Yates' mess

Related: Yates' fall

Will the last person out the door at Robert Yates Racing please turn off the lights?

Saying that this once supremely successful organization has fallen on hard times is an understatement. It's gotten to the point that the trickle of talent walking out the door has become nothing short of a flood.

• Todd Parrott left at the end of last season, joining Petty Enterprises as Bobby Labonte's crew chief. Parrott had been a perfect fit with Elliott Sadler since 2003, but he was shifted to Dale Jarrett's team late last season, a move that Parrott reportedly was not in favor of.

• More recently, Jarrett announced he is leaving at the end of this season to join Michael Waltrip's Toyota team in '07, a move that embarrassed team owner Robert Yates so much that rumors continue to grow that Yates might attempt to buy out the remainder of Jarrett's contract this season and boot him from the No. 88 early. Meanwhile, No. 88 sponsor UPS reportedly is considering following Jarrett to his new home.

• There also is speculation that Sadler might not be around long for the organization as well, even though he has vehemently denied that he's going anywhere.

• And now comes Eddie D'Hondt's firing Tuesday as general manager of RYR. Like a good manager of a bad baseball team, D'Hondt took the fall for the internal strife and disappointments that continue to fester within the organization like an ugly open wound.

Is D'Hondt's ouster surprising? Yes.

Will it help RYR in the long run? No.

In fact, I'm waiting for Robert Yates to fire his own son, engine-building guru Doug Yates, if things don't get better – which they probably won't any time soon.

RYR has been like a revolving door the last few years, with so many people coming and going that the organization's Human Resources department probably has a hard time keeping track of who's still around.

Most notably, Jarrett has gone through something like seven crew chiefs in the last four years or so. It could have been even more, as Slugger Labbe recently was suspended by NASCAR for use of an unapproved suspension part, prompting the crew chief to offer his resignation.

But Yates did not accept, preferring to keep Labbe in place.

Maybe that's the best way to punish him for his infraction.

Or maybe there's nobody else who wants the job.

Robert Yates Racing always has had the reputation within the industry of being a clean, above-board shop. Yates himself was known as a team owner who wouldn't tolerate even the slightest smidgen of cheating or bending the rules.

But somewhere, somehow, Yates seems to have lost the handle on his team. The downturn might have started back in 2002 with another personnel change when Ricky Rudd was driven out in favor of Sadler.

To be clear, Sadler is a fine and talented young driver. But Rudd still had some spark and life in him at the time. He still was putting up decent numbers at RYR, with three wins and 34 top-five finishes in his three seasons driving Yates' No. 28 Texaco-Havoline Ford. And let's not forget his finishes of fifth, fourth and 10th in points in those three years.

While Sadler did bring youthfulness and enthusiasm, his numbers to date have fallen short of expectations.

Since coming to RYR in 2003, Sadler has accumulated just two wins and only 12 top-five finishes. His season finishes have fluctuated: 22nd, ninth and 13th – and he's currently 15th this season with just one top-five outing.

Still, the mess at RYR is not Sadler's fault (he's more a victim than anything else), nor is it Jarrett's.

After all, Jarrett did win the Cup championship in 1999, and RYR placed at least one driver in the top 10 in 10 different seasons since joining the series in 1989 with the late Davey Allison behind the wheel.

But the team's lack of success since the much-ballyhooed motor merger of RYR and Roush Racing more than two years ago further highlights the problems at Yates, as Roush has thrived and Yates, well, has not.

Roush put all five of its teams in the Chase last year and won the Cup titles in 2003 and 2004, while Yates has placed only one driver (Sadler in '04) in the top 10 since Jarrett finished ninth and Rudd 10th in 2002.

Really, Yates' struggles are similar to those endured in recent years by other once-proud Cup organizations, including Richard Childress Racing and Petty Enterprises. But those other teams are starting to get better. RYR keeps slipping further downward.

Robert Yates is one of the most hands-on owners in the business. He also is one of the few owners who points to racing as his sole business. He doesn't have wineries or performance companies or anything else to distract him.

Yet each time Yates tries to improve the organization with either key hires or fires, the end result is exactly the opposite.

"Right now, we are a victim of our own success," Robert Yates said Tuesday.

Correction, Robert, you're a victim of lack of success.

And firing a guy like Eddie D'Hondt is not going to solve the problem.