Yates Battling Cancer While Waiting For NASCAR Hall of Fame Decision

By ESPN

Forgive Doug Yates if he gets a little emotional talking about the possibility of his father, Robert, getting voted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Wednesday.

Battling liver cancer, Robert Yates is one of 20 nominees for the 2018 five-member class. The voting panel meets Wednesday, with each of the 54 members of the voting panel (including one combined ballot from online fan voting) selecting five nominees. The five whose names appear on the most ballots will make up the 2018 class.

It stands to reason that the 74-year-old Yates should have a good chance of being selected. Yates, a former car owner and engine builder, was sixth in the voting last year. Former drivers Red Byron and Alan Kulwicki were seventh and eighth.

"Just to see his love for the sport, this, to me, would just make, in a lot of ways, probably his life complete," Doug Yates said. "Especially [with] what it's going through, it's really hard. This would mean a lot.

"We're hopeful. I think he's very deserving. I hope he's here with us a long time, but this is a really, really hard thing he's fighting."

All 15 nominees who were not selected for the 2017 class remain on the ballot, joined by first-time nominees: team owners Roger Penske and Joe Gibbs and drivers Bobby Labonte, Davey Allison and Red Farmer.

This is the fourth year for Yates to be on the ballot. As an owner in the series from 1989-2007, he won 57 races as well as the 1999 NASCAR Cup title with Dale Jarrett. That was his second title as an engine builder -- he built the engines for Bobby Allison's 1983 title run with DiGard Racing. He also spent several years building engines for Junior Johnson.

Yates won three Daytona 500s as an owner -- in 1992 with Davey Allison as well as in 1996 and 2000 with Jarrett.

"It's going to mean the world to Robert because his life was NASCAR racing," Jarrett said. "He started at the very bottom -- he worked his way from Holman-Moody sweeping floors [in 1968] all the way to become the premier engine builder.

"He took all of that and became a team owner, and not just a team owner but he gave me and others an opportunity to drive the best cars in the business."

Yates is starting to feel the effects of immunotherapy treatments, of which he is currently on his third dose, Doug Yates said.

"In the past voting when we've been there and they've announced the winners, the first thing he says, 'They got it exactly right - these guys deserve to be in the Hall of Fame,' " Doug Yates said.

"He's so gracious. But it's hard. Right now, he's really struggling."

Jarrett said there is no doubt that Yates will be in the Hall of Fame, so he hopes that Robert is alive to know that he was elected into the shrine.

"He has fought his entire life and he's in a battle right now for his life with cancer," Jarrett said. "If he's able to see this happen, it just adds an element of gratitude and satisfaction for everything he went through.

"Not only was he financially trying to make it happen, he worked in every facet of the shop. We knew what a great job he did building engines, but he could work on the chassis, work on aerodynamics, [and] spent many hours with us in the wind tunnel."

The nominees returning to the ballot in addition to Yates, Byron and Kulwicki are drivers Buddy Baker, Ron Hornaday, Hershel McGriff, Larry Phillips, Ricky Rudd and Mike Stefanik; team owner Jack Roush; crew chiefs Ray Evernham, Ray Fox, Harry Hyde and Waddell Wilson; and broadcaster Ken Squier.

"For me, [it's important] knowing how much sacrifice he made, all the things he did in his career -- the wins and the championship and all that is great but all the things he did because he loved the sport, he was the most driven person I've ever been around," Doug Yates said.

"To care about the sport so much is part of the reason why I feel he is so deserving of it."

Jarrett is also hopeful the time has come.

"We hope [life continues] a ways down the road for him, but if he knows this has happened, it's going to give him an element of peace that he did achieve this," Jarrett said.

"It's not something he set out for. He's not big on being recognized for anything. ... It's going to happen at some point -- it needs to happen now."