Driver: J.J. Yeley -- Phoenix, Arizona
Team: No. 6 AAA Ford
Points: 21st (-3267)
2006: Finished 20th in Season Standings
Key Stats: 3 Top-10s, 1 Top-5, 5 DNFs
Back in 2008?: Yes, no longer with JGR, moves to No. 96 Hall of Fame Racing Toyota
J.J. Yeley undoubtedly has some of the most raw talent in the garage area.
That talent, though, doesn't mean a lick when your ride in the Joe Gibbs Racing three-part operation is compared with two Chase for the Nextel Cup contenders Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin.
Yeley comes from the same background Stewart, Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon and others come from -- USAC. Like his teammate Stewart, Yeley has driven in the Indianapolis 500 as well as winning the USAC Triple Crown. They're the only two drivers to ever do that.
Yeley scored 24 wins in USAC in 2004 -- more than anyone, ever. If need to understand the size of that, look it up, but know A.J. Foyt used to hold the title with five less.
That all didn't matter in 2007. A lone Top-5, and a career first, during the fuel mileage ending of the Coca-Cola 600 highlighted a season that was better than his last but not enough. Sponsor issues could have been a factor in the team performance after it came to light that Interstate Batteries paid considerably less than Home Depot and Fedex did.
The fact that his teammates had a combined Top-10 effort of 41 races between them to Yeley's 3 in 2007 showed the major disparity between the teams. I hesitate to call Yeley out on performance issues mainly because of past racing success, however, a change was definitely needed.
In 2008, Yeley will work for Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman in the No. 96 DLP Toyota -- a team that isn't far-removed from Joe Gibbs Racing. He's replacing Tony Raines in another sub-par 2007 car, but will have help from JGR engineers along the way. Don't look for Yeley to drop any record-breaking seasons on the Cup world any time soon, though.
