Saturday Notebook

Yates thankful medical scare wasn't heart-related

The stress of Speed Weeks may have gotten to team owner Robert Yates. Chris Stanford/Getty Images

By Denise N. Maloof, CNNSI.com

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Team owner Robert Yates was back at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, thankful that the medical symptoms he'd experienced a day early weren't heart-related.

"I feel a lot better," he said. "I'm glad I was here in Daytona and had the right people to work on me."

Yates, who owns Dale Jarrett's and Ricky Rudd's Winston Cup teams, awoke early Friday morning feeling, "like my arms had fallen off my shoulders. It was like my heart wasn't working."

He and his wife, Carolyn, headed for Halifax Medical Center, where an examination and subsequent heart catherization revealed no problems. The diagnosis was a relief for Yates, who remembers passing out once during last season. He admitted Saturday that he'd battled a virus, and that the medication he'd taken for it might have backfired.

"I had a miserable cold, kind of like the flu," he said. "And I was on the Z-pack, the Zithromax, and I think the last day was Thursday or Friday. Maybe the combination of the stress of Daytona and all of that, something shut down."

There's been no shortage of Speed Weeks stress for Ford owners. Two NASCAR rule changes, which lowered Ford spoilers a total of 1/2 inch since Sunday, probably didn't help Yates, although Rudd's ninth-place start in Sunday's 44th Daytona 500 is the highest of any Ford.

Meanwhile, Yates' only orders are not to lift anything.

"They put something like a tire plug that dissolves in 90 days," he said of his catherization experience, calling it "a brand-new procedure. In fact, the guy that's selling the thing helped the doctor put it in, so I've got a tire plug in right now."

Nadeau's crew chief fined $25,000

NASCAR announced Saturday that Jerry Nadeau's crew chief Tony Furr must pay the piper again. Furr was fined $25,000 for a minimum-height violation discovered during Thursday's post-race inspection.

Nadeau's Chevrolet, which finished third in Thursday's second 125-mile qualifying race, starts 8th in Sunday's Daytona 500. The minimum height for a Cup car is 51 inches, and Nadeau's was approximately 1/8 of an inch too low, according to NASCAR inspectors.

Last year, Furr incurred a $12,500 fine and a four-race suspension for fuel cell and suspension violations discovered after the Budweiser Shootout.

And his wasn't the only transgression announced Saturday. The crew chief for the No. 94 Busch series Chevrolet driven by Jeff Spraker, Fred Bickford, was fined $5,000 for internal engine components that didn't meet NASCAR's minimum weight requirements.

Rain causes cancellations, delays

Rain washed out the Cup series' final two practices Saturday, but Rudd didn't seem concerned.

"We haven't really lost anything by not having this practice, other than running our race motor," he said. "The cards have been dealt and we're as ready as we're gonna get considering the rules we've got."

"I'd just as soon race right now," Sterling Marlin said. "We've been here long enough. Let's get on with it."

Rain also delayed the start of the Busch series season-opener by 2 1/2 hours. Cup officials had hoped to give drivers at least one session following the Busch race, but eventually canceled it, too.

General Motors to debut new Pontiac next season

General Motors is on track to debut a new Pontiac next season, according to Bob Kraut, brand manager for the Grand Prix Firebird and Bonneville.

"We can confirm we are working on a car," Kraut said. "It's too early to talk about the details of that, but we will have a car at this time next year to run in Daytona if everything goes OK with the NASCAR officials."

July 1 is the NASCAR deadline for a new car to be submitted, Kraut said, adding he wasn't concerned that Pontiac fields only five Winston Cup teams compared with Ford's 15, Chevrolet's 13 and Dodge's 11.

"We want to have a good, core team of people that can win on any given day," Kraut said. "We've chosen to take a path of quality over quantity."

 

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