

Baldwin's new endeavor is to reinvigorate BDR. In four years (1999-2002) as crew chief, Baldwin led the No. 22 to four victories -- including the 2002 Daytona 500.

Now in the team management role, he'll oversee every aspect of competition, including driver development. He said BDR plans to test some young drivers in the next couple months.

Baldwin also confirmed that Dave Blaney will drive one of the two BDR entries in 2007, and said an announcement should come soon regarding the other seat.

And he hasn't completely ruled out crew chiefing again.

"If a team needs a crew chief and I feel the structure's strong enough, who knows? I might be able to do that. I'd never say never on anything like that," he said.

"But this role I'm going to enjoy because it's broader and I get to do a lot more business stuff and development stuff, a lot more things I enjoy doing. I don't like to concentrate just on one thing. I like to do a lot. It's the perfect match for me right now."