J.J. Yeley, Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

The Trucker News Services

1/17/2008

You generally don’t hear NASCAR drivers quoting William Shakespeare, but if any could relate, it would be J.J. Yeley. In fact, one of the playwright’s most famous phrases from Romeo and Juliet, “Parting is such sweet sorrow,” might be the most appropriate way to describe Yeley’s emotions following last season’s final race.

Yeley’s NASCAR career began when the former USAC standout signed with Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) in November 2003. Fast forward to the middle of November last year, exactly four years after joining JGR, and Yeley drove the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Chevrolet one final time under the green flag for the Ford 400 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Overall, Yeley has made 166 NASCAR starts for the JGR team that gave the former open-wheeler the opportunity to move to stock cars: 78 behind the wheel of the Interstate Batteries Nextel Cup car and 88 starts for JGR in the Busch Series. And while the race at Homestead was no doubt bittersweet for Yeley, he also knows his future is bright as he prepares for the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season as the driver of the No. 96 DLP HDTV car for Hall of Fame Racing.

Yeley says that he may be moving on, but he has built friendships at JGR that will last a lifetime. While he’s sad to leave the team that he’s grown close to, Yeley knows he’ll see them again in a month or so at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. Only then, those friends will turn from teammates to competitors.

“It’s going to be totally different for me,” Yeley said. “I go from one of the teams at the pinnacle of racing to a team that I believe will become that in years to come. It’s not like I’m leaving the sport. I still have a lot of friends at Joe Gibbs Racing and just because I’m leaving the team doesn’t mean that we won’t be friends. In my mind, it really doesn’t change a lot of things other than when I come to the race track, I’ll have a new team and I’ll work with a different bunch of guys who will become my friends in the future.”

Yeley announced his decision to move to Hall of Fame Racing at the beginning of last summer. So a lot of time has passed, and ample opportunity has risen for Yeley to loose focus on his current racing season, as well as second guess himself.

“It really hasn’t been that difficult. I know what next year holds for me,” Yeley said. “I was certainly paying more attention to the No. 96 team at the end of the season to see how they were doing and look at their strengths and weaknesses. At the same time, we’ve been working really hard with the No. 18 car to stay in the top-20 in points. We had rough weekends in Martinsville and Atlanta that set us back a bit.”

Out of 166 starts under his belt with JGR, Yeley has had somewhat of a successful driving career, but a win on the NASCAR level has so far eluded him. Yeley recounted a Busch Series race at Chicago in 2004. He had run up front all day, even taking the lead several times. He had the car to beat. But he feels a decision to pit late in race cost him the win.

“We took a shot at pitting and, looking at it afterward, it ended up being the wrong call and we might have given away the win. It makes me think about how my career might have changed if I would have won a Busch Series race my 10th time in a race car. I think things would be different now,” Yeley said.

“I’ve had a good career so far at the NASCAR level. I’m going to continue to work hard and try to win races and championships and build on my experience in the car. I’m looking forward to working with future crew chiefs on what it’s going to take for me to run consistently in the top-10 and top-five every week. Just because you get to this level doesn’t mean you have to stop trying. You have to work extra hard once you make it to this level than you do learning and trying to get to this level.”

Yeley said his formula for success so far has been to have fun.

“Every weekend to me is about fun because it makes things go a lot smoother for myself and the team to try to keep things light. I think we do a good job when the race starts to stay focused and keep working on the race car. I generally don’t put a lot of pressure on myself because it tends to create more havoc than it does help. We go and have fun during practice and work hard on the race car.”