LMS Media Tour: Robert Yates Racing, part 1

LMS Media Tour: Robert Yates Racing Shop Visit

The Robert Yates Racing duo of Dale Jarrett and Elliott Sadler enjoyed marked improvement in 2004 with Jarrett winning the Budweiser Shootout and Sadler taking the checkered flag at Texas and California. The two drivers were part of the Lowe's Motor Speedway media tour on Jan. 26 and discussed the upcoming season.

ROBERT YATES , Car Owner - Robert Yates Racing

"We're excited about what we have going on this year. Certainly, compared to years in the past, the whole level of this sport has come up. I'm sure that this (the media tour) is well covered, too. I remember when I started they had about one guy to write about it, but this is something that I do that I just love doing. I was born in a very fortunate spot and I've had a great life being able to work on cars.

"As I'm always wanting to reflect back because some of my better days are probably behind me, some of our performances are ahead of us with all these young guys, I just think back to 1988 when I bought the race team. I had 10 guys. We had a 12-passenger van from Ford and we only had nine people riding in it because I'd drive the tractor and trailer, so we've come a long ways. We had a great last year when we started with Eddie D'Hondt, who I'd like to bring up and tell you some of the things that are going on. Certainly with the resources from our great, wonderful UPS, M&M's and CitiFinancial, we've been able to really apply the money into quite an organization. I'm excited and looking forward to going to every race this year, including Martinsville."

EDDIE D'HONDT , General Manager, Robert Yates Racing

"Late in 2003 we coined a phrase for all of us to rally around in 2004. This phrase helped prevent our team members from looking at the work that laid ahead of us as insurmountable. That phrase was 'an inch a day,' and since that day late in 2003, we've gotten that inch everyday and many days even more. Look at how far we've come.

"Ending the 2003 season with a total of just two top-10 finishes, we turned that into 28 top-10 finishes in 2004 with two point wins and two non-point wins. We had 15 top-5 finishes and landed both cars in the top 5 on two occasions. It has indeed been a great start to our rebuilding program.

"This year, we've coined a new phrase as we move forward into phase two in our quest to get Robert Yates Racing back to the dominance this organization once enjoyed. Our 2005 axiom is 'raising the bar.'

"We had a guest speaker here recently who spoke to us about time management and leadership. One of the many things he told us about was the definition of insanity - that being doing the same thing over and over again while expecting better results. I can assure you that we are very sane here and we've worked very hard this off season at moving forward.

"In 2005, we will be raising the bar as we are already well into addressing our 2004 shortcomings. Kicking off new programs and surging ahead. We have built an incredible new Busch Series team whose sole purpose is designed to support our Cup teams. With 22 Cup races this year now quarantining the cars after qualifying, running the Busch race on Saturdays with both Dale and Elliott as our drivers is all the more important now. We have a great company supporting that effort in CitiFinancial.

"Having just two race engineers on our staff for 2004, we scratched and clawed our way to stay atop the constant change our sport brings. We have now built a full engineering and technology staff designed to bring us answers to questions full-time while our teams are away testing and racing. Complimenting the engineering staff will be the launching of an independent RYR test team that will test as needed in an effort to work with our crew chiefs and engineering staff - putting new ideas to the race track and having the ability to work with our Cup teams - looking at issues that arise when we race each week.

"We've added some very talented pit crew members to both our teams. The UPS team, back with us is rear tire changer Ryan Pepe. To the 38 team comes front tire changer Mike Lingerfelt and front tire carrier Ryan McCray and the M&M's team is now trained and coached by Andy Ward. All four of these gentlemen come from championship caliber teams and will certainly be integral parts of our success this year.

"Lastly and most importantly, and certainly not new for 2005 is the heart and so - the glue if you will - that holds our organization together. I know that both Robert and Doug sitting with us here today are the most proud of this particular trait about this organization. These companies - the folks from UPS, M&M's and CitiFinancial - these three race teams that we have in this organization right now - this collective group of people that work here everyday are all family. We live together. We eat together. We work together and we race together. Although to some of you folks here today that might sound a little bit cliche, I assure you it is not. I see it as perhaps the heart and the strength of this organization. People love working here and we work hard at recognizing their hard work and their families. It goes a long way toward our success.

"From where I sit, as we get set to begin 2005, I'm very proud of our progress through 2004 and this off season. I feel like we are very prepared to make some strong gains in 2005. Our motor shop has not checked up since we ran the last lap at Homestead in their quest to bring us the strongest engines possible.

"Elliott Sadler had his breakout season in 2004 and I look for him to bust out in 2005. And Dale, with a year under his belt working with Mike Ford, is so far ahead of where he was when we sat here as a group just one year ago today. And he's destined to show you all that the kids ain't got nothing on him."

DALE JARRETT - No. 88 UPS Taurus

"I've been thinking for a couple of days, we've been in Lakeland testing and I was trying to come up with something maybe original to say other than, I'm sure you haven't heard that I'm excited about the 2005 season, right? Since you've been doing this and are on your third day now, but I am, obviously.

"It's wonderful having my mom and dad here today. Both played a very big part in helping me become the person that I am. Hopefully that's a good thing, but the support that I've gotten from them is just incredible and I think that's one of the things that has helped me and made me want to stay here at Robert Yates Racing. I hadn't really thought about it until I saw these notes that this will be my 11th year at Robert Yates Racing. I guess it doesn't seem that long ago that Robert and I were discussing the possibility of me coming here in 1995 and things have certainly moved forward from there with a lot of wonderful memories.

"I look at that 11th year. We've probably discussed over the years, for those of you that have been around here with me, about how the number 11 has meant a lot to the Jarrett family over the years. My dad drove and won his championships with that number 11. We can go back to '93 whenever I won the Daytona 500 the first time, we discussed this that I was in garage number 11 there, so it's been a significant number for us. Hopefully, we're gonna be able to say that about the 2005 season with my 11th year here at Robert Yates Racing.

"A lot of good things have happened here and I think the focus now on 2005, as Mike Ford came in here and pretty much re-organized this, along with Eddie D'Hondt, with our race team to make us a more competitive race team once again. I think 2003 we pretty much hit the low spot of those 10 years that I've been here so far and Mike did a terrific job in getting us back and making us a competitive race team again. I think the focus now, though, after we got to that point of becoming competitive - not that we weren't trying to win last year - but I think that's the focus this year is getting this UPS car back in Victory Lane.

"I think about those 10 years that I've been here. I think one thing that we're very proud of the accomplishments, the victories are very nice, the championship was obviously a wonderful time in our career here, but as you look at these two race cars and look at the signage on the side of them, the companies that we represent here at Robert Yates Racing are some of the finest and largest companies and corporations in the world. UPS, M&M's Mars, CitiFinancial and Coca-Cola - and I realize I'm leaving off a few - but those are some pretty big names and to realize that we here at Robert Yates Racing have the type of organization that these companies are looking at makes us very proud and we're proud to represent them.

"Again, a big part of that is getting our organization and our race team back to where we can get into Victory Lane. Elliott and Todd and their people on the 38 side have been a tremendous help in helping us to again become a competitive race team. Having a teammate like Elliott makes my job a lot of fun at times, but I think having a teammate that is a very, very good friend makes things a lot better, too. As we spend time away from the track, whether it be at appearances or in the motorhome compound, it gives us the opportunity to talk a lot about our race teams and what each of us are doing and I think that's strengthening both teams.

"I know that I can't stress enough how much Todd and Elliott mean to me in particular and to our race team, so, again, we're very excited about the season getting ready to start. I know there are a lot of questions about what went on at Daytona as far as the testing there. It was very good, but I think we're really gonna see whose teams are prepared and what the season really holds coming up next week as we start a four day test basically - two days in Las Vegas and two in California that will really tell us where our team is at.

"I feel very good about where we're at with that because Mike was good enough and far enough ahead for us to start planning for this basically last October as we tested at Kentucky a couple of days using the four-inch spoiler. The only thing we didn't have were the new tires that we'll have, but we're pretty excited about that. We think because of that preparation, whether it was wind tunnel time or that on-track time that we had there, and Elliott did some of it at Homestead when he was there testing last November, we feel like that we've put our race teams in very good position to be ahead and ready to come out of the box very strong. That's important as we saw in getting yourself positioned to try to be a part of that 10-race chase, which we both want to be a part of in 2005.

"I do have one other announcement concerning my association and my wife, Kelley, our association - and certainly this goes along with the family ties that we have here at Robert Yates Racing with my parents being here today. I started the association with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation back in 1997 with my Busch Grand National Sponsor - Gillette at that time. Gillette at that time in '97 contributed $10,000 for each event I entered in the Busch Series that year and we ran 14 races that year.

"Ford Credit then picked up the association starting in 1998 and has carried that forth through 2004 and since they're no longer a part of this, we were looking for ways to make that happen and continue that. So through the Dale Jarrett Foundation, which Kelley and I started a couple of years ago, we're gonna take that on-track performance schedule that was set up a number of years ago and extend that a little bit.

"My brother-in-law, Kacey Spears, runs the foundation so he drew up a plan for us and we realize that even though we're planning on finishing in the top three quite a few times this year, we realized that that has probably become a taller order than what it was when this program was set forth back in 1998. So we're extending that to top-10 finishes.

"It's still $10,000 for a victory, $7,500 for second and $5,000 for third and then it drops down $500 per position back to where 10th place will contribute $1,500. So with each top 10 we're gonna be contributing more money to the foundation, which we feel is a very worthwhile cause. We haven't gotten to the part yet of how we're gonna be able to involve the race fans at this point in time, but as Kacey works on that part of the program, we'll be able to do that in some way because the race fans, over the last three years, have had a huge hand in making those contributions to the foundation. So we're excited about that and we plan on making a lot of contributions through our on-track performance this year."

ELLIOTT SADLER - No. 38 M&M's Taurus

"I want to talk about a few things today, but one of the first things I want to talk about is sponsorship. We all know what UPS and M&M's do for us each and every week. It shows up. The commitment and support that those companies give us enables DJ and me to run for wins each and every weekend. As you can see, we've got two beautiful race cars.

"I think what a lot of people don't see is behind the scenes. I'm very lucky to have one of the best sponsorships in the business and not because of the money they spend or the way everything looks, but the support they give me and my family and Robert and his family. It's unbelievable to have a sponsor that's not always wondering about things you can do for them but what they can do for you.

"They're always the first people to call me every Monday morning to congratulate us if we've had a good weekend, or if we've had a bad weekend to cheer us up and get us back rolling and get our momentum going for the next race. I can't tell you how proud I am to be a driver of a company that is like that - they're always charitable, they're always giving back, they always have our families involved in everything they do. They really roll out the red carpet, not only for myself but for my race teams to every factory that we go to, especially the M&M's factory in Hackettstown. It's always a fan favorite for all of my crew members to come do that, so it's great."

"It's a great feeling to be able to give a sponsorship their first win in this sport. They've been a part of this sport for 14 years and they've been very patient. They're very reliable and they're there hanging on every turn it seems like with me, so to be able to go to Victory Lane with them at Daytona for the Twin 125 and then to get our very first big win at Texas was absolutely amazing.

"That beats any feeling or anything else that you can possibly give or get from anyone, so I'm glad you were all there to share that with us.

"To talk about Robert Yates Racing, how can you not enjoy working for Robert Yates? We've got such a great place to work, but the attitude of this shop is unbelievable - starting with not only if you're the big man himself or you're the guy that started work here just one day ago, we pretty much all put our pants on the same. You're a big part of this race team no matter what your position is and that just carries on from Robert on down through the shop.

"Eddie D'Hondt has done a great, great job of turning this race team around and turning in the right direction. Like he said, inch by inch, inch by day has been a great slogan for this team and bringing Todd back on board. I think what you saw from the 38 team last year is just the tip of the iceberg. I know everybody is excited because we're all starting out zero-zero, but I really think the hurdles that we went over last year, we learned a lot about each other, we learned a lot about our teams. We know we've got some good points. We know we've got some places we need to work on.

"I guess we had a great free agency off season. We hired a lot of top guns to come and improve this race team. We've got our engineering department with one more year under our belt better working together. Todd and I have another year under our belt working together. I don't think you have seen anything yet out of this 38 team. We're really gonna surprise a lot of people, I feel. I think we're light years ahead of where we were last year at this time and I just can't wait to get started.

"We've got a lot of great things going. I want to end things talking about Dale Jarrett. I've got the best teammate in the world. We love working with each other. We've got a lot of similarities off the track, but I think our competitiveness and friendship on and off the track is bringing these teams closer together and getting our relationships better and getting Mike and Todd working better together. We can share so much information. We know it's gonna be right. I think I'm his biggest fan and he's probably my biggest fan, so it's neat to watch these two teams work as close as we have already this off season. I can't wait until we get to California and Vegas."

Continued in part 2