The 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season continues to wind down, and a tough season it has been for Dale Jarrett, the #88 UPS Racing Team and the Robert Yates Racing (RYR) organization. Jarrett and the UPS Team flirted with the top-10 in the point standings during the first quarter of the season, but have since slid downward and are currently mired in the mid 20s in the standings. A lack of performance has been at the heart of the issue, as well as personnel changes which have captured the media headlines throughout the majority of the season.
In an effort to stabilize the UPS Team this summer, Robert Yates Racing named Butch Hylton as crew chief for Jarrett and the #88 UPS Racing Team. Hylton, who has more than 15 years NASCAR experience, joined RYR in June to run research and development (R&D) projects, while also working with development driver Stephen Leicht during the handful of Nextel Cup races at which the young driver was scheduled to compete. Hylton's role changed when former crew chief Slugger Labbe was released from the organization in late July.
"Doug (Yates) and I had worked together at Pocono with Stephen (Leicht) and I think he liked the way I do things and they needed somebody with experience," Hylton said. "They figured it would be easier to move someone up in-house rather than go out and look for someone else, especially considering the amount of experience I have."
Hylton's resume includes work with some of the most respected teams and organizations in NASCAR. Highlighting his work credentials are car chief positions at Roush Racing with driver Mark Martin from 1995 to 1997 and at Joe Gibbs Racing with driver Bobby Labonte from mid-1998 to the end of the 2001 season. At Gibbs, he earned a NASCAR championship during the 2000 season.
The Chicago native's first crew chef job was with Diamond Ridge Motorsports in 1998, when he was hired to serve as the crew chief for a part-time Cup effort with their young driver at the time, Elliott Sadler. When Diamond Ridge changed their plans, Hylton left for the Gibbs-owned organization. He returned to the crew chief role for one of the Richard Childress Racing Busch Series cars in 2002.
While Hylton was originally hired for R&D work at RYR, he was intrigued with the crew chief opportunity for a number of reasons - not the least of which was the opportunity to work closely with car owner Robert Yates.
"This may sound corny but probably the most gratifying thing about this deal is I've gotten a lot closer with Robert and we've become friends, colleagues," Hylton explained. "There are guys like Robert that really made this business what it is, and without them we wouldn't be able to do what we do. We spend a lot of time discussing chassis, aero and racing in general. To be able to tap into his years and years of experience is super gratifying to me. If we could get this car back to victory lane before the end of the year and give that to Robert, then that would be the coolest thing ever for me."
The task at hand for Hylton and the UPS Team is to reverse the performance of the #88 UPS Ford Fusion. The first thing on the agenda for Hylton was to determine a clear plan of attack and stick with it. Hylton's goal is for the team to stay focused on a plan for car setups that includes the "coil-binding" which is a set up being used by most teams currently in the top-10 in the point standings. Additionally, he has instituted the "management by committee" method of running the race team in which key members of the team all work together to determine the setups during the race weekend rather than one person running the show.
"I, as the crew chief, represent a group of individuals and that's the difference between the way this team is run now and the way it's been run before," Hylton explained. "It's a committee now with one chairman as opposed to a dictatorship, which I don't think is the way a team can operate anymore. Teams like Evernham and Childress are operating by committee. A group of guys drive those teams, and those teams are the ones being successful."
The uncertain circumstances surrounding the UPS Team might deter many in the garage from taking the team's crew chief position. Hylton, however, saw a "no lose" opportunity to continue the R&D projects on which he has diligently worked with a supporting cast behind him.
"Really if we didn't run any better, it doesn't look that bad on me, but if we do end up running better then it looks good on me," Hylton said. "Plus, the driver (Jarrett) is 100 percent behind the setup plan because I think that's where this team struggled earlier this year. This team didn't really get on a path or theme early in the year. I think they jumped around on some things a lot."
"The only thing I asked for when I came into this job was the opportunity to pursue the setup pattern that we had been working on here," Hylton continued. "We've been working on it as hard as we can, and I didn't want to have to be jumping around working on a lot of different methods. If we weren't going to work down the path on which we were traveling, then I wasn't really interested in it."
While the ultimate goal for Hylton and RYR is to prepare for the future by securing a sponsor and driver for the #88 Yates-owned Ford, Hylton said it is just as important to car owner Yates to prepare as competitive cars as they can for Jarrett and UPS during these final races before the 2006 season ends.
"I understand the theme for us is to try to send UPS off on a good note," Hylton said. "It really has been a good relationship for both companies. So we've tried real hard and we're going to keep trying."
