Six special women who work behind the scenes at Robert Yates Racing (RYR) have the hard work and dedication to ensure the company's smooth operation.

The office staff at RYR takes special care to make sure that everything stays on track. One person in particular that takes a large part in making activities at RYR run smoothly is human resources and office manager Libby Gant. Her day-to-day duties range from keeping attendance to being Robert Yates's secretary.

A soft-spoken person, Gant knows exactly what needs to be done and how to do it, having been with the team for 14 of its 18 years in the business. Gant was the first full-time female employee at RYR, and has seen the team grow from just 24 workers to more than 130 employees.

Helping with the traditional office work, Teri Moore is the most recent addition to the office staff at RYR. For a year and a half, Moore has been in charge of ordering merchandise for the souvenir shop, as well as shipping UPS packages for the front office, answering the phone, and ordering office supplies. Additionally, she manages driver Elliott Sadler's fan mail.

Moore ventured from her college major of fashion merchandising when she took her position as receptionist at RYR. It is her first job in the business of NASCAR, which makes her different from a lot of the other office employees who have worked in the business before or who have families who have worked in the industry for years.

Another strong asset to the RYR office is Amanda Stewart, who was the receptionist prior to Moore. Credited with starting the RYR souvenir shop from scratch, Stewart now assists RYR with licensing and serves as the team's website coordinator. She handles all licensing approvals, distribution to sponsors, and team outfitting for all of RYR's employees, not to mention the numerous tasks she does to keep the RYR website up-to-date and running. As a sports-oriented person, RYR is the ideal place for Stewart to make her career.

Joining the company in October 1996, Robin Hoffman was also a former RYR receptionist. She began her current role as accountant in 1998 being in charge of accounts payable and receivable. Hoffman is a very organized person - the perfect person for the job. In her 10 years with the team, she claims she's loved coming to work every day because of her affection for the people with which she works.

Responsible for all of RYR's travel and credential needs, Stefanie McCleary handles the team's flight, car rental, and hotel arrangements. She got her start handling travel for a Busch team and joined RYR two and a half years ago. McCleary has a time-consuming job, as she is always on call due to the frequent changes in travel arrangements. Confronting the logistics of moving a large amount of people every weekend to different places is the perfect job for McCleary. Her detail-oriented style matches her position at RYR to a tee.

Without the outgoing and energetic Kristi Jones, marketing, licensing and sponsorship coordinator for RYR, the office wouldn't be complete. Jones was born into the sport as her father has always been involved, previously as a NASCAR Modified driver and currently as a NASCAR employee. Jones knew what she wanted to do in her future as she earned her Bachelor Degree from the State University of New York, majoring in Business and Public Management with a minor in Marketing, as well as earning an Associate Degree in Media Marketing and Management.

During Jones' six and a half years as an RYR employee, she says that the most challenging part for her has been keeping up with the changes and overall growth of the sport of racing.

Contrary to what most people would speculate, these six ladies are just as busy in the off season as they are during race season. As everyday in-house employees, they do not travel regularly with the team, but they do put in a full-time schedule working from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday year-round.

Every one of these women loves working together as a team in RYR's great work environment to provide the backbone support needed for a successful company.