Its Official Yates Closes 28 Team Due to NO Sponsorship

Travis Kvapil “Will work for ride”

BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) – Travis Kvapil had a decent day at Bristol Motor Speedway, but it might have been his final event for Yates Racing.

A lack of sponsorship is forcing the team to suspend operations Monday morning on the No. 28 Ford, team general manager Max Jones said before Sunday’s race. Kvapil finished 18th and his team is 39th in the owner standings.
“It’s not exactly a surprise,” Jones said. “We said all along we’d do five races and try to find something, and we just haven’t found anything yet to run another five. We’ve got some things in the works, but nothing has come together fast enough.”

Jones did not rule out reviving the race team if funding eventually comes through.

“If we get something, we’ll bring it back,” he said. “But we just don’t have anything right now.”

Kvapil has been without proper funding for more than a year. Yates and partner Roush Fenway Racing had to piece sponsorship together on a race-by-race basis, and the team finished a commendable 23rd in the standings without ever having full funding.

But the decent season wasn’t enough to attract sponsors, and the team was overhauled during the offseason when Paul Menard signed on to expand the team to three cars and then Bobby Labonte came aboard in a partnership between Yates and Hall of Fame Racing.

Labonte received the points Kvapil earned last year, and Kvapil was forced to qualify on speed for the first five events of this season. He missed the field at Las Vegas, then blew a motor at Atlanta to fall into a deep hole in the points.

It’s not immediately decided what will happen to the crew members who work on Kvapil’s team. Many could simply be shuffled into new roles with Yates or Roush.