Yates built winners
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Robert Yates lived long enough to hear his name announced as a NASCAR Hall of Famer.
Although he lost his battle with liver cancer last October — five months after he was voted into the hall — Yates was able to write his own acceptance speech for Friday night’s induction ceremony. It was read by Dale Jarrett, a Hall of Famer who won the 1999 Cup Series championship driving for Yates.
“When I started in racing, this was not the goal,” Jarrett read from Yates’ speech. “All I wanted to do throughout my career was win races. I would always say, ‘I don’t race for the money, I race to win.’ For me, that’s what it’s always been about, but to be part of this year’s induction class is a true honor.”
Yates was a championship-winning car owner and engine builder who learned from Waddell Wilson and Junior Johnson. He built the powertrains for Bobby Allison’s 1983 championship team, as well as the engines used when Richard Petty drove to the final two victories of his 200-win career at NASCAR’s highest level.
As a car owner, Yates drivers won 57 races, including three Daytona 500s. A year ago, as Yates dealt with cancer, Kurt Busch drove a Yates-powered car to the Daytona 500 title.
Also inducted Friday night were pioneering crew chief Ray Evernham, Red Byron — NASCAR’s first champion — four-time Truck Series champion Ron Hornaday Jr. and Ken Squier, the first broadcaster to make the hall.
Evernham led Jeff Gordon to three of his four championships and changed the sport in his approach to preparing race cars. He pushed limits through innovation and engineering while forming Gordon’s “Rainbow Warriors” pit crew that was the best in NASCAR.
“It was 1995, we win the championship in Atlanta, it wasn’t the best of days, we didn’t perform very well (in the race),” Gordon recalled. “But we did win the championship.
“And to tell you what kind of person Ray Evernham was, I think he enjoyed that championship for maybe a split second before he started thinking about what was wrong with that race car, and he showed up at the shop the next morning, the day after we won that championship, to figure out what was wrong with that race car. And he found it.”
Evernham eventually transitioned into car ownership and spearheaded Dodge Motorsports’ return to NASCAR in 2001. Hall of Famer Bill Elliott earned Evernham Motorsports its inaugural victory that season, and Evernham collected 15 wins as a team owner.
Evernham was inducted by Gordon and his son, Ray J.
“A young boy playing with toy cars in a stone driveway at the Jersey Shore could only dream of a moment like this,” said Evernham, who thanked mentor and former boss Rick Hendrick by telling the Hall of Fame car owner he “saw more in me than I saw in myself. You believed in me. I was a young, unorthodox crew chief.”
Hornaday’s 51 victories are a Truck Series record, as are his championships. He was introduced by Kevin Harvick, one of the many NASCAR drivers whose careers were made by Hornaday.
Hornaday frequently allowed young racers to live on his living room couch when they relocated to North Carolina. Among them are Harvick and Jimmie Johnson, who have a combined eight Cup Series titles. Harvick eventually repaid the favor by fielding a Truck Series team that gave Hornaday two of his titles.
Byron was NASCAR’s first crowned champion in the Modified Series and in 1948 the Strictly Stock Series, now known as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. He was inducted by 2017 champion Martin Truex Jr.
Byron served in the United States Army Air Corps in the Pacific during World War II. He suffered a severe injury to his left leg while flying in a combat mission and later had to wear a specially created steel leg brace while racing.
Squier is the co-founder of the Motor Racing Network and a longtime voice of NASCAR. He co-founded MRN in 1969 before moving to television. He’s also credited with helping develop the sport’s first “in-car camera” that is still used in telecasts today.
He worked NASCAR’s flag-to-flag network television debut in the 1979 Daytona 500. Squier was introduced by Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is transitioning from racing into broadcasting, and inducted by Vermont Gov. Phil Scott.