Putting the “Y?” in RYR
What Happened
Robert Yates lured former driver Ricky Rudd out of retirement for one final Cup season and got extra sponsorship from Master Foods. On the track it was not pretty for the team that won a Cup race as recently as 2005.
David Gilliland’s first full Cup season was filled with more struggles than triumphs. He won a pole and scored two top tens, but the rest of the year was riddled with poor runs.
The season also marked the transition of the company from Robert Yates to son Doug. The elder Yates announced his retirement in December after 18 seasons as a Cup owner that featured 1 Cup championship and 57 wins. The team also handed the rights to the #88 to Hendrick Motorsports and Dale Earnhardt Jr and will resurrect the famous #28 in 2008 when Travis Kvapil replaces the retiring Rudd.
What Went Well
The first week of Speedweeks began on a high note. David Gilliland finished second in the Bud Shootout and then pulled a minor surprise by winning the pole for the Daytona 500. Even better Ricky Rudd was second fastest making a Yates clean sweep of the front row. Gilliland led 18 laps and finished 8th. Rudd also ran well before getting caught up in the big one late.
Yates has always been strong at restrictor plate tracks and Gilliland carried that banner. After Daytona he narrowly missed winning the pole at Talladega but did score his first career top five with a 4th place finish. He also mixed it up with Tony Stewart in the final laps with Stewart getting the worst of it. Gilliland also had a strong run at the Pepsi 400 in July, finishing 11th.
Rudd’s best finish came at the Coca-Cola 600 when he took 7th by parlaying great fuel mileage into his only top ten. He also had strong runs at Martinsville, Sonoma and led 10 laps at the fall Texas race.
Near the end of the season Yates formed a stronger alignment with Ford’s flagship team Roush-Fenway Racing. After years of providing top notch engines for the Roush cars, it’s time for Yates to reap the benefits of improved chassis and technical support.
What Went Wrong
There must have been times when Rudd asked, “I came back for this?” After Daytona qualifying things did not go well for Rudd and the #88 car. His first five finishes were all 26th or worse, causing the front wheels to dangle off the edge of the top 35. Rudd only scored 6 top 15’s in 31 races. That’s also the same number of DNF’s for the season. He also had 13 finishes of 30th or worse.
To make matters worse Rudd suffered a fractured shoulder blade from a hard crash at Fontana. Yates brought in Mike and Kenny Wallace to sub for Rudd for five races. The pair didn’t do anything spectacular but they managed to keep the car inside the top 35.
Gilliland made the most of RYR’s top notch restrictor plate program but didn’t show improvement in any other area. Despite a reasonable 5 DNF’s, he only had 9 lead lap finishes all season. His 54.5 season driver rating was 31st, which was actually worse than his average finish of 27.4. Without significant improvement in 2008, Gilliland’s Cup exit could come almost as quickly as the incredible ascent.
From the business side Yates also lost their only primary sponsor Masterfoods, maker of M&M’s and Snickers, to Joe Gibbs Racing for 2008. As bad as the cars ran in 2007, this poses an even greater challenge to Doug Yates. He will need to find someone to cover the costs of getting both Gilliland and Kvapil on the track each week before he can begin worrying about perfecting the team’s CoT program.
Past Team Reviews
- DEI
- Michael Waltrip Racing
- Penske Racing
- Haas-CNC
- Team Red Bull
- Joe Gibbs
- Evernham
- Wood Bros
- Hendrick Motorsports
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