Robert Yates built the engines for the cars that won so many NASCAR races and sat on the pole for so many prestigious events, and his employees built and serviced the cars that won so many times. Through it all, Yates, the son of a preacher, was just as honest and humble as the day he started his career as an unknown, doing nothing more mentally challenging than sweeping the floors at Holman-Moody.
What must have been going on in that mind during those early days?
RELATED: Yates dies at 74 | Drivers offer warm memories
Yates finally found a foe he couldn’t outrun, liver cancer, and his passing Oct. 2 leaves a void in the NASCAR universe. He was 74.
He hadn’t really been around much since he handed the reins of Robert Yates Racing over to his son, Doug, at the end of 2007. But anytime the subject of horsepower came up during conversations at the track, Yates’ name was at the top of the list. That’s as true today as it was when he stepped away a decade ago.
The folks he worked with — and each and every time he gave them nothing less than 100 percent of his talent and ability and focus — good grief, where to start? David Pearson? Bobby Allison? Fireball Roberts and Fred Lorenzen and Richard Petty?
Pearson’s championships with Holman Moody in ’68 and ’69 were powered by Yates’ engines. Allison’s ’83 title got the Yates treatment, too. Petty’s final two victories in a 200-win career? Powered by Yates.
Daytona 500s? How many times did his engines, or his cars, sit on the front row? How many times did those same cars wind up in Victory Lane?
As an owner, well, he was pretty successful there, too. Five drivers won 57 races and one, Dale Jarrett, drove off with the championship in what is now the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
Ernie Irvan, Ricky Rudd and Elliott Sadler won with Yates and perhaps most memorable of all was Davey Allison, winning at Daytona and Talladega and Charlotte and elsewhere with Yates and crew chief Larry McReynolds and crew. The No. 28 Havoline Ford fielded by Yates remains one of NASCAR’s most memorable entries. Those were magical times.
Yates was successful, hard-working and talented, but more than that, he was honest and friendly and willing to help anyone who needed a hand. He was genuine and, yes, conversations with Yates could be lengthy and range across a wide field of subjects, but one never came away from an interview with the car owner feeling underserved.
PHOTOS: The racing life of Robert Yates
There has been much change in NASCAR in recent years, but change has always been a part of NASCAR. From its very beginning, drivers, owners, teams, sponsors and even tracks had a limited shelf life. They come and they go in the sport and the sport continues on.
Yates was a special person who came along during a special time in the sport, one that’s cherished by many long-time fans and looked back on fondly by those who experienced the phenomenal growth.
In January of 2018, Yates will be one of five new members inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
“I picked the best 40 years for me,” Yates said of his career just moments after his name was announced in May.
“My family means so much to me because they allowed me to work night and day and never told me to come home at 3 in the morning. I always said I never outsmarted (the competition), I just outworked them.”
The Hall will gain yet another legend. The sport is much dimmer with his passing.