CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Robert Yates, a former NASCAR championship winning team owner and engine builder, died Monday evening after a battle with liver cancer. He was 74 years old.
Yates was diagnosed with liver cancer in November of 2016 and spent the last year battling the disease. He was announced as a member of the 2018 NASCAR Hall of Fame on May 24 and will enter the Hall on Jan. 19, 2018.
“Right now? I feel like I could take a jack and jump over the wall and clear the whole … I’d be on the right side, like I used to,” Yates told NASCAR.com after it was announced he would enter the NASCAR Hall of Fame. “They’d look back at the film that says your feet were not on the ground, but you were on the other side of the car.”
Yates, born on April 19, 1943, was raised in Charlotte, N.C., entered the sport in 1968 when he worked for Holman-Moody Racing. He later worked for Junior Johnson in 1971, building engines for the likes of Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough, including the engines that powered Allison to the 1983 championship with DiGard Racing.
In 1988 Yates launched his own team, Robert Yates Racing, fielding a car for Davey Allison. With Larry McReynolds leading the team, Allison won the 1992 Daytona 500. In 1996 Yates expanded his program to a two-car team, fielding cars for Ernie Irvan and Dale Jarrett.
Jarrett would win the Daytona 500 in 1996 and again in 2000 in addition to capturing the NASCAR Cup Series championship in 1999 in the No. 88 Ford fielded by Yates. He stepped away from team ownership in 2007, handing the reigns of the team to his son, Doug Yates.
During his time as a team owner, Yates’ entries driven by Allison, Irvan, Jarrett, Ricky Rudd and Elliott Sadler won 57 races. The Yates name is still involved in NASCAR as his son manages Roush Yates Engines, which manufacturers all the engines utilized by Ford entries in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
Source :speedsport.com
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