HALL BID THRILLING FOR YATES, SON
Good news comes during cancer fight
The image of Robert Yates projected behind the dais was of the younger man, vibrant and square-jawed, blond hair sweeping across his brow. This was the Robert Yates that had built race-winning engines for scores of NASCAR legends, won a championship and three Daytona 500s as an owner.
This was not the same Robert Yates who sat in the second row, surrounded by family and friends, Wednesday at the announcement of the 2018 NASCAR Hall of Fame class. Not physically, at least. At 74, with white hair scrawled across his head and a gaunt frame inside his suit, Yates continues to deal with liver cancer and the treatments designed to quell it.
But Yates still conjured the spirit embodied and memories elicited by the photograph after learning that after four years on the ballot and near-misses he had garnered 94% of the vote from a 54-person panel for the Hall.
Afterward, Yates’ eyes widened and at times moistened as he conveyed what the honor meant, how much he loved those engines and the family that let him work on them, how a collection of his peers had bestowed this upon him.
“I appreciate this so much,” he said. “It always felt like I was so non-political, and I was happy to run engines and cars and stuff, but I wasn’t very good at talking about (it), giving speeches.
“To have the people that I know that were in that room, because I was in there at one time, to vote for me, against people I probably would have voted in there before me, I’ll take it.”
A few feet away, Doug Yates stood with moist eyes, too. The son of the legendary engine-builder and the president and CEO of the Roush Yates Racing engines operation that builds all NASCAR power plants for Ford Performance, Yates loves his father and loves the same work. He loves how much his father means to the racing community, and, more poignantly, that his father was fit and able to sit in that folding chair — just as he had done the previous three years — when his name finally was called.
“People from that era have been so supportive and know what he accomplished and how he treated people,” Doug Yates said. “I think if you want to be known for something, it’s great horsepower, but it’s how he treated people and the legacy he left (that) was wide-spreading.”
Yates’ vote percentage tied the highest released by the Hall of Fame, David Pearson’s figure from 2011. Red Byron, NASCAR’s first champion, crew chief Ray Evernham, broadcaster Ken Squier and former truck series champion Ron Hornaday Jr. complete the diverse class.
Doug Yates said a reunion of 250 people affiliated with the nowdefunct Robert Yates Racing team was scheduled to meet Friday, regardless of the outcome.
Yates was a perfect selection in many regards after finishing sixth in voting last year. First, he was eminently qualified as an engine-builder and team owner, winning championships in each vocation.
Yates built power plants for NASCAR Hall of Famers, including Junior Johnson, Cale Yarborough and Darrell Waltrip, and helped power Bobby Allison’s championship run in 1983.
As a team owner, he won 57 races, and the 1999 championship with Dale Jarrett, who provided two of his three Daytona 500 victories.
Yates also is a beloved character who engenders affection from close friends and acquaintances. His talents as a raconteur weaved a narrative between the likes of Holman-Moody and the cramped race shops of the late 1960s, through NASCAR’s massive growth and into the modern era. The chance to bestow the induction upon him now also seemed important to many voters during Hall of Fame deliberations.
“We would watch and see the guys who got in the Hall of Fame, and every single time, without a blink, he would say the panel got it exactly right,” Doug Yates recalled. “To be so competitive and so humble is incredible. But the timing of this is perfect. … It’s tough. ... It’s been a real battle. I think this gives him more inspiration to keep going. I told him, ‘I’m not going to make that speech for you in January if you get in the Hall of Fame.’ ”
If Robert Yates can harness the spark in his voice the way he harnessed the horsepower of race engines, he will be there and he will speak there.
“I said here today, ‘I’m struggling with some stuff, but if I don’t get in, that’s a reason to work real hard to be here next year, to get in.’ So that’s the way I tried to look at it … and when they said No. 1,” Yates said, his voice tapering with emotion. “I’ve been sixth like every year or something. … I always said, I never outsmarted them, I just outworked them.”