Earlier today, Edsel B. Ford II presented the Yates Family with the Spirit of Ford Award, which is the highest honor in Ford Racing. Doug Yates, along with his father, Robert, are the 30th recipients of the award. He spoke about the honor in front of the media at Daytona International Speedway.
EDSEL B. FORD II REMARKS ON THE YATES FAMILY
“I think it’s fair to say I bleed Ford blue – these days it’s Ford Racing blue.
But today, I want to talk about a family who I think really does bleed Ford blue — The Yates family.
I know because there are very few people in the world who love Ford Motor Company as much as Doug Yates.
Doug, and his father Robert, symbolize what’s right with the Ford Racing program, but also what is right about the sport of motor racing itself.
Robert started his career working for Ford NASCAR powerhouse Holman Moody in 1967, and two years later built his first Daytona 500 winning engine. He had a few key highlights in the early 1980s, including building engines for the 1983 Cup championship team that took Richard Petty to his 200th victory.
But Robert found his true place when Robert Yates Racing was formed in 1988, with 57 victories, three Daytona 500s and a championship in the next nine years.
All the while, he was mentoring and teaching his son Doug, who carries his father’s legacy with him every day.
What can we say about Doug? Well, when Ford engine rivals Jack Roush and Robert Yates agreed to merge their engine operations in 2004 for the betterment of the Ford Racing program, they turned to one person who had the trust and integrity both wanted and needed. And that was Doug.
Since 2004, Doug has led Roush Yates Engines to more than 400 NASCAR race wins across three series, and also a victory at Le Mans for Ford in 2016 with the Ford GT.
He has created a state-of-the-art business that works closely with Ford powertrain engineers and Ford race teams that has brought forth seven Daytona 500 wins and three of the past four Cup championships.
But, more importantly, he has done it with honesty, integrity, calmness and an innovative forward-thinking approach that we at Ford, and so many in the sport, have come to admire.
So, as we enter into our 125th season of racing at Ford, it is my honor to announce that the Yates Family is the 30th winner of the Spirit of Ford Award, the highest honor Ford gives to individuals and families who have made a significant contribution to the sport of auto racing on and off the race track.
DOUG YATES, CEO, Roush Yates Engines – WHAT DOES THIS HONOR MEAN TO YOU? “What an honor. I could have never imagined being more proud of being part of the Ford family and I wish my dad, like you said, Edsel, was here to celebrate this with us today, but it’s really special being part of the Ford Racing family – 125 years of racing and winning, starting with your great-grandfather, Henry Ford, and carrying that on today. I sure am glad we won last night. I had no idea how important that was, so thank you to Joey Logano and Team Penske for that because Edsel and I got a chance to celebrate that in Victory Lane like we’ve done so many times here in Daytona.
“I wouldn’t be here today without the Ford support and, obviously, what that means to us. It started with my dad. Growing up the son of an engine builder was really special. I didn’t realize that. I thought it was just a lot of hard work back then, but it was really special and to be able to follow in his footsteps – really what made Robert Yates in addition to his hard work and all the things he did was that day in 1986 when they called my dad and said, ‘Hey, we want you to join the Ford family and come run Harry Ranier and J.T. Lundy’s place, and we won’t let you leave this airport until you give us a yes.’ Lee Morse and the guys did that and my dad went to run Ranier and about two years later they decided to sell the business and a driver named Davey Allison, whose picture is up on the wall with his dad over there winning the 1988 Daytona 500, told my dad. He said, ‘Robert, you should by this team.’ He said, ‘Well, Davey, I would but I’ve got a problem. I don’t have any money.’ And Davey said, ‘Well, that’s alright. You deserve it. You can do it. You’ve done everything,’ so my dad went home and told my mom that they were gonna buy a race team. That was October of 1988. She said OK. They sold their house, moved into an apartment and that’s where it all started.
“About that time I was in college at NC State trying to get away from this because we were working seven days a week. I thought I might go to work for Edsel at his place in Michigan, but instead we got a chance to buy the race team. My mom called me in 1990 and said, ‘Hey, when you graduate, we want you to come work for the team,’ and I said, ‘Of course.’ Anything my mom asked I would do. I sent her a picture of Edsel and I in Victory Lane last night and she just loved that. I graduated and came to work. Back then in 1990 we had one race car and one driver, Davey Allison. We had six race cars, three engines and the support of Ford Motor Company. The rest is somewhat history, but a monumental milestone for us was winning this race in 1992 with Davey Allison. That really put us on the map and put Robert Yates Racing on the map. It gave us the confidence we needed to go on and to grow and to do the things we did.
“There was obviously a lot of tragedy that everyone understands what happened with Davey, and then Ernie (Irvan), and then about the time Dale Jarrett came to drive for us in 1995, Edsel called and said, ‘Hey, we want you to run a second car and we want it to be a Ford Quality Care car.’ And my dad said, ‘There’s only one spot in Victory Lane, Edsel.’ He said, ‘That’s OK, Robert. You’ve got one mission. I want you to beat the black GM Goodwrench car, that number 3.’ And he said, ‘Yes, sir. That’s what we’re gonna do.’ In 1996, we came down here and won the Daytona 500 and beat that 3 car and we went on to win the championship in 1999 and sat at the head table at the Waldorf with Edsel. We had my mom and dad and my wife, Whitney. And now today, it’s pretty emotional, to be honest with you. You just put your hard work and you just do the best you can and work hard and you want to come down here and win races and make the Ford Motor Company proud and the Ford family proud. We’ve won 449 Cup, O’Reilly and Truck wins to this point, so the next one will be 450. Hopefully, we can get that done Sunday afternoon, but thank you so much for this award. This really means a lot to me, as you can tell.”
QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR DAD’S APPROACH TO THE 500 EVERY YEAR? “My dad lived for the Daytona 500. That was his life’s dream was to be here and win this race. At the end of the 1991 season, Texaco decided to send our family to Hawaii, so my mom, my dad, myself and my sister went. It was a seven-day trip and it was around Thanksgiving and about day three my dad and I looked at each other like, ‘We’ve got to get back home. We can’t be here in Hawaii. We’ve got to go.’ We were like, ‘Who is gonna tell mom?’ The next thing you know we’re flying home. We got back to the shop and we took the clocks off the wall and stayed at the shop for two months straight. We came down here and won that race. Seven days a week, running the dynos until midnight. I’m looking at Jeff (Clark) because he was with me. The cops didn’t like it very much. We got a ticket for noise, but we tried not to run Sundays until after church was out, but we loved racing and winning the Daytona 500. Together, we were able to do that in ‘92 with Davey Allison, ‘96 with Dale Jarrett and 2000 with Dale Jarrett – the last pole-winner to go on and win the race here. So, the Daytona 500, we talk about it all the time, is a career-defining moment. If you’re gonna make a name for yourself in the sport, this is the race to win.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT IF YOUR DAD TAUGHT YOU ABOUT HONESTY IN A REALLY TOUGH SPORT, AND WHAT HE TAUGHT YOU ABOUT THAT? “I think the thing that my dad would want to say, what’s really important to him, his dad was a Baptist preacher and he was the last of nine kids, so he got it honest. All of his brothers and sisters went into the ministry and he tried to use NASCAR as his platform, so part of that was trying to live that way, and that’s what he wanted to do. Even to the end of his life, he wanted to make sure that he had done the right thing and treated people right. It’s a hard sport. People would ask you what gear you’re running back in the day and you’d try not to lie to them, but you didn’t want to tell them what your secrets were. It’s definitely a fine line, but you pick a lane and you want to try to be known for being honest and true and hard-working, and I think that’s what he would be really happy about today.”
HOW HARD DO YOU WORK MAKING SURE THESE ENGINES ARE RIGHT? CAN YOU DESCRIBE HOW MUCH YOU PUT INTO IT? “I think you used to think about those things, but today it’s just what we do. Being able to come down here and compete and to win the Daytona 500 it’s not really a job, it’s a mission. It’s something that we’re competing at the highest level and whatever it takes to be able to achieve that. In the early days, we didn’t have many people, many resources and you just worked around the clock. Today, we have great organizations, great people, great support from Ford and our teams that we race with, so it’s not as cumbersome as it once was, but you still want to come down here and to be able to win the race last night and go to Victory Lane on Sunday afternoon, you work a lifetime for those things and we’ve been fortunate to have our driver’s names on some of these Harley J. Earl trophies and we want to keep that going.”
WHAT IS KEEPING YOU GOING BESIDES THAT PASSION FOR RACING AND THE LOVE OF WINNING? “That’s a great question. This is my 37th full-time season and at the end of the year we all can’t wait, I’m sure everybody in this room agrees, for some time off, but then you want to get back here and see your friends and your family. It’s really our lives. It’s our lifestyle, waking up here at the track, hearing the cars, hearing the Thunderbirds go over. It’s like, ‘What else would I want to be doing with my life right now.’ It’s nice to go sit on the beach and hang out and decompress a little bit, but at the same time you want to get back here. When you grow up around this, my family is calling, my daughter is gonna be here this afternoon. It’s just a lifestyle. I did it really in a lot of ways to make my dad proud and to hang out with him, and now you just kind of carry that on for your family. It’s what we do. It’s in your blood and it’s just something you can’t wait to get. The guys that were sitting up here, I have ultimate respect for all of them, but you want to go out and compete and put some pressure on them and make them sweat a little bit.”
— Ford Racing —