Yates: Robbery was an inside job

NASCAR team owner Doug Yates said it appears the thieves who broke into the Roush Yates Racing Engines facility in Mooresville, N.C., recently and stole three engines “knows the facility and knows the engines." The break-in took place Monday at the shop located on Mazeppa Road. The engines, valued at $50,000 each, were built specifically for use in the NASCAR Nationwide and Craftsman Truck series. “We have security on the building," Yates said. “But the area where they broke in, the motion sensor didn’t pick it up. If they had gone any further in the shop [it would have]."

Yates said sheetmetal had been peeled away to allow the thieves to gain access to the shop. “If you look at it, it looks like they opened it with a can opener," he said. “The outside’s peeled up and the inside’s peeled back in … they went in, pushed some engines out and just got out of there.

“It’s a shame. There’s not a home for these engines. So if somebody’s trying to sell you a Ford engine … we do basically all the Ford engines so there’s only one place it could come from. If enough people know about it, maybe we can stop these guys from selling them." Mooresville police say a cargo van, stolen from another race team, was used to transport the engines and then dumped. Yates Racing fields teams in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series. Roush Yates Racing Engines, a joint effort between Yates and fellow car owner Jack Roush, currently provides Ford engines for all Nationwide and truck series teams. scenedaily.com