Racebeat (12/01/03)
by Rich Romer

NASCAR: Mike Ford is Dale Jarrett's new crew chief, the first of a number of changes expected at Robert Yates Racing before the start of the 2004 season. Ford has been crew chief for Bill Elliott at Evernham Motorsports the last three years, helping the former NASCAR Winston Cup champion to four victories, including one earlier this month at Rockingham. Elliott also dominated the season-ending race last weekend at Homestead, but lost when his right rear tire exploded on the last lap. Ford, who worked as a crewman at RYR before moving to Ray Evernham's team, replaces Shawn Parker as crew chief of Jarrett's No. 88 Ford.

Yates also announced that Eddie D'Hondt was hired in October to take over the role of General Manager for RYR, and Barry Swift, another former team member, has been brought back as shop foreman for both the No. 88 and the No. 38 of Elliott Sadler. Jarrett, who won that championship, started the 2003 season with Brad Parrott as his crew chief and won at Rockingham in the second race of the year. But Parrott was fired six races later and replaced temporarily by Garth Finley. In May, Parker was moved from the No. 38 and finished the season with Jarrett. But the team continue to struggle, failing to gain a top five in the 34 races that followed the Rockingham victory. Jarrett wound up 26th in the points, out of the top 10 for the first time since finishing 13th in 1995, and his worst since finishing 25th in 1990 with the Wood Brothers.

Joe Gibbs Racing has signing United States Auto Club standout J.J Yeley to a multi-year contract. Beginning with the 2004 racing season, Yeley will run an A-B-C schedule, consisting of seven to eight ARCA races, 10-12 NASCAR Busch Series races and two to three NASCAR Nextel Cup Series races. A native of Phoenix, the 27-year-old Yeley is on track to match Stewart's record of earning USAC's Triple Crown -- winning the Sprint, Midget and Silver Crown championships in a single season. Yeley has already wrapped up the Sprint and Silver Crown titles, and with only two races remaining -- Nov. 22 at Tucson (Ariz.) Raceway Park and Nov. 27 at Irwindale (Calif.) Yeley has earned a total of 24 wins this year in USAC, surpassing the mark of 19 set by A.J. Foyt in 1961 and tied in 1988 by Sleepy Tripp and in 2000 by Jay Drake. Fourteen of Yeley's wins have come in Sprint Cars, where Stewart is the owner, while four other wins have come in the Silver Crown car, which Stewart co-owns with Bob East. Yeley became the first driver in USAC history to win on pavement and dirt in all three national series in a single season. Yeley has been a protege of last year's Winston Cup champion Tony Stewart, a driver under long term contract to Gibbs, who came up through the same USAC racing series in which Yeley was so successful.