Tag: robert yates racing

  • Jeremy Bullins to call 200th Cup race as crew chief at Daytona road course event

    Jeremy Bullins to call 200th Cup race as crew chief at Daytona road course event

    Following a productive 2020 season with former NASCAR Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski, crew chief Jeremy Bullins is set to achieve a milestone start in his sixth full-time season in NASCAR’s premier series. By calling the shots atop the pit box for this weekend’s event at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course, Bullins will call his 200th Cup race as a crew chief.

    A native of Walnut Cove, North Carolina, Bullins grew up working with his father on dirt late model cars from the race shop to the tracks. After graduating from North Carolina State University with a degree in mechanical engineering, Bullins’ career in NASCAR commenced with Wood Brothers Racing in 1999.

    He went on to work for organizations like ST Motorsports, Robert Yates Racing and Richard Childress Racing, where he was an engineer.

    Prior to the 2012 NASCAR season, Bullins departed RCR and joined Team Penske to serve as crew chief for the No. 22 Dodge team competing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with names like Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney, Sam Hornish Jr., Parker Kligerman and Jacques Villeneuve. In his first season as a crew chief, Bullins achieved his first three Xfinity career victories with Keselowski. In addition, the No. 22 team achieved a pole, 12 top-five results, 23 top-10 results and a sixth-place result in the final owner’s standings.

    In 2013, Bullins achieved 12 Xfinity wins with Keselowski, Blaney, Joey Logano and A.J. Allmendinger, all of whom shared Penske’s No. 22 Ford Mustang throughout the season. The victories along with three poles, 20 top-five results and 25 top-10 results were enough for the No. 22 team to capture the first NASCAR Xfinity Series’ owner’s championship for team owner Roger Penske by a single point over Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 54 Toyota team.

    The following season, Bullins, who remained as a full-time Xfinity Series crew chief for Team Penske, made his NASCAR Cup Series debut as a crew chief at Kansas Speedway in May for Ryan Blaney, who was also making his debut in the sport’s premier series. Starting 21st, Blaney finished 27th. The duo returned at Talladega Superspeedway in October, where Blaney finished 22nd of the 43-car field. Bullins went on to lead Penske’s No. 22 Ford team to its second consecutive owner’s championship while also winning six races between Blaney and Keselowski. Bullins also worked with Logano, Michael McDowell and Alex Tagliani throughout the 2014 Xfinity Series season.

    In 2015, Bullins moved up to the Cup Series to serve as a crew chief for Blaney and the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford team, which competed in 16 of the 36-race schedule. Together, Bullins and Blaney achieved a season-best result of fourth place at Talladega in May along with two top-10 results.

    In 2016, Bullins embarked on his first full-time season in the Cup Series as a crew chief with Blaney and the Wood Brothers Racing. At the conclusion of the season, Blaney achieved three top-five results, nine top-10 results and a 20th-place result in the final standings.

    The following season, Bullins achieved his first career win in the Cup Series as a crew chief at Pocono Raceway in June, which also marked Blaney’s first Cup career victory following a late battle against names like Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick. Together, they recorded the 99th Cup victory for the Wood Brothers Racing. Bullins and Blaney went on to capture two poles, four top-five results and 14 top-10 results throughout the season. They also made the 2017 Cup Playoffs and all the way to the Round of 8 before finishing in ninth place in the final standings.

    In 2018, Bullins and Blaney departed the Wood Brothers Racing and moved back to Team Penske in the Cup circuit. Together, Bullins and Blaney recorded a thrilling win at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval in September during the Playoffs. They also achieved three poles, eight top-five results and 16 top-10 results. Though they qualified for the Playoffs, Bullins and Blaney were eliminated from title contention following the Round of 12 and went on to finish in 10th place in the final standings. By then, Bullins surpassed 100 career starts in the Cup Series.

    The following season, Bullins and Blaney recorded another thrilling victory at Talladega Superspeedway in October during the Playoffs. To go along with a pole, 11 top-five results, 18 top-10 results and a third consecutive appearance in the Playoffs, the duo made it all the way to the Round of 8 before being eliminated from championship contention. Nonetheless, they ended up with a seventh-place result in the final standings.

    Despite a productive 2019 season, Team Penske decided to reshuffle its entire Cup driver-crew chief pairing for the 2020 season. The move ended up with Bullins being paired with Brad Keselowski and the No. 2 Ford Mustang team while Todd Gordon took over as Blaney’s new crew chief.

    Seven races into the 2020 season and amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Bullins achieved his first Cup victory with Keselowski in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway following a late restart. Two races later, the duo won again at Bristol Motor Speedway, where Keselowski dodged a late incident involving teammate Joey Logano and Chase Elliott.

    Bullins and Keselowski went on to claim dominating victories at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in August and at Richmond Raceway in September during the Playoffs. They made it all the way to the Championship Round at Phoenix Raceway, but ended up finishing in the runner-up spot on the track and in the final standings behind Elliott and crew chief Alan Gustafson.

    This season, Bullins and Keselowski are coming off a 13th-place result in the Daytona 500 following a vicious multi-car accident on the final lap, where Keselowski was in prime position of winning his first 500 title.

    In 199 previous starts in the Cup Series, Bullins has achieved seven career victories, six poles, 40 top-five results and 83 top-10 results, all while working with Blaney and Keselowski.

    Catch Bullins’ milestone start in the upcoming NASCAR Cup Series event at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course on Sunday, February 21, at 3 p.m. ET on FOX.

  • Robert Yates Racing and Roush Fenway Racing…A similar Decline?

    Robert Yates Racing and Roush Fenway Racing…A similar Decline?

    The 2015 season is over and Kyle Busch is the champion for this year. It was a tremendous fête, missing 11 races and still winning five races and coming home the champ. Congratulations to Kyle, but something very troubling is going on in the sport. It’s almost like we turned back the clock to 2006.

    Robert Yates Racing was a force in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. After buying the team from Harry Rainer, he put Davey Allison in the car and a lot of magic was produced. Allison would have been a multiple champion, but his death cut his career short, yet Yates continued winning. Whether it was Ernie Irvan (who also had devastating injuries) or Dale Jarrett, his cars were fast and dominating. Jarrett won the championship in 1999 in his No. 88 Ford and then something happened.

    I remember traveling to the October Martinsville Speedway race in 2006, and the big story was Dale Jarrett and Elliott Sadler, Yates’ two very successful drivers, were moving on from the team to other opportunities. The reason? Engineering. While other teams like Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, and Roush Fenway Racing had moved to the engineering model for their teams, Yates had fallen far behind which could be witnessed in their last couple of seasons. Robert Yates finally closed after a short alliance with Richard Petty and it was no more. This is so familiar that it seems eerie.

    Roush Fenway Racing had become the top team for Ford in the Sprint Cup Series. Roush had a few championships and cars that competed in every race. When the Car of Tomorrow was introduced, the RFR teams had a hard time catching up. Roush blamed it on opposition teams not following the rules which left the RFR team behind. It was also mentioned that the computer software was not up to snuff. Sound familiar?

    The last two years, RFR has found their teams behind. So much so that in that period of time, only Carl Edwards has won a race. After Matt Kenseth bolted for Joe Gibbs earlier, Carl Edwards followed. Roush formed his team in 2015 with veteran Greg Biffle, XFINITY Champ Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Trevor Bayne. None of them were competitive.

    The Wood Brothers dropped their alliance with RFR and went with Team Penske, who became super competitive with the same Ford engines. Richard Petty Motorsports followed. There was more talk of outdated computer simulation software. Jack Roush was asked if the Penske people could share information with his team and his answer was the suspension setup which was so different, it wasn’t compatible.

    Interesting that the Wood Brothers No. 21 team became more competitive in 2015 and Richard Petty Motorsports’ No. 43 car outran all of the RFR cars. If the earlier discussion about Robert Yates Racing is true, we have another truth here. For five years, Roush Fenway Racing, the flagship of Ford Motor Company, has been in decline, and now there seems to be no end to their misery. Will we see the demise of that dynasty in 2016 or will the organization go the way of Robert Yates Racing?

    For the good of the sport, NASCAR needs Jack Roush. If we had 43 Toyota Camry’s and Chevrolet SS’s only around the track, NASCAR might as well close shop. There must be competition. While Roger Penske’s organization holds down the fort for the Blue Oval now, his loyalty shifts from time to time. It was once said of Roush that if you cracked open his head, blue ovals would fall out. Let’s hope that the RFR teams,at least, become competitive in 2016.

  • Looking out for a champion: Eddie D’Hondt

    Looking out for a champion: Eddie D’Hondt

    [media-credit name=”Photo Credit: Gary Buchanan” align=”alignright” width=”168″][/media-credit]How did you become a spotter?
    “Well, I used to drive late models and modified’s in the NASCAR touring division. I first drove to Charlotte in 1996. I became a General Manager since I have a good business background and we needed a spotter one day for the Cup race with Bill Elliott when I was a general manager there so I just started doing it and I’ve been doing it ever since 12-13 years ago.”

    Entering adulthood, was your plan originally to work in auto racing or did you have another plan for your future?
    “Everything just kind of fell into place. I went to high school and college at C.W. Post on a Baseball and academic scholarship and I went there and started commercial window business in Manhattan where we made and sold commercial window systems and I just raced in the area. I did that for about 15-16 years. But, I raced all over the East Coast while I did that. A bunch of us moved down to Charlotte in 1996, Tommy Baldwin, myself, and Steve Park, and it just kind of all evolved.”

    How did you manage your time between your business and your racing?
    “We had very little sleep. I had to wake up at four o’clock every day to travel to my job and then come home and be with my family for a little while and then go to the shop and work on my race cars and go to be at 12:30-one o’clock every night.”

    What has been the biggest challenge that you’ve faced in your career?
    “I think the change in it all. After about four years I went to work for Bill Elliott as his General Manager. I wanted to work with him for the rest of my life. His career was winding down and Ray Evernham came up to me and asked me if I can convince Bill to drive for him as he was going to start up a Dodge team and he wanted me to come and be his General Manager. Eventually he bought out Bill Elliott Racing. After that I became the GM at Evernham Motorsports. But, the biggest challenge has been changing jobs because the platform of the sport changes. I worked with Robert Yates for almost four years and became like a second son to him and the challenge itself has been to pick up teams from the ground and the business changes in one way or another. The change of it is a little bit devastating but you have to try to make the best of it in the long term.”

    Can you elaborate on your relationship with Robert Yates, Tommy Baldwin, and Ray Evernham?
    “Tommy and I have been best friends for 37 years, our friendship goes back when he was seven years old and I stuffed him in a tire and rolled him down a hill in the mud and we became best friend’s ever since. His dad and I were extremely close. As far as Ray goes, I knew him from back home and when I came down here and I was always happy for him and his accomplishments. Then I started working for him for a while. Robert and getting to know him and getting to run his company and turning it around was a pretty big change from when I got there. I can say that I became a second son to him and after three and a half years his career wound down and sold the team. I spent so much time with these people, it’s pretty easy to build a relationship with them. You spend more time with the people you work with than your own family.”

    What years did you work with RYR and what did you do to turn around the team?
    “I started in the last two races in 2003 and I left mid-season 2006. When I left, there was trouble financially. When I got there, they had two top ten’s between Dale Jarrett and Elliott Sadler and then the next year they had two wins, 23 tops ten’s and when I took over it totally changed a lot of the ways things were going on. They just needed someone to come in and give a fresh look at it. We won Talladega in 2005 and it was also the last time Dale Jarrett won a race. It was pretty good for a couple of years and they ran well.”

    How do you take that experience you have with managing teams and taking it to the teams when your spotting?
    “There aren’t that many parts of the managerial side that play a role while spotting, it’s more of my time as a driver. I make it seem like the driver’s I’m working with are in my shoes.”

    Previously, you worked with Kyle Busch, this season you’re working with Jeff Gordon and Justin Allgair. What differences do you see between the two drivers compared to other drivers you worked with in the past?
    “Jeff is a Cup Series professional and he’s extremely professional in his approach as he never ever gets angry, he doesn’t call out anyone on our team and when something goes wrong he’s the positive guy that takes care of everything and he’s extremely talented. Kyle is also talented, but he’s more exaggerated in his feelings and emotions. All of the stuff that is happening to him is happening for the first time when Jeff has been through all of it, winning four championships and having a lot of experience. With Kyle, he has all of the talent in the world to win multiple championships, but they are totally different personalities. They’re both very good but on two parts of the spectrum.”

    What are the differences which you have witnessed going from Joe Gibbs Racing to Hendrick Motorsports?
    “I think that they’re very similar in how they approach things on the performance side. My son works at JGR and I’m very happy for him. At HMS, it’s very polished, they have more years than JGR, JGR started up after HMS so you can see that the experience things that HMS has with the championships between Jimmie Johnson and Jeff in house as opposed to just three with JGR with Tony Stewart and Bobby Labonte. It’s just the maturity of the organization. Gibbs will get to winning championships in years to come, but I think Hendrick stand on its own platform.”

    What does your OLDEST son do with JGR?
    “He is a mechanic for the No. 18 Nationwide team.”

    Besides being a spotter, what additional roles do you have with the team?
    “None, that is all I do with the No. 24 team. I also spot for Miguel Paludo and Justin Allgair. I do contract work for drivers and teams, but that’s all I do.”

    When not spotting or writing up contracts, what do you usually do?
    “Well I have two dogs that I look after and take care of in my house. I’ve been doing a lot of laundry these days because we’re in mid-season form and get home at four o’clock in the morning on Saturday night.”

    Does the speed of the sport, going week-to-week ever get to you?
    “Yeah it does, but, after all these years, I’ve gotten a pretty good basis of it without overwhelming me. I can see that happening to some young kids that drive. But, I started all of this in 1981 and have been through it for a quite amount of years. The schedule isn’t foreign to me. It used to be a lot harder with all of the testing where we spent the weekend at the racetrack and then go to another track for three days to test.”

    How much longer do you plan on spotting?
    “I don’t really know. I don’t really have a plan. I’ll probably keep going as long as I can do it. I enjoy working for the best company in the business and the best driver in the business. But, I don’t really have a plan.”

    Once you do retire, what will you do with all the free time every weekend?
    “I don’t know (chuckles). That’s a good question, but I’m not sure yet. Maybe I’ll consult for people. It’s just in my blood and it’s really hard to walk away from it.”

    With your managerial background, what is the possibility of you owning a team in the future?
    “I owned two Nationwide teams with Tommy Baldwin and myself and then I had my own Nationwide team and ARCA team with Randy Humphrey. I might get back to it one day, but it would be when the economy turns around a little bit better and when I can get people to be behind me to keep it financially stable. There was a couple of times around when Tommy and I built teams that were very strong, but we couldn’t find the funding.”

    The Nationwide team you owned a few years ago in 2008 or 2009 right?
    “That sounds roughly correct. The last Nationwide team I owned, Kyle drove for us at Watkins Glen and finished second. But I also owned the start and park teams with Randy Humphrey a few years ago. We were trying to build a full-time Nationwide team but we could never get the money to do it. But, the Nationwide team that Tommy and I had was sponsored by Unilever and is still around today.”

  • The Allison Legacy Continues On; 18 Years Later

    The Allison Legacy Continues On; 18 Years Later

    The world weighs on my shoulders, but what am I to do? You sometimes drive me crazy, but I worry about you.” These few lyrics from Rush, one of rock’s more infamous bands tells a small story about the life of the Allison family, and “The grace under pressure” they endured while racing in the NASCAR series.

    [media-credit name=”bobbyallison.com” align=”alignright” width=”220″][/media-credit]Many times I have sat back thinking how much worrying did Bobby Allison go through watching his sons Davey and Clifford take up the same sport that he so much excelled at, without ever knowing one day this same sport would take his other love—that being not one, but both of his son’s.

    Looking back, where would the hands of time actually stop to reflect on the remarkable Allison legacy? Would it be the 1988 Daytona 500, when Davey chased his dad around the track and fell short of what would be his first 500 victory? Instead of the victory, he got to see up close his dad win his third 500, and the younger Allison finished second.

    Or would it be 1992, when Davey would win his one only 500, four years after his father won his third? Never in the history of NASCAR racing, has one state been so close to a racing family, as Alabama was to the Allison’s. Along with fellow drivers Neil Bonnett and Red Farmer, Bobby and Donnie Allison started the famous Alabama gang, which also included Bobby’s sons Davey and Clifford once they became regulars on the NASCAR circuit.

    As Bobby and Donnie continued to make NASCAR a way of life and keep the family name in the forefront, Davey and Clifford continued to follow in their father’s footsteps while trying to make names for themselves. After a near-fatal accident at Pocono, 27 years and 84 race wins into his racing career, Bobby’s career was over and he retired. Meanwhile, Davey was out making history of his own trying so hard to follow in his dad’s footsteps, in order to keep the Allison legacy alive.

    Sponsorship during Davey’s era didn’t come easy, and just because you had a famous last name it didn’t mean that they were lining up at your door to sign you. A driver not only had to prove himself, but he also had to show them he really wanted it. Davey had a special racing talent, and he proved it by going to victory lane twice in his rookie season. During his nine years racing in the Winston Cup Series, Davey visited victory lane an astounding 19 times—including five victories in 1991.

    1992 would turn out to be Davey’s best season with five trips to victory lane, along with being his worse with some pretty violent wrecks. This same year in August, the Allison’s suffered the worst loss of all when Clifford, died in a crash during practice at Michigan International Speedway for a Busch series race.

    It was a beautiful July day in 1993, the sun shining brightly on Davey’s career with Bobby, Robert Yates and Larry McReynolds all getting together to plan out Davey’s rise to stardom in hopes of continuing the Allison legacy. The very next day, 11 months after the death of Clifford, the racing god’s would once again come knocking at the door of the Allison’s. Tragedy would once again strike them, as Davey would die in a helicopter crash, and the Allison legacy would end on a tragic note.

    The state of Alabama would go into mourning in honor of their fallen hero. Headlights burned throughout the day on the highways and byways of Alabama. Tragically, only a year later, the Alabama gang would become a memory with the death of Neil Bonnett. Davey was well on his way to beating the odds of following in his dad’s footsteps where many have tried, and yet many had failed. This is the 18 year anniversary of the day that shook the racing world, but the memory of the Allison legacy and the Alabama gang lives on.