Destroying the team to save it
I'd love to be the fly on the wall (or the bug on the phone tap or the potted plant in the corner) at Robert Yates Racing.
The team already knows that it'll lose both of its Cup drivers in 2007, Dale Jarrett (to Michael Waltrip's Toyota team) and Elliott Sadler (probably to the No. 19 Dodge - Mayfield's ride - at Evernham). UPS is going with Jarrett.
So what does Robert Yates do? First he hints that 19-year-old Stephen "Speed of" Leicht will probably drive one of those cars next year. Then on Monday Yates dumped his two Cup crew chiefs that he had just hired in December. (Maybe "dumped" is too strong a word. It sounds like Tommy Baldwin had something worked out already with Bill Davis Racing. But Slugger Labbe was unemployed Monday night, which suggests to me anyway that he got canned.)
And, oh yeah, one-hit Busch wonder David Gilliland might be the second Yates driver in 2007.
What in the holy H-e-double-L is going on over at Yates? I mean, teams ebb and flow. Roush and Hendrick once struggled, DEI used to rule the restrictor plates, and Petty Enterprises and the Wood Bros. used to win more than once a decade. But I can't recall a team of such prominence falling so far so fast.
And what good are the hot-shot Yates engines if the team doesn't have anyone to set up or drive the cars?
More:
Marty Snider at nascar.com: "There was just an overwhelming sense to both Robert and Doug Yates that these were (former GM Eddie) D'Hondt's buddies and part of the old regime."
Jeff Hammond at Fox Sports: "Sometimes, renovation means tearing down rather than replacing."
Jayski (because I missed this one last week): Yates could add a third team with either Ricky Rudd or Ward Burton behind the wheel.