Robert Yates: Hire Kenny Wallace
Full Time for 2008!
September 6, 2007
Jay Staton - SCR
Robert Yates is first
an engine builder, second an owner.
He has seen it all, from
the highs of championships to the lows of losing Davey Allison, and almost losing Ernie Ervin.
Robert Yates is a man
with nothing left to prove, but in an age of four car teams and Toyota sized budgets, Robert has found frustration for the
last several years and has now formed a partnership with Newman/Haas/Lanigan, freeing him up to do what he loves best: Racing!
Meanwhile Kenny Wallace
has stepped back from Furniture Row Racing, and subsequent drivers have shown that to be a difficult car indeed to get into
the show (by the way, congratulations to Joe Nemechek for doing just that).
Why would Yates hire
Wallace when there are younger guys available?
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There are many financial
reasons… Kenny has a huge fan base and is worth several million to a sponsor for the plugs he works into his TV broadcasting
alone, similar to one very wealthy Michael Waltrip.
Additionally, RYR already
has David Gilliland, a racer’s racer himself, but a driver that is still learning the ropes. Yates does not need another
trainee to damage several rear-clips while learning just what “too loose” really is.
But the real reason is
how similarly the two look at the sport. Even though they are both at a point that it is clear to them that their careers
that are winding down, they both have the desire to race just as strongly as they did when they were kids, and Wallace, in
particular, lives as if he was still just breaking into the big time.
There is something about
that spark that all of us can identify with, because the most intense feelings that there are to be had in life are as children,
and in fact to love as a child, whatever the age, is part of our marching orders, and as usual, the unneeded proof of that
inherent truth is that we universally remember…those first loves are the best ones.
So Mr. Yates, hire Kenny
Wallace, and hire a car chief, an accountant responsible to the new owners, resurrect the number 28, get back on that radio
as a Crew Chief, and when that car goes by listen to the engine that you personally assembled.
Sometimes, it is possible to
go home again, if you just throw off the layers of responsibility and political correctness, and simply love life as Robert
Yates and Kenny Wallace love racing. Here’s hoping that they hook up for 2008 and hit the track one more time, while
simultaneously, feel like they are hitting it for the first time.
2006 StockCar Review.
