J.J.Yeley
Home Away from Home

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C., (Aug. 2, 2006) - NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series driver J.J. Yeley is a native of Phoenix, some 1,700 miles southwest of Indianapolis. But despite the distance, Indianapolis could well be called Yeley's home away from home.

The driver of the No. 18 Imitrex® (sumatriptan succinate) Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing came to NASCAR by way of the Indianapolis-based United States Auto Club (USAC). Following the career path blazed by the likes of Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman and, most recently, Kasey Kahne, Yeley turned success in the open-wheel ranks of USAC's Sprint, Midget and Silver Crown divisions to opportunity in NASCAR.

Yeley's path to NASCAR took shape in 1997 when he began competing regularly in USAC Sprint Cars. Three wins and consistency at the front of the field earned Yeley a ride for the 1998 Indianapolis 500. He qualified a solid 13th, becoming the youngest driver at age 21 to qualify for auto racing's most fabled race. And while that record fell in 2003 when 19-year-old A.J. Foyt IV qualified for the Indianapolis 500, Yeley proved his time trail run was no fluke, as he finished a very respectable ninth in his first and only Indianapolis 500.

Five more IRL IndyCar Series races followed, but it was Yeley's continued prowess in USAC that put him on the radar screens of NASCAR owners, particularly that of Joe Gibbs, who had hired USAC standout Tony Stewart back in 1996.

And just as Stewart captured the attention of the NASCAR community when he won the 1995 USAC Triple Crown by earning titles in the Sprint, Midget and Silver Crown divisions in a single season, Yeley did the same.

In 2003, Yeley set a new USAC record of 24 wins in a single season, breaking A.J. Foyt's record of 19 wins, set in 1961. Yeley handily won the Triple Crown, and following in Stewart's footprints, signed a multi-year contract with Joe Gibbs Racing that began with a limited NASCAR Busch Series schedule in 2004.

Today, Yeley is a rookie in the Nextel Cup Series, having traded the regularity of open-wheel machines for a full-time career at stock car racing's highest level. Piloting the No. 18 Imitrex® (sumatriptan succinate) Chevrolet, he'll make his first career start at Indy in a stock car, and a return to his racing home when Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard gets underway.

You've raced an Indy car and tested a stock car at Indy. How comfortable are you at Indianapolis Motor Speedway?
"I'm pretty comfortable at Indy. I've run a lot of laps there other than running the Indianapolis 500. I used to do a two-seater program and give rides there. In a two-seater car you still average 170 mph. That's still comparable to the speeds that we run there in Nextel Cup."

The two-seater that you drove, was it a two-seater Indy car or was it a two-seater stock car?
"It was a two-seater Indy car. I don't know how many laps that I gave in that thing, but I know it was a lot. It was always fun to give a fan the opportunity to see what we do out there on the race track. Obviously it wasn't at full speed, but to a fan, to go 170 mph through the corners of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is probably a pretty thrilling ride."

You're from Phoenix, but because so many USAC races are held in the state of Indiana and in the Midwest, do you consider Indianapolis to be a secondary home for you?
"It would be. As a kid before I started racing, my family used to travel to races in the summers in Indiana. We did that for four or five years. I lived there for close to six years. I raced there, lived there. I guess it would be a second home. I made that step from being a normal, nobody race car driver to a champion that made it to the next series because I ran in Indiana. So, going back to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, there's so much history that goes with that race and that track. To go back there to run the Brickyard 400 is going to be really cool. I'm looking forward to it - especially the opportunity to have a race car that's capable of winning."

You tested at Indy in mid-July. What did you work on and how comfortable do you feel going into the race?
"The biggest thing that we really struggled with was trying to get the car to turn in the center. The tire that Goodyear brought was a little harder than in previous years. I know they had had some issues last year, so the tire that they brought was harder and had less grip. I think a lot of teams really struggled trying to get a good handle on it. Finally, at the end of the day during the second practice, we made some changes. The car turned pretty decent, so I think when we go back we'll look at all of our notes and we'll bring back a little bit better package."

Is Indy a finicky race track to get a handle on? Does it change almost by the hour?
"It does. It's definitely temperature sensitive. We had some cloud cover off and on during our test. The race track really didn't change as much as I thought it was going to. I'm sure a lot of that was dictated with the tires. Something that you really have to pay a lot of attention to, more so at Indy than at any other race track, is the wind. They have three different wind socks throughout the race track. The wind can make such a huge difference to the race cars, especially because Indy isn't a very wide race track. It's very flat. You're struggling to have grip, then all of the sudden you have a 15 to 20 mph wind pushing you in one direction. It can drastically change the handling characteristics of the car."

Going to Indianapolis as a part of Joe Gibbs Racing, you'll benefit from the success of other JGR teams and be able to share notes. The No. 18 car has won there before. Tony Stewart is coming there as the defending race champion. How helpful is that to you coming to Indianapolis as your first time in a stock car?
"It's tremendous. Right off the bat, you've got the opportunity to go out and win one of the biggest races of the NASCAR season. I know that Tony is always good there. He was good there in an Indy car. His notes are going to be good. His experience will hopefully help me go out there and maybe shorten up my learning curve, because this will be my first time there other than the test. It's going to be a positive race. I'm looking forward to a good finish and hopefully an opportunity to try to win the race."

When you were in USAC, were your eyes set on an open-wheel career and running the Indianapolis 500? Did you ever think you'd be running a stock car at Indy?
"For me, I just didn't know how to make that step to get into NASCAR. All I knew was that I was a Saturday night racer that wanted to race. Indianapolis was just what you had to do. You got to race around there three, four times a week and that is the heartland for Indy cars. If you're racing well, you're doing great, you're winning races, you're going to get noticed sooner by someone in the IRL (Indy Racing League) than you might have in years past from someone in NASCAR. For me, the IRL opportunity came first. It was a good opportunity and I took it. It started out good and then it started to taper off because the team started running out of funding. All of the sudden, you're in equipment that might not be as good or as competitive. As a driver, you can't make an Indy car run better because you're a great race car driver or even a good race car driver. If you took Tony Stewart and you put him in a 15th place Indy car, he would run eighth to 10th, but he couldn't take a 15th place car and go win with it. As a driver, that's depressing. To know that no matter how hard you drive, or how perfect a race you drive, if you're not in equipment that's capable of winning, you'll never win. I think you have a better chance of doing that in stock cars. I finally got the opportunity to come to NASCAR. Now after being here, this is definitely a better fit for a guy that's come from a Midget or a Sprint car, where the car slides around and you have to adapt to the race track verses anything you could ever do in an Indy car."

It seems that any driver that has come from USAC has excelled in NASCAR. What were you able to learn from USAC that made the transition to stock cars a little bit easier than someone who's been racing late model stock cars on pavement all their lives?
"There are probably multiple things. You're always going to have a larger horsepower to weight ratio in any of the three divisions you race in USAC, so you have to learn how to control the throttle and try to keep the tires underneath the race car. The other thing is that most USAC races are 30 to 50 laps. Your Silver Crown races are 100 laps or 100 miles. We don't make pit stops, so if your car is not perfect, you're going to have to do something as a driver to make your car better, whether its change lanes on the race track or something else. So as a race car driver, you have to learn how to adapt. I think that's something that's huge in NASCAR, because the cars change so drastically from the start of the race to the end of the race. From the start of a run to the end of a run, you can't always drive around on the bottom of the race track. Sometimes you have to change lanes to make your car faster in order to be competitive. That's what I learned from USAC."