Remember the good ole days when we ran upfront at Michigan

I think I'm starting to show my age when I start talking about the good ole days. But I do remember a time when it was a given that we would not only be good, but dominant at Michigan.

Look at us today. Labonte went from 21 to 33 in less then 20 laps and Menard can't rise above 37th.

I haven't done it in a while, but I was going to watch the entire race - lap for lap - but now I don't know.

It's painful to see how far we have fallen.

I'll stick it out through a pit stop and see if we can make some changes to gain some speed.

The 21 car is having a solid day - currently 15th with only 54 laps to go.

The Yates cars are off though, don't really know why. Bobby is in 28th and Menard in 34th...

I watched the first 40 or so laps and then the last 20 or so, and missed everything in between. Not being able to stomach how terrible we are, after a good 20 years of wasting my Sunday's indoors, I have finally realized that there is more to do on a sunny Sunday afternoon than watch my Yates cars go a lap down early and struggle to a mid pack finish (on a good day).

From Davey to Ernie to Dale and Elliot, I used to be the type who sat there from the prerace show til the pit road post race interviews - now there's no reason to. The only way to really watch the Yates cars anymore is to follow the tracker at the top of the TV screen and then once they go a lap down (usually it doesn't take long) I log on and see their lap times on Nascar.com.

Now I don't even do that.

Thank you Doug Yates, you have cured me of my Yates Racing addiction. Another year or so of this and I should be completely weaned of Nascar altogether.

You guys are way too hard on Doug Yates. He is doing everything he can to make those cars faster, but he's an engine man. He is hiring other people to help get things going in the right direction. They have Max Jones over there, and some other good people.

It's not like they're not trying. Things will get better.

TeamBlueOval wrote:

You guys are way too hard on Doug Yates. He is doing everything he can to make those cars faster, but he's an engine man. He is hiring other people to help get things going in the right direction. They have Max Jones over there, and some other good people.

It's not like they're not trying. Things will get better.

As long as Yates has a car on the track, I am forced to follow it because I started following Nascar when Robert and Davey started and have been with Yates ever since.

I'm happier with these group of drivers when compared to what we have had the last two years, but it's still hard to watch a race. Instead of Gilligan running out of talent and wrecking out, we have Menard whose car doesn't seem to come up to speed at all. He's been up and down this year. He's had some some good runs where he didn't have the finish to show for it, but lately, he's just been bad.

I don't believe being a fan means you have to sugarcoat things.

In the other car, Labonte has done okay, but that's about it. The only reason he is even with TK is that he brings a sponsor. If he didn't have one, I would rather see TK in that car.

Roush-Fenway hasn't been all that great this season, either. Granted that you will probably say that they are compared to how Yates has been running, but I was really expecting Carl to have at least a couple of wins by now, and David and Jamie to be doing a lot better also. Ragan is NOT a 30th place driver, and neither is McMurray (whom I expected to do much better due to Wingo being back as his CC). I hope things get better soon.

Believe me, back when Ward Burton was racing, I had many of the same thoughts, being his fan and all... but I never gave up. I switched drivers because it's pretty hard to pull for someone when they're not racing.

RacingDude wrote:

Roush-Fenway hasn't been all that great this season, either. Granted that you will probably say that they are compared to how Yates has been running, but I was really expecting Carl to have at least a couple of wins by now, and David and Jamie to be doing a lot better also. Ragan is NOT a 30th place driver, and neither is McMurray (whom I expected to do much better due to Wingo being back as his CC). I hope things get better soon.

Believe me, back when Ward Burton was racing, I had many of the same thoughts, being his fan and all... but I never gave up. I switched drivers because it's pretty hard to pull for someone when they're not racing.

That's the thing, I can't switch, as long as Yates has a car on the track, that's who I have to pull for.

If Yates ceased fielding teams (which some may argue he already has - at least competitive teams that is), I would go with Kasey Kane because of his past ties to Yates and Ford. I also like Almendinger and Vickers.

I like Allmendinger too... he's done well making the move from F1. I'd love to see RPM switch to Ford...

That's the thing, I can't switch, as long as Yates has a car on the track, that's who I have to pull for.

Exactly how I feel, but its getting harder. TK would have done better. YATES needed money and HE SURE NEEDED NH/L. BIG BIG MISTAKE