Veteran Pro Stock driver Jim Yates will reach a career milestone at this weekend's ACDelco NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. When the two-time NHRA champion (1996-97) breaks the staging beams with his Wiley X GXP for his first qualifying attempt sometime around 1 p.m. local time on Friday, he will officially enter his 400th national event behind the wheel of a Pontiac.

Veteran Pro Stock driver Jim Yates will reach a career milestone at this weekend's ACDelco NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. When the two-time NHRA champion (1996-97) breaks the staging beams with his Wiley X GXP for his first qualifying attempt sometime around 1 p.m. local time on Friday, he will officially enter his 400th national event behind the wheel of a Pontiac.

"It's been an awesome relationship that we've developed over the years with Pontiac and GM," Yates said. "As the years have gone on, it's grown even more. Through the championship years, and the tough times, they've stuck it out with me, and given me the opportunity to come back and do well again. Plus, you benefit from all the technology that GM puts into their racing program and that's something that you just can't buy. They've made it a priority to develop better race cars and engine parts for both Pro and Sportsman competitors, and being with them for as long as we have helps us to be on the leading edge when it comes to the new technology that GM has developed."

Yates first national event in a Pontiac came in March of 1990 at the NHRA Nationals in Houston Since then, he's never missed a race or driven anything else in competition. In fact, Yates 400 national events are the most ever by an NHRA professional driver in a Pontiac and his 25 national event victories put Yates third on the all-time Pontiac Pro Stock win list behind Greg Anderson (54) and Warren Johnson (42). 

"When Pontiac comes out with a new car for our Pro Stock program it's always better," Yates said. "It's actually a yardstick that the other manufacturers try and match and that's because Pontiac has been a leader for as long as I've been involved with them."

In a sterling career spanning 19 seasons, the 55-year-old Virginia resident has captured 25 victories, advanced to 58 final rounds, earned 29 No. 1 qualifying awards and won 417 eliminator rounds (.568). Yates gave Pontiac its first NHRA Pro Stock championship in 1996 with an eight-win season, but his best year came in 1997 when he won his second points title, scored nine national-event victories, advanced to 12 final rounds, captured nine No. 1 qualifying awards and won 58 eliminator rounds (.817).

Yates also has finished second in the NHRA points standings three times (1995, 2001-02), in the top five of the Pro Stock standings eight times and in the top 10 of the points standings 14 times. He's won NHRA national events racing Firebirds, Grand Ams and GTOs, and hopes to get his first victory in a GXP at one of the season's final two contests at Las Vegas or Pomona (Calif.)

"That's a tribute to the technology that Pontiac and GM put into their racing programs," Yates said. "GM is responsible for the aerodynamic design of the vehicle. They take some input from the race teams, but ultimately, it's their engineering staff that comes up with a competitive racecar. We did really well with the Firebird, we did well with the Grand Am, we did well with the GTO and we're hoping we can put our Wiley X GXP in the winner's circle at Las Vegas.

"Richard's (Maskin) coming up with a little more power each week which was evident when we ran the 6.56 (career-best e.t.) at Richmond. We're learning how to get that horsepower down the track and our performance continues to get better with each race. We're looking at the last two races of the season as not the last two races of 2008, but the first two races of 2009. There are some teams that are in test mode, and other teams that are uptight because they're trying to win the championship, but we're out there swinging for the fences because we want to see how fast this Pontiac GXP will run with these new Dart engines. That will give us a good indicator on how well our cars will run next year."

Even if Yates comes up short on race day at Las Vegas, he will still have a lot to celebrate this weekend. His first grandchild, Ryan James Yates was born at 2 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 27 to proud parents Jamie and Cynthy Yates, and the new grandpa is pleased to report that mom and baby are doing great.