Robert Yates
A NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee, Yates excelled in two arenas: engine building and team ownership. Yates landed a job with Hall of Famer Junior Johnson in 1971, and provided the power behind Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough, eventually helping Allison win the 1983 NASCAR premier series championship. In the late 1980s, Yates launched his own team, Robert Yates Racing, and success came quickly when Davey Allison won the Daytona 500 in 1992 and finished third in that season’s championship standings. Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett won the 1999 NASCAR premier series championship in a Yates-owned Ford.