The end of the line for the Yates legend as car owners? After so many Daytona 500 wins, so many NASCAR tour victories, and the championship....

  Ford boss Brian Wolfe: good news and tough news -- signing Richard Petty...but losing Yates Racing (Photo: Autostock)
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   RICHMOND, Va.
   More background on the Richard Petty-George Gillett-Doug Yates Ford surprise:
   Doug Yates himself hasn't been at a NASCAR track in months, while working on development of Ford's new engine, which has yet to debut.
   So he's not been around to discuss what looks like the devolution of the NASCAR operation that his legendary father first launched in 1987, with the late Davey Allison. Now, after 57 tour wins, with stars like Allison, Dale Jarrett, Ernie Irvan, and Ricky Rudd, it appears the end of the line. It's been four years since the last Yates tour win.
   Doug Yates' business partner Max Jones, handling trackside stuff, has had nothing to say this weekend about the proposed team 'merger,' which Petty himself now describes as basically a buyout: "absorbing."
   And Geoff Smith, head of Roush Fenway Racing, is wary of getting too far ahead of things in this still evolving situation.
   However Brian Wolfe, head of Ford racing, is all smiles this weekend, basking in the surprise of landing Richard Petty and multi-millionaire sportsman George Gillett's four-team operation….or at least three of those teams, with Yates' Paul Menard to be the new team's fourth driver in 2010.
   Home run, it looks like for Ford.
   And this isn't just another stock car company that is moving in the Ford camp. This is the team that Chrysler signed Ray Evernham to build from scratch for Dodge's return to NASCAR racing in 2001, after a 30-year absence. This is the team that was to be Dodge's NASCAR anchor.
   Evernham, in 2007, sold majority interest to Gillett, who then bought Petty's own operation this past winter, rebadging it Richard Petty Motorsports.
   But Chrysler's bankruptcy changed things.
   Even before Chrysler's bankruptcy things were changing; last fall Gillett made a move to buy into Bill Davis' struggling Toyota operation, in order to get a Toyota engine deal. That gambit failed, and Toyota, after toying with the idea of signing – to get Petty as a company spokesman – decided a few weeks ago to pull the plug on any deal.
   With Chevrolet holding 12 Cup teams, Toyota out of the running, Dodge still questionable (and apparently banking on Roger Penske's three-team operation as its new NASCAR anchor), the only Detroit option for Gillett and Petty was obvious.   
    And Wolfe apparently made the first move, back in April.
   Then the Gilletts, George and his son Foster, who helps run Richard Petty Motorsports, apparently dropped by Ford Motor Company headquarters in June to discuss things further.
   

   Doug Yates: back to engines? (Photo: Autostock)

   
"I definitely feel like a winner," Wolfe says.

   "We approached Foster back in April or May….about our analytic toolsets, Yates power, resources…although we didn't have any financials to go along with that. We told them we'd love for them to be in Fords.
    "There were a lot of rumors and we said 'I don't know what's going on, but we just want to let you know what we have.'
   "We talk to a lot of teams, trying to be racer-friendly.
   "They came back and talked more and more.  This is a big commitment, and there are still a lot of details to be filled out.
   "We talked about Ford Motor Company, and our future product lines, our DNA in these cars…and them finding value in that and that Ford is a company they wanted to partner with, does make us feel really, really good."
    If anyone else wants to join Ford, "I'd love for them to look at us too," Wolfe said.
    Ironically Kasey Kahne is now back in a Ford….after
    "He's a great young man, handles himself well," Wolfe said.
    "Ford has a long respect for Richard. He's one of the few that have received the spirit of Ford award. We're proud he's going to be part of the Ford family."
    That's one side of the picture. The other side is Doug Yates'. The second-generation engine builder
   "Doug said he was welcoming the opportunity to concentrate on engines…even though it was a bit sad not to have a Yates' named team out there," Smith says.
    Roush Fenway supplies major engineering support and marketing support to Yates' current two-car team. If Petty Gillett opt for having Roush Fenway expand that support to all four of their teams, that would be a major expansion. However, Smith points out that Petty Gillett might opt to do its own work instead.
   It appears likely that the Gillett Petty operation would be moving from the current shop (ironically Robert Yates' own old place in Mooresville) to the Yates shops in Concord, next door to Roush Fenway and across the street from NASCAR's R&D center.
   However Smith says the deal is still not finished.
   "There are all these details they have to work through…and as they do that, they'll be able to tell Roush Fenway what our role would be," Smith said.
    "This affects our people, because we have a lot of staffing dedicated to building cars and engines and transmissions. If they (Petty-Gillett) wind up keeping their own engine department, because they're not satisfied with whatever the Roush-Yates engines can do, then Doug won't be making as many engines. And the same with the cars. If they end up making their own cars, our employees are affected.
   "So we went right to our employees and told them to keep their heads down, because there are a lot of details to be worked through before we know what the consequences are.
   "I assume it will be about a month.
   "We don't really know….
   "All these public discussions do is make everybody nervous…before the principals have a chance to work through everything."
   In a sense this deal appears to be a plus for Roush Fenway and Yates, because Yates has been having sponsorship issues and without enough sponsorship some of the Roush Fenway engineering support for the Yates camp "looked like that was going to be shrunk," Smith says.
   "So I think Max was the first one to have some conversation on the topic….
   "We want all the answers as fast as we can get them. Right now we're not sure….
    "For us, the more teams the merrier. We have the management capability, the know-how, the experience and leadership with Doug, ….I don't think there is any manufacturing constraint here."
  
  

  Robert Yates, the man who started the Yates racing empire (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)