[3] During his formative years, he moved to Wake Forest, North Carolina to live with his sister's family.

In 1964, Yates graduated from Wilson Technical College in North Carolina, earning a degree in mechanical engineering.

During that time, Bobby Allison won the NASCAR Winston Cup Series title in 1983.

In 1991, Larry McReynolds (now a NASCAR analyst with Fox Sports) joined Yates Racing as crew chief and led Davey Allison to five victories.

In 1992 Allison again had another dominant year winning five races again, despite a broken hand suffered at Pocono in June and a cracked rib.

Allison also experienced a personal tragedy in August when his brother Clifford was killed in the Busch Series race at Michigan International Speedway.

Ernie Irvan, who was driving for Morgan-McClure Motorsports, wanted to replace his friend and after several weeks Yates was able to bring him aboard.

In August Irvan came within ten laps of winning the Inaugural Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis, before cutting a tire and handing the race to Jeff Gordon.

Irvan was in contention for the Winston Cup title before he was critically injured in practice crash at Michigan a week later.

With the team in need of a full-time replacement while Irvan was sidelined, Yates brought Dale Jarrett from Joe Gibbs Racing to drive the #28.

Jarrett also won the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte and the Brickyard 400 and at Michigan in August and finished third in the final Winston Cup points standings behind Hendrick Motorsports teammates Terry Labonte (the Champion) and Jeff Gordon.

Ford hired several key members including Russ Salerno, as his Pit Crew Coordinator.

In 2010 he came out of retirement to form a new company, Robert Yates Racing Engines, with his son-in-law Chris Davy as his partner.