WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. -- As J.J. Yeley looks to find success in the future, the outgoing Joe Gibbs Racing driver can't help but wonder if more could've been done in the past.

Last week it was determined that Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Busch would replace Yeley in the No. 18 car for the 2008 season, and despite rumors and innuendo around the NASCAR garage, Yeley has yet to sign a deal with a team but said he is talking to several "top-quality" operations that want to make him a championship-caliber driver.

"They want to put an effort behind me that we can go win races. That's what I'm excited about," Yeley said this weekend before competing at Watkins Glen International in Sunday's road-course race.

Yeley said he wished more had been done to improve his performance on the No. 18 team, similar to what other Cup teams in the garage do when team and driver fail to get on the same page and produce results.

Yeley cited seemingly successful personnel changes made on Jamie McMurray's team, who asked Larry Carter to join the team in place of Carl Edward's crew chief Bob Obsborne at the beginning of the season, as one example.

"We never made huge changes to see if there was going to be something out there that was going to help the program ... I guess I'm a little sad that I wasn't given the changes that might have made the difference," Yeley said. "We may have just taken too slow of an approach to find [chemistry]."

On Sunday before the Cup race, J.D. Gibbs, president of Joe Gibbs Racing, said he and Yeley did have discussions about potential crew changes and he said Yeley suggested trying "something different." But Gibbs ultimately felt it wasn't in the best interest of the team.

"In the past we've made changes just to make changes and sometimes it causes more problems doing that," Gibbs said. "We just weren't in a position to do that and decided to keep the group together."

Gibbs said Yeley made valid points but he still feels confident the No. 18 operation had the equipment and personnel in place to perform well.

Kyle Chapman, business manager for Yeley, said he and his driver are in talks with several different NASCAR teams at the moment, but will not discuss specifics until Yeley's current team makes an official announcement of the driver's departure.

"To say a deal has been signed would be totally false," Chapman said. "And to say we've signed with the 21 [of Wood Brothers/JTG Racing] would be false as well."

Regarding the talks with other teams, which are said to include Dale Earnhardt Inc., Chapman said they are going well.

"Talks with other team owners have got J.J. rejuvenated," Chapman added. "There are people out there willing to build a team around him and do whatever, at whatever price, to create a successful operation to fit him."

As to whether or not Joe Gibbs Racing fought to keep Yeley a part of the three-car Cup operation, Chapman wouldn't comment but said, for the most part, everyone knew a change was coming.

A change, Chapman said, wasn't a surprise considering this season was Yeley's last year in his multi-year contract with Joe Gibbs Racing, who also fields cars for two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart and 2006 rookie of the year Denny Hamlin.

"Since Daytona, we knew at any moment we could be told [Joe Gibbs Racing] would make a change, either party could," Chapman said. "Our eyes and options have been open from the get go."

Busch to Gibbs

Sources said Kyle Busch is headed to Joe Gibbs Racing to drive the 18 car next season.

• Complete story, click here

Meanwhile, Yeley said he gave 100 percent and will continue to do so for the rest of the season but said his best apparently wasn't good enough.

"It's not going to change the fact that I'm leaving at the end of the year because if that was the talk three months ago that I was racing for my job and I went out and did my job and won races and ran up front, I was going to stay at Joe Gibbs Racing," he said. "If it's a chemistry thing or whatever it's taken for us to get better, we haven't been able to find it."

Yeley's career with Gibbs began in 2004 with a partial Busch Series schedule.

In 2005, after finishing 11th in points in his first full Busch Series season, Yeley got the nod to pilot the No. 18 Chevrolet in the Cup Series for 2006 and 2007.

A 31-year-old native of Phoenix, Ariz., Yeley is nearing the end of his second season with Joe Gibbs Racing and Chapman said it's been "frustrating" with only one top-10 to speak of where Yeley finished second at the Coca-Cola 600 and now sits 21st in points.

That said, Yeley has improved over last season. At this point in 2007, the driver was 28th in the standings.

Aside from mechanical issues in Bristol and Dover, wrecks in Texas and Phoenix, Yeley has consistently run in the upper mid-pack of the field all season, but mid-pack is not the performance Joe Gibbs Racing expects from its drivers.

Chapman, who is also Yeley's spotter on the track, said this season the driver has done everything to get the No. 18 as fast as possible.

"We haven't been all that happy," he said. "We wanted the 18 team to perform like the other two cars [Stewart and Hamlin]. We wanted all three teams to run equally at the end of day."

Since the beginning of the season, the Nos. 20 and 11 Joe Gibbs Racing machines have run equally in the top 10 and both have wins, although, the No. 18 car hasn't seen Victory Lane since 2003 when the car was piloted by past-champion Bobby Labonte and crewed by Michael "Fatback" McSwain.

From 2000 to 2005, the No. 18 amassed nine victories, 54 top-five finishes and eight pole positions.

A changing of the guard came in December 2004 for the No. 18 with the addition of crew chief Steve Addington with Labonte still at the wheel, where he stayed until Yeley stepped in for the 2006 season.

Addington, former Busch Series crew chief on the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Busch Series team, is only the fourth crew chief hired during the 13-year history of the No. 18 team.

Before Addington, McSwain held the post but after a year-and-a-half tenure, Joe Gibbs Racing released McSwain in July 2004.

From the 2004 season until now, statistics show the car experienced a steady decline in performance, producing no wins, 10 top-five finishes and two poles.

An official announcement regarding the future of the No. 18 car at Joe Gibbs Racing and Kyle Busch as the driver is expected to come at 11 a.m. ET Tuesday in North Carolina.

"Before I say anything I want to have a done deal," Gibbs said. "I feel good about it. Right now we feel good about it and the direction we're going."

As for the crew, Gibbs said he plans to keep the current crew and crew chief Addington in place for the 2008 season when Busch is expected to join the team.

Yeley, who joked before Sunday's race that the Indy Racing League has job openings, said his departure from Joe Gibbs Racing will not affect his attitude for the duration of the season.

"For the most part it takes a lot of burden off my shoulders and probably the team's shoulders," he said. "Now I don't have to worry about what's going to happen. I can go out there and drive the racecar."