Blimpie Yoshimura Suzkui's Aaron Yates finished fourth in the 2002 Daytona 200. It was almost a double-podium weekend for Daytona 600 Supersport race winner, but Aaron seemed to be content just avoiding Daytona disaster.

"Getting some points is a definitely a good thing," he said. "I'm glad it's over."

For most of the race, Yates ran with the second pack consisting of Yates, teammate Jamie Hacking, Eric Bostrom.

Aaron used the hard rear Dunlop in the race, but the Yosh boys considered the medium tire in during the red flag. "I stayed out an extra lap after they told me to come in after the last pit stop, just hoping that if they put the soft one on it would have a better chance to hang in there. I blistered one in six laps the other day doings 49s."

It was a moot point, because Yates got the hard rear Dunlop from his crew.

That didn't stop Aaron's run at the podium, however. Yates had run close to Hacking all day and Gobert was fading. "I was chasing them down, but couldn't get close enough. It seemed like every lap after my stop I was coming up on a bunch of (lapped) guys coming into turn one."