Motorsports FanHouse

J.J. Yeley Ousted by Hall of Fame Racing

Geoffrey Miller — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:24:00 EST

Filed under: J.J. Yeley, NASCAR Silly Season, Sprint Cup

At least he got to meet Jack Bauer before he lost his ride.

J.J. Yeley's fall from one of the top teams in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series took another tumble Wednesday afternoon as he was dropped from his ride in the No. 96 Hall of Fame Racing Toyota.

Yeley, who has put together an unremarkable season of one whole Top-5 (it came in the same race that Kurt Busch won thanks to rain at New Hampshire) after getting bounced from Joe Gibbs Racing in 2007 will be replaced with Brad Coleman, the team announced today:

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Aug. 6, 2008) - Hall of Fame Racing officials announced Wednesday that NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Brad Coleman, who has been under contract as a test driver for Hall of Fame Racing since November 2007, will make his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut by piloting the No. 96 DLP HDTV Toyota Camry in the Aug. 17 3M Performance 400 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.

Coleman, 20, is currently running a full-time season in the Nationwide Series and has put together equally unimpressive results with a single Top-10 at Las Vegas in 2008. He drove for Joe Gibbs Racing's Nationwide Series program in a limited role in 2007.

That experience at JGR is without a doubt the best reason why HoF chose a driver who has yet to prove himself on a consistent basis in the Nationwide Series thanks to the partnership between the two companies. JGR supplies manufacturing and technical support to Hall of Fame.

Earlier this week, the team announced that road course veteran P.J. Jones would be driving the No. 96 in lieu of Yeley in an attempt to earn more owner points (the No. 96 is 38th currently) for the team. With that announcement and today's release of Yeley, that leads me to believe that there was friction at the shop thanks to that move, and that Yeley wasn't a fan of being benched.

For Yeley, though, getting released from Hall of Fame is something that might turn out to be a positive. As a single car team, HoF really is never going to make any headway in the near future in Sprint Cup and likely won't be close to victory lane any time soon.

And in Yeley's case, after he got a chance to fill-in for Tony Stewart at Daytona in July, he made a strong point that with a proper car he can move to the front and race effectively in the Sprint Cup Series.

Hall of Fame sure isn't a place where a driver is going to go win championships, and knowing that Coleman just might be making a career mistake of jumping in a car that races in the Sprint Cup Series but doesn't compete.

J.J. Yeley Ousted by Hall of Fame Racing originally appeared on Motorsports FanHouse on Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:24:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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J.J. Yeley's Chicagoland Water Adventure

Geoffrey Miller — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:36:00 EST

Filed under: J.J. Yeley, Toyota, Sprint Cup

I guess you could say Saturday night's LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway for J.J. Yeley (yay yay yay-lee!) was pretty normal.

The No. 96 Hall of Fame Racing team started officially in 40th and finished 24th, but the setbacks along the way incurred from NASCAR make that finish seem a little more impressive.

You see, J.J. Yeley is a fan of cold water. He likes to drink it, especially when sitting inside a hot race car for 400 miles. He's not so much a fan of warm water, though, like the water inside his race car after sitting through inspection in the July sun in the midwest. And so, his team replaced his warm water bag with a cold water bag -- like they've done for nearly every race this season -- just prior to the race.

NASCAR wasn't a fan of the move, though. Because Yeley's car had already gone through inspection and because there wasn't an official present to see the H2O transaction, they got suspicious. Really suspicious.

They took the No. 96 off of pit road, put it back through inspection, and in doing so, didn't really find anything different. It made him late joining the field, and as soon as the green flag dropped, NASCAR called the No. 96 in for a pass through penalty for "Disobeying a NASCAR Request". The move dropped him behind the field and one lap down.

That's a steep penalty for a dude that just simply wants some high quality H2O in his ride -- or at least some water that isn't going to boil his insides.
NASCAR's contention on the issue is that in the past, teams have rolled through inspection with lead poured in the water containers, and following inspection, replaced it with a water bag, thereby eliminating 30 or so pounds from the race car. That was the initial thought with Yeley's issue, but it turns out water was both going in and out.

David Poole of The Charlotte Observer, though, says this type of punishment from NASCAR that seems more like a "Ha, we got the better of them!"-type move is all-too-common in the sport. He even referenced another team that wasn't directly penalized for the way they changed an engine at Infineon Raceway, but has since had to report to the "random" post-race engine tear down for each of the last three events.

That team is A.J. Allmendinger's No. 84, as he was the only driver who changed an engine at Infineon and then had to go through the post-race engine tear down at Chicago. By going through that process, the team isn't able to pack up a hauler and completely go home for at least an hour after all the other teams have left.

And because of that treatment, I think Hall of Fame Racing and J.J. Yeley aren't complaining more about their treatment this weekend for a violation that really wasn't a violation.

You would think that water is just water, but maybe that isn't so in the non-democracy world that we call NASCAR.

J.J. Yeley's Chicagoland Water Adventure originally appeared on Motorsports FanHouse on Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:36:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Stewart's Exit Surprising, Commendable

Geoffrey Miller — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:27:00 EST

Filed under: Tony Stewart, Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing, Daytona Int'l Speedway, J.J. Yeley, Sprint Cup

Tony Stewart knew he was in trouble.

The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota had started the race -- actually more like the race weekend -- feeling under the weather. And as the field took the green flag for Saturday night's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona, Stewart was hoping he could muster up enough strength to complete all 160 laps.

For a while, as the sun was setting, it looked like he would do it. After starting 17th, Stewart had moved all the way into the Top-5 with a car that likely could have led had he been wanting to push the issue early. Then, the handling started to go away, making the car extremely loose.

"I thought we were going to be able to (make it) for the first two runs, but once the car got a little bit loose and we had to start really sawing on the wheel, it's like it zapped the energy out of me and I started making mistakes," Stewart said.

In other words, Tony knew that he simply wasn't the best driver to be in the No. 20, and at lap 72, Stewart headed to pit road under caution, telling crew chief Greg Zippidelli that he had already unbuckled and was getting out in favor of relief driver J.J. Yeley. Yeley would finish 20th after getting caught in a last-lap crash.

"It wasn't worth putting those guys out on the track at risk and me making a mistake in front of them and creating a bad day for those guys," said Stewart.

"I was trying to be responsible and respectful to my race team and to the rest of the competitors out there."

To admit that sure takes some guts.

I know when TNT first reported that Stewart was feeling under the weather that night, I was shocked. In the pre-race show, Stewart had appeared on the pit box with TNT's Marc Fein and Larry McReynolds for an interview about his future and other topics. He showed no signs of illness and had some great answers to questions he was asked.

And, as it turns out, Stewart took part in every hospitality event that afternoon -- in between heading to the infield care center for IV's and medication.

A lot of drivers and a lot of people would have thrown in the towel long before Stewart did Saturday, but for him to willfully get out of his potentially race-winning car showed just the opposite of what some fans are calling his blatant disregard for the success of the No. 20 team.

Instead, it showed that Stewart does care about performance and that he's not giving up on a team that he appears to be leaving at the end of 2008. And that is something Stewart deserves some credit for.

Stewart's Exit Surprising, Commendable originally appeared on Motorsports FanHouse on Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:27:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sprint Cup Series Finishes Phoenix Test

Geoffrey Miller — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:30:00 EST

Filed under: Juan Montoya, J.J. Yeley, Sprint Cup, NASCAR Testing

As of a western swing through Fontana, Calif. and Las Vegas, Nev. wasn't enough, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series got its fourth official test session wrapped up in Phoenix on Tuesday afternoon.

The test at Phoenix International Raceway was the fourth of six that teams suggested to NASCAR prior to the season, and joins Daytona, California, and Vegas as tracks the teams have tested at.

Only Pocono and Lowe's Motor Speedway remain on the official Sprint Cup series testing docket. Teams can otherwise only test on tracks that the Sprint Cup series doesn't compete on.

Juan Pablo Montoya -- who was fastest during the Las Vegas test prior to the season -- again led all drivers over the five different sessions offered. The No. 42 put down a lap of 131.459mph in the Tuesday morning test session.

From the looks of it, teams were given the same option they had at the Auto Club Speedway test in California. Of the five sessions that were ran, teams could only choose to compete in four of those. About half the teams ran the first session on Monday morning, with the other half running the final session on Tuesday afternoon.

Paul Menard, in the No. 15 Dale Earnhardt Inc. Chevrolet, had the second-quickest lap at 131.186mph. Phoenix-native J.J. Yeley was third.

The one-mile PIR track will host two Sprint Cup events this season with the Subway 500 on April 12 and the Checker Auto Parts 500 during the Chase to the Sprint Cup on November 9.

Sprint Cup Series Finishes Phoenix Test originally appeared on Motorsports FanHouse on Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:30:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Busch, Yeley Pace Drafting Sessions

Geoffrey Miller — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 13:29:00 EST

Filed under: Elliott Sadler, Daytona Int'l Speedway, Kyle Busch, J.J. Yeley, NASCAR Tracks, Sprint Cup, NASCAR Testing

The other J.J. took command of Daytona preseason testing for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Tuesday afternoon.

Instead of reading Jimmie Johnson's name at the top of the speed chart for the fourth-straight session, J.J. Yeley bolted to the top in the first drafting session of Preseason Thunder. The drafting session in which Yeley's No. 96 Toyota was the fastest was the first time NASCAR allowed cars to get into race mode and actually see how their cars handled with other cars on track.

Wednesday morning, Kyle Busch in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota took over the top spot in another drafting session at 187.786mph. Johnson fell to the 5th-place ranking on the grid.

Teams originally started out in packs of about three cars and eventually moved up to around 7 or 8 cars in a pack.

Tire issues also started to take some effect on Tuesday with Reed Sorenson spinning his No. 41 Ganassi Dodge after a tire let go. Casey Mears also scrubbed the wall with a similar issue.

NASCAR and Goodyear have taken the stance that the blistering of right-side tires is normal for testing, and that teams should figure out the issue on their own. Go figure.

Elliott Sadler, however, agreed:

"I think this is a normal issue in winter testing until we get some rubber down on the race track," he told reporters. "By the time we have the 24-hour race and stuff like that, there will be plenty of rubber down, we'll slide around a little bit more and tire problems will take care of themselves."

Sadler is correct with the amount of rubber that will be put on the race track. On tap before the Daytona 500 include the Rolex 24 Sports Car race, an ARCA race, the Budweiser Shootout, plenty of Cup, Nationwide, and Truck Series practice, the Nationwide Series race, the Craftsman Truck Series race, and the Gatorade Duels.

That should be plenty of track time to get the track worked in well.

Busch, Yeley Pace Drafting Sessions originally appeared on Motorsports FanHouse on Wed, 09 Jan 2008 13:29:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NASCAR FanHouse Top 25 Year-in-Review:
J.J. Yeley, No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Dodge

Geoffrey Miller — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 07:00:00 EST

Filed under: Chevrolet, Joe Gibbs Racing, J.J. Yeley

Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day until the end of 2007 as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of 21st-place J.J. Yeley.

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.

NASCAR FanHouse Top 25 Year-in-Review:
J.J. Yeley, No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Dodge originally appeared on Motorsports FanHouse on Fri, 14 Dec 2007 07:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yeley to Take Hall of Fame Racing for a Spin

tallglassofmilk — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 07:43:00 EST

Filed under: Phoenix, NASCAR Silly Season, J.J. Yeley

Ousted Joe Gibbs Racing driver J.J. Yeley has signed a three-year deal with Hall of Fame Racing to replace Tony Raines in the # 96 Cup car sponsored by DLP beginning in 2008:

"I've never had to make a decision this difficult in my life, but I'm confident that Hall of Fame Racing will be competitive week-in and week out and build the future team around me as their driver. The affiliation with the Arizona Diamondbacks and the great people in Phoenix was just an added bonus that makes it the perfect fit for me."

Good deal for him. He gets to race in Gibbs equipment and have enormous resources at his disposal from a team focused solely on him. Of course, no one's sure exactly how good that Toyota equipment will be, but that's a subject for another post.

As a NASCAR fan who's never seen him compete in any other series, I've always had difficulty comprehending that Yeley once broke a record held by A.J. Foyt. I was reminded again yesterday by the team's press release.

"The second-generation driver from Phoenix reeled off an amazing 24 USAC wins in 2003, breaking the single-season record set by racing legend Foyt, who won 19 races during the 1961 season. Yeley also became the second driver in USAC history to win the "Triple Crown" by capturing the Midget, Sprint and Silver Crown championships in a single season, joining current JGR teammate Tony Stewart as the only other driver to accomplish that feat (1995)."

It's also hard to fathom that in 67 NASCAR Nextel Cup starts, J.J. Yeley has only 11 DNFs. Only? Well ... it is an incredibly high number when you compare Yeley to say, Denny Hamlin, who has just two DNFs in 68 starts or Clint Bowyer who's had just four in 62. But, I still say only because when you consider the frequency with which Yeley spins out--it's still hard to believe he's only failed to finish 11 times.

Random Stat
J.J. Yeley's 16.4 DNF percentage is lower than Kasey Kahne's (26/133, 19.5%).

Yeley to Take Hall of Fame Racing for a Spin originally appeared on Motorsports FanHouse on Wed, 05 Sep 2007 07:43:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gibbs News: Busch, Toyota, Sponsorship Op

tallglassofmilk — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 18:07:00 EST

Filed under: Joe Gibbs Racing, Kyle Busch, J.J. Yeley

Dave Moody is reporting that in the next two to three weeks, Joe Gibbs Racing will announce a deal with driver Kyle Busch for 2008 and beyond.

Rather than expand to a four-team operation to make room for the new foliage, J.J. Yeley is expected to be kicked to the curb and picked up by Wood Brothers/JTG Racing to drive the #21 Ford.

Busch would pilot the #18 Interstate Batteries ~~Cheverolet~~ Toyota.

Tony Stewart and Busch on the same team? This should be HIGHlarious. Will they be competing for the Most Outspoken Driver Award(R)? Calling All Sponsors: New award sponsorship opportunity available. This is an amazing opportunity for any pharmaceutical company to promote their drugs that relieve symptoms of the Foot in Mouth and It Wasn't My Fault diseases.

Gibbs News: Busch, Toyota, Sponsorship Op originally appeared on Motorsports FanHouse on Mon, 06 Aug 2007 18:07:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tuesday is Penalty Day and Other Bullsh*t

tallglassofmilk — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 19:10:00 EST

Filed under: Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Joe Gibbs Racing, Crew Chiefs, Nextel Cup, Busch Series, J.J. Yeley

Stewart Spews Bullsh*t, Pays the Price
As expected (?), NASCAR announced today that Tony Stewart has been fined $25,000 and penalized 25 points for "actions detrimental to stock car racing."

His crime: using one of the seven dirty words on the air.

In his post-race interview, Stewart thanked the fans who support him week in and week out and putting up with the bullsh*t from all the other drivers' fans.

Even though ESPN, unlike TNT, was able to bleep the word out before it could cause irreparable damage to young fans' ears, Stewart will still be fined, as Dale Earnhardt Jr. was in 2004. The fine has gone up since then, but the points deduction was the same. Update: Apparently it wasn't bleeped out it all markets.

Stewart maintains his 5th place position in the standings and isn't too concerned about his punishment:

"Whatever happens, they still can't take this trophy away from me."

Note to NASCAR: If you really want to get drivers attention with penalties, start stripping them of their trophies and wins.

In addition, Stewart's car owner, Joe Gibbs, has been penalized 25 car owner championship points because of the infraction.

Biffle Skipped out on the Media
Greg Biffle has been fined $5,000 and placed on probation until Dec. 31, for "actions detrimental to stock car racing."

His crime: finishing 2nd in the Kroger 200 and the failing to fulfill his post-race media obligations Saturday night at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis.

Unauthorized Parts
Also, two NASCAR Busch Series crew chiefs have been fined $5,000 and placed on probation until Dec. 31 due to violations at Indianapolis:

o. Chris Rice, crew chief on the No. 01 Chevrolet driven by Shelby Howard;
o. Chuck Meyers, crew chief on the No. 1 Chevrolet driven by J.J. Yeley.

During opening inspection, both crew chiefs were found in violation of Section 12-4-A, 12-4-Q (car, car parts, components and/or equipment not conforming to NASCAR rules) and Section 20A-5.9D(4) (unapproved intake manifold modifications to the plenum area).

Tuesday is Penalty Day and Other Bullsh*t originally appeared on Motorsports FanHouse on Tue, 31 Jul 2007 19:10:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorsports FanHouse

J.J. Yeley Ousted by Hall of Fame Racing

J.J. Yeley's Chicagoland Water Adventure

Stewart's Exit Surprising, Commendable

Sprint Cup Series Finishes Phoenix Test

Busch, Yeley Pace Drafting Sessions

NASCAR FanHouse Top 25 Year-in-Review:J.J. Yeley, No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Dodge

Yeley to Take Hall of Fame Racing for a Spin

Gibbs News: Busch, Toyota, Sponsorship Op

Tuesday is Penalty Day and Other Bullsh*t

NASCAR FanHouse Top 25 Year-in-Review:
J.J. Yeley, No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Dodge