Yeley latest to hop from USAC to NASCAR

ATLANTA -- J.J. Yeley knows he has a huge task in front of him. He's never competed in a stock car race in his life, yet already he's being compared to 2002 NASCAR champion Tony Stewart.

Stewart won USAC's Triple Crown in 1995, becoming the first driver to win Silver Crown, Sprint Car and Midget championships in the same season. And what did Yeley do this year? Repeat Stewart's feat, setting a USAC record for victories in a single season in the process.

Stewart later signed with Joe Gibbs Racing, and the rest, of course, is well-known.

Yeley recently signed with Gibbs, and his future appears bright. Now all Yeley has to do is go out and win like Stewart.

"If I'm as good as I think I am or I hope to be -- and the amount of effort I'm going to give it -- I think I can accomplish the same things those guys have done," Yeley said. "If you look at the records from what we've done in USAC, everything is very similar.

"(NASCAR) is the top of auto racing. This is where the best of the best are going to be. You have to stand up and give a full effort and see if you can compete."

How good can Yeley be? No one knows for sure. He moved to the big-league Indy Racing League in 1998 but later returned to USAC. Though he seems like a Stewart clone, nothing is guaranteed.

	J.J. Yeley plans to run an "ABC" schedule with Gibbs in 2004.

"That's the thing that's interesting about this sport," Gibbs said. "You don't know. We know how good he is in Silver Crown. We know he's good enough to dominate over there."

And Gibbs knows Yeley has been in a pressure-packed situation but was still able to produce.

Yeley will have some support as he makes the move to NASCAR, not only from Gibbs but from Stewart. Stewart has taken Yeley as a protégé, helping promote Yeley to Gibbs.

Before that, Stewart employed Yeley. The Sprint Car that Yeley drove in 2003 was owned by Stewart, and the Silver Crown that Yeley drove was co-owned by Stewart.

"I'm real proud of him as a car owner and as a fellow driver," Stewart said. "It's not an easy task to go run three national divisions and win three national championships in one season driving for different car owners.

"I've got a lot of respect for J.J. and truly believe he's going to be as good of a champion and win as many races as I've won in Winston Cup cars in my career."

Yeley caught the attention of Gibbs about a year ago as Gibbs was looking around for a younger driver. Yeley's success in USAC this season helped, but Gibbs didn't sign him until Yeley completed a test in a stock car.

"He's got a lot to learn," Stewart said. "He driven cars primarily that were 1,600 pounds or lighter, and now he's going to jump into a car that's twice as heavy and has tires that are half as wide."

The tires will be a difficult adjustment, Stewart said, as Yeley will have to get used to driving on a radial tire.

"Tony is very good at trying to help me adapt," Yeley said. "We're built about the same size, so he's able to jump in the car after I get out of it, go out and run and come in and say, 'This thing is way too tight. That's why you're struggling at this point in the race track.' That's that really helped a lot when I did my test in Lakeland."

Yeley will run a combination ARCA, Busch, Cup schedule -- similar to what Ryan Newman did three years ago for Roger Penske -- with the idea of moving to Nextel Cup full time as soon as possible. His debut is scheduled for Las Vegas Motor Speedway next March in a Busch Series car.

	Joe Gibbs is moving Yeley up through his organization. Credit: Autostock

"I know I need to make that next step and give my full concentration," Yeley said. "That's my biggest plan: to learn as much about the cars as I can as quick as I can to be able to help in a race situation because I won't know exactly what the car's going to need for changes."

Yeley will drive for what amounts to Coy Gibbs' former Busch team, as Coy is considering stepping away from racing. The teams of Yeley and Busch Series driver Mike Bliss -- another former open-wheel star -- will be housed in the same building at Joe Gibbs Racing.

Perhaps by the end of 2004, Yeley will have made his Nextel Cup debut. That's where his goal lies.

"If we have an off-weekend, I'm going to be at the races, sitting either in Bobby (Labonte)'s pits or Tony's pits, trying to learn as much as I possibly can," Yeley said.

"Every since I started racing, I've given racing 100 percent of my time. My wife is very supportive of me and the things we do. I want to be successful wherever I go, and I've been given a great opportunity at Joe Gibbs Racing. I want to make the most of it."