Good weekend in California boosts rookie Yeley
For J.J. Yeley, a trip to California Speedway might have marked a turning point in his NASCAR career.
| " | He drove his tail off there at the end of the race to hold his position on those guys on two [fresh] tires. I'm really proud of him. We didn't come in. Everybody behind us did, and I thought we were kind of like a sitting duck. He said he wasn't going to give up the spots right then. He dug down deep and pulled it out for us. " | |
| Steve Addington, J.J. Yeley's crew chief |
If so, it'll reward the faith shown in him first by friend Tony Stewart and later by Joe Gibbs Racing. Yeley might not have won anything while in California, but he undoubtedly lifted his stock while opening a few eyes.
With just six Nextel Cup Series starts to Yeley's credit entering the season, it was hard to expect too much from him -- especially with teammate and fellow Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidate Denny Hamlin stealing the limelight by winning the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona.
In two starts in 2004, Yeley's best finish was a 27th at Atlanta. Four starts a year ago didn't end up much better, with a 25th-place finish at Dover being the highlight.
At the time, it appeared as if Yeley and Hamlin were auditioning for one Cup opening at Gibbs; but Hamlin clearly won the race for a seat in the team's No. 11 Chevrolet. So, it appeared Yeley would simply spend another year running the Busch Series schedule while getting more seasoning in stock cars.
That changed, though, once the team agreed to let Bobby Labonte move to Petty Enterprises. Yeley was handed the proverbial keys to the team's No. 18 Chevy -- while still running the full Busch schedule, as well.
Getting caught up in a crash left Yeley 41st in the Daytona 500 and wasn't exactly the way to start a season. However, heading west seemed to do the trick for the Phoenix native.
Yeley qualified fourth and showed it wasn't a fluke by finishing eighth. Coupled with finishes of eighth (Daytona) and seventh (California) in the Busch Series -- he is second in points in that series -- Yeley is off to a pretty impressive start before heading to this weekend's Busch Series race in Mexico City.
"It's a big confidence boost," Yeley said after Fontana. "I was getting worried there with those guys taking tires [before a green-white-checker finish]. We ran too good there the entire race to give up some spots there at the end because of not pitting. The guys made an excellent call to stay out on the racetrack. Our first top-10 sounds good."
It all started with his qualifying effort, one that set the tone for the rest of the weekend.
"It wasn't exactly the fastest car the first 10 laps [of a fuel run,] but after that, the car freed up a little bit in the center [of the corners]," Yeley said. "I was one of the lone soldiers up there [running the high line] trying to knock the fence down. My car was handling great up there. To come away with an eighth-place finish was great. It was definitely a lot of fun. I'm happy to finish in the top 10. This team really needed this good finish."
And it can be argued that the talented 29-year-old is still trying to show he belongs in NASCAR's highest levels. Having won the USAC "triple crown" in 2003 by taking the Silver Crown, Sprint Car and Midget titles, there's no doubt he can drive.
Yeley, though, didn't wheel a stock car until 2004, so he still has plenty to learn. An 11th-place finish in the Busch Series standings shows that a driver who finished ninth in the 1998 Indianapolis 500 is getting the hang of things.
His finishes at California might be a sign that he's taking the next step, even, and that's exactly what Steve Addington, his Cup crew chief, is hoping to see more of.
"We're really, really proud of J.J. He ran an awesome race, and he did everything that we asked out of him," Addington said. "Everybody was like, 'Why is he falling back [at the start]?' We just wanted to get settled in here and work our way back up, get his feet wet and let him run all day long."
At the end, Yeley really made his crew chief happy. A number of the cars behind him pitted at the end of the race, but Yeley wasn't flustered.
"He drove his tail off there at the end of the race to hold his position on those guys on two [fresh] tires," Addington said. "I'm really proud of him. We didn't come in. Everybody behind us did, and I thought we were kind of like a sitting duck. He said he wasn't going to give up the spots right then. He dug down deep and pulled it out for us."
Clint Bowyer still leads the Raybestos Rookie standings by six points, but Yeley is ahead of Martin Truex Jr. and Hamlin, both of whom were considered among the favorites for the award.
Yeley, though, was simply worrying about a solid finish at Fontana. And the way in which it was achieved reminded him of his days racing USAC cars on dirt.
"It was kind of a throwback to what I'm used to -- put the thing up on the fence and let her eat," he said. "We definitely needed a good finish after Daytona, which put us back to 41st in points. We wanted to get up there and be solid every week and this is a good race to start it off."
At 23rd in points, Yeley can head to Mexico feeling confident about both his programs. And if he hadn't found Casey Mears in his path at the end, his best Cup finish might have been even higher than eighth.
"I was afraid of the restart, but then I started thinking, 'Man, all those guys are just throwing down there on the bottom and leaving the top wide open,'" Yeley said. "I think if it wouldn't have been for the 42 car [of Mears], we would have picked off a couple more. Coming off Turn 4 there, he pinched me in the fence and I had to check up. It's awesome to run in the top 10, the first real race of the season. It's a good start for this team, and we're looking forward to Las Vegas."
Mark Ashenfelter is an associate editor at NASCAR Scene magazine, which has a Web site at www.scenedaily.com .
