Robert Yates Racing axes

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Robert Yates Racing axes general manager, Eddie D'Hondt


As part of a re-evaluation of his organization's performance this season, Nextel Cup Series team owner Robert Yates announced Tuesday the team's general manager, Eddie D'Hondt, has been fired, effective immediately.

“We are re-evaluating the way we are doing business from the top down,” Yates said. “This is a performance-based business and we have to evaluate the performance of where our cars are now. That begins with understanding our cars.”

Yates’ Cup teams, the No. 88 Ford driven by Dale Jarrett and the No. 38 Ford driven by Elliott Sadler, are currently 12th and 15th in points, respectively. RYR also fields the No. 90 Ford in the NASCAR Busch Series.

Co-owner Doug Yates said the decision to make a change in management level is a result of the Yates family reasserting themselves as the managers of their family-owned business. D'Hondt had served as GM since October 2003.

Raymond Fox III will be moved back to the Cup shop where he will work with the No. 38 team and serve as a liaison between the Busch and Cup programs.

“Raymond is very key to our organization,” Doug Yates said. “The Busch program is important to us but we need his help elsewhere in the company and right now that is at the Cup shop.

“Eddie (D’Hondt) did a good job for us. But this is our company and Robert and I have decided we need to get our arms around our company. We’re not happy with where we’re at as a race team."

Since RYR opened in 1989, the organization has a combined 57 wins, 267 top-five and 419 top-10 finishes in more than 919 starts. Jarrett won the 1999 Cup title and from 1996 until 2001 RYR had a driver finish in the top-five of points. Since then RYR has placed drivers in the top 10 only twice -- Jarrett was ninth in 2002 and Sadler ninth in 2004.

“Right now we are a victim of our own success,” Robert Yates said. “For so many years we were successful with the formula we used to run this team.

"We stayed small and didn’t grow as fast as the technology in the sport has grown. What worked five years ago doesn’t work now. We know we’ve fallen behind in that respect.”

[dalejrfan]

D'Hondt fired as RYR restructuring takes form
GM's immediate departure follows Jarrett's year-end defection


CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- General manager Eddie D'Hondt on Tuesday became the first casualty in the restructuring of struggling Robert Yates Racing to make the Yates family more involved.

D'Hondt's release came less than two weeks after veteran driver Dale Jarrett announced he would leave RYR after this season to join the new Toyota Nextel Cup team owned by Michael Waltrip.

It came with speculation that Yates might also lose Jarrett's primary sponsor, UPS, to Waltrip.

"As Robert [Yates] pointed out, right now he doesn't need a general manager,'' D'Hondt said. "He needs a sponsor and the people to make the cars run better.''

RYR is winless in the first 11 races this season and had only one win last season, a victory by Jarrett at Talladega. The organization that made Jarrett the 1999 Cup champion has only four victories since 2003.

Jarrett is 12th in points this season and teammate Elliott Sadler is 15th. Sadler hasn't won since California in September of 2004.

Neither driver made the Chase a year ago.

"This is a performance-based business and we have to evaluate the performance of where our cars are now,'' Yates said. "That begins with understanding our cars.''

D'Hondt said he has no bitter feelings toward Yates or the organization that he joined in March of 2003.

"We just haven't met our performance objectives,'' he said. "Part of my job is to bring in people that can get the job done and get our cars winning races. We just didn't do that. We have been struggling, and changes had to be made.

"I guess the first change was to be with me.''

D'Hondt admitted the team has fallen behind in areas such as engineering.

"I brought the people there that I thought would help us turn it around,'' he said. "I still feel like they're very good. It just goes to show the things we do are extremely hard and everything has to be exactly right. I don't know that we had everything right.''

D'Hondt added that Jarrett's departure, the uncertainty of UPS and the four-race suspension of Jarrett's crew chief, Slugger Labbe, served as distractions that made chemistry a problem.

"Anytime you have that much change or potential for change, it definitely disrupts the team,'' D'Hondt said.

Yates said the formula he used to produce 53 of his 57 wins from 1989-2002 simply wasn't working.

"We stayed small and didn't grow as fast as the technology in the sport has grown,'' he said. "What worked five years ago doesn't work now. Our goal is to figure out a technical direction and find the right people to lead that direction.

"This isn't a quick fix and it is going to be a process for us.''

Yates' son and RYR's head engine builder, Doug, said the release of D'Hondt is part of a process in which the family will take a more aggressive role in running the organization.

One of the family's first moves was to move Raymond Fox III from the Busch operation to the Nextel Cup shop to work with Sadler's team and seve as a liaison between the Busch and Cup teams.

Raymond is very key to our organization," Doug said. "The Busch program is important to us, but we need his help elsewhere in the company and right now that is at the Cup shop where he's worked since we started this organization.

"Eddie did a good job for us. But this is our company and Robert and I have decided we need to get our arms around our company. We're not happy with where we're at as a race team. We need to reassert key people, including ourselves."

D'Hondt is confident the organization will rebound. If not, he expects more changes.

"If they continue to run poorly, then UPS doesn't stay on board, I imagine so,'' he said. "Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe UPS seeing they're willing to make wholesale changes to make things better, that's what they're looking for.''