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Old News:
Abby Gaines interviewed NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series driver J.J. Yeley about his move from open wheel dirt-track racing into NASCAR…. Read on for an excerpt of the interview (reprinted with kind permission from The Dirt magazine)

J.J. Yeley: From the Dirt to the Stars

NASCAR is the ultimate dream of many open wheel drivers. But although plenty will try, few will make it into the ranks of the elite sport.
One dirt racer who has succeeded in living the dream is J.J. Yeley, 2003 USAC Triple Crown champion – winner of all three national championships, in the sprint car, midget and Silver Crown divisions. In 2004, Yeley ran 17 NASCAR Busch Series races and two NEXTEL Cup races for Joe Gibbs Racing, the team home of another open wheel star, Tony Stewart.
In 2005, he ran the Busch Series full-time, finishing 11th in the series, and ran four Cup races. Last year, Joe Gibbs Racing gave J.J. the ultimate reward, a full-time ride in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series. Yeley finished the 2006 NASCAR season fifth in the Busch Series and 29th in the NEXTEL Cup Series.
The year had its share of accidents and breakages, breakdowns and failures, Yeley says, but overall it went well. “Regardless of how the points came out, we’ve been competitive almost every week. Just knowing we have a really good team helps when you get to the track and you know that all you have to do is do your best.”
Doing his best wasn’t always easy as a rookie in the super-tough NEXTEL Cup field. The biggest challenge in coming from open wheel racing, he says, was developing the patience needed to run a NASCAR race.
“It took a while to get used to the length of the Busch Series races, then when I moved into the Cup…. It’s hard to believe how long those Cup races are. When I used to watch them on TV I’d watch the start, take a nap, then go back. You can’t do that when you’re driving! I needed to learn to pace myself up until the last 50 to 75 laps, when it’s time to start racing.”
The learning was at times a painful process, with Yeley often hitting problems around half to three-quarters of the way through, the race, when he found he wasn’t in the position he’d hoped for. “You end up racing guys you don’t need to race, and over-driving the car,” he says ruefully. Getting past the tendency was a matter of self-discipline. “It’s about keeping an eye on the laps, and not getting worried when something small happens – you have to remember the day isn’t over. After three or four cautions, you might be back on the lead lap.”
Like open wheel racing, NASCAR is very much a team sport. In first Cup season J.J. has had the support of a team whose experience in the sport is much greater than his.
Steve Addington, J.J.’s NEXTEL Cup series crew chief, started in the Busch Series back in 1994. He did some time at Richard Petty Racing then at PPC Racing, landing up in Joe Gibbs’ Busch programme in 2004. Addington made the jump to a Cup car in 2005, working with Bobby Labonte.
“Bobby is a veteran who’d won a lot of races. He was demanding about what he wanted in the car,” Addington says. That can have its drawbacks. “In the Cup, things change so fast in the set-ups. We were trying to make new stuff work that Bobby wasn’t comfortable with. J.J. has an open mind, he knows he has to run these set-ups in order to run well.”
Still, the relationship took a little while to find its feet. “Bobby LaBonte had driven the car so long, and his style is so different from mine,” J.J. says. “Working with the crew chief is about figuring out the feel of what I want for the car. In the NEXTEL Cup series you need to start off the race a lot closer to perfect [than you do in other classes]. You can’t afford to start way off base, then lose a lap. You might get it back, but that’s not enough for a strong finish.”
Even when a driver can feel where the car’s not right, it’s not always easy to communicate that to the crew. Addington says it took half the season for the crew to learn what J.J. really needed, as opposed to what he said he wanted.
“We were going in the wrong direction with the car because of his feedback, because he was unfamiliar with the car. When we started doing what we, the crew, thought was right, it improved,” Addington says. He admits in those early days they didn’t make as much use as they could have of the expertise in the other Joe Gibbs teams. “We’ve got a ton of information, other drivers to call on or to bounce ideas off. We weren’t using the information we had.”
The Chevy Rock & Roll 400 race at Richmond in September was an example of how things improved. J.J. had qualified poorly, which meant he started the race in position 32. He finished 13th. “That got everyone excited about what we could do,” Addington says. “We realized we didn’t have to rely on J.J.’s feedback, which wasn’t always reliable because of his inexperience.”
As well as getting to grips with the car, J.J. has had to learn the nuances of the 22 different tracks where NASCAR races are held, ranging in length from just half a mile to two and a half miles.
Yeley likes the longer tracks, those that run one and a half or two miles. “Michigan’s my favourite,” he says. “It’s very fast, very wide, with lots of different grooves. I liked it the first time I ran there, and I always look forward to going back.”
Conversely, he’s not a fan of the short track at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee. “It’s a great place to watch a race but it’s very hard to pass, there’s only one groove. If you’re going faster than another guy you have to push him out of the way, and that’s not racing.”
Addington says the danger of the short tracks is the temptation to over-drive. “You go to short tracks like Richmond and Loudon and they lure you into driving hard. But you need to slow your corner entry so the car will turn and then you get back on the gas.” Sometimes, Addington says, it’s a battle to get J.J. to understand that if he’d slow down a bit he’d go faster. He needs to go slower into the corners, Addington says, then use the horsepower of the Cup car to get back on the throttle. “He’s real aggressive driving into corners, he’s kinda fearless. Sometimes that hurts him.
“We wrecked some cars last season, which got J.J. a little gun-shy on being aggressive in traffic. Instead of trying to keep from wrecking, he needs to just race the car, let his natural talent come out.”
Addington declares himself pretty pleased with the season on the whole. “There were times when we were one the fastest cars on the track, even though our finishes didn’t show it.”
The end of the season provided an opportunity to reflect on what happened in 2006, and to get ready for 2007.
“J.J. and I have sat down and talked about the mistakes we’ve made,” Addington says. He’s looking forward to some consistency in 2007 – it’s the first time since he joined Joe Gibbs Racing that he’s started a season working with the same driver as the previous season.
J.J. welcomes that familiarity too—many of the more experienced drivers have longstanding team relationships that help them out on the track. “Tony Stewart’s had the same crew chief for nine years,” Yeley points out.
The crew chief might have stayed the same, but there have been some personnel changes in the team. “We’ve changed our car chief and our front-end mechanic,” Addington says. “[The new guys] will be a breath of fresh air. They want to be a part of the number 18 car, to bring it back to winning. Everyone wants to see the 18 car right up there with the 11 (of Denny Hamlin, 2006 Rookie of the Year) and the 20 (of Tony Stewart).”
To refresh themselves for this year’s Cup challenge, driver and crew chief took time out for a vacation in the off-season. But not for long. Addison spent the lead-up to the new season rebuilding cars, getting ready to test new configurations. “We put testing off because we didn’t want to turn up with just any car when it might be nothing like what we’re going to race.”
Yeley spent much of the November to January period getting himself into condition for the new season. Fitness is an area where he needs to improve, he says. “I’ve just turned 30 so I’m an old guy. But it’s hard to stick to a fitness routine when the schedule is so busy. I eat well and I hydrate well, I jog a couple of miles. But I need to work on exercise.”
Once again, he’s racing both the Busch Series and the NEXTEL Cup series. He’s back in the Joe Gibbs Racing #18 car for the Cup, but a dearth of sponsors for the #18 Busch Series car means he’ll run the #1 car of Phoenix Racing in the Busch.
“It will be different running for two teams,” he says, “but there are advantages to running both the Busch series and the Cup, jumping back and forth between cars.”
And once again, his job description extends far beyond driving the car. “On a Sunday (race day), I’ll have two hours of hospitality and appearances, when usually the focus would be on the race. In NASCAR, racing’s only 60% of the job. The rest is sponsors and politics.”
Yeley’s fame quotient has gone up monumentally since he shifted to NASCAR. “It’s really different from being just an open wheel racer on a Saturday night,” he admits. But he’s not complaining about the increased recognition he gets, and nor, if his wife Kristen has anything to do with, will he let it go to his head. “She assures me she won’t let me change.”
And while J.J. Yeley might have achieved every dirt racer’s dream, he hasn’t forgotten his open wheel roots. He raced the prestigious Chili Bowl midget championship in Tulsa in January, and finished runner-up to his NASCAR teammate Tony Stewart. “I still try to run open wheel when I can,” he says. “It’s a little hard, a bit strange to get back in those cars, but I’ve been doing it so long it’s like riding a bike. It’s what got me to where I am and it’s still a love for me.”
His goal for 2007 is to improve on last year’s performance and to make the Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup. While all drivers can race the whole series, only those ranked in the top ten on series points ahead of the last ten races qualify for the Chase – and if you’re not in the Chase, you can’t win the series.
“We’ve got to be a consistent top ten car this year,” Addington agrees. “It’s going to be a battle to get into the Chase. But J.J.’s such an awesome person, with a good attitude. He’s got all the confidence in the world in us to give him a good car.
“I think he’ll be just fine.”