Yeley has the talent, grit it takes for success in Cup (cont'd)

"With Phoenix, it's the next Car of Tomorrow race and everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing has done a great job with the cars. They've been very fast. Everyone in the shop -- especially the fab shop and the engineers -- has done a great job. From my standpoint, we have all the pieces I need to go out and be successful the next two races."

That's a good quote, because "need" is an accurate description.

"Saying that one or two races are going to be more important than any other race is tough because if you go through Texas and Phoenix and have a couple of good weeks, but you go to Talladega or Darlington and have a bad race, then suddenly those two good weeks could be erased," Yeley said.

"Every week is very important. We've been fortunate enough that even though we've had a few problems -- like at Martinsville where we spun and hit the wall -- we've still had decent finishes. If you don't have horrible weeks, you can afford to have average weeks. But in the end it really comes down to the fact you can't afford to have a bad week at one place as opposed to another. Every week is very, very important."

J.J. Yeley is a determined individual. On the golf course last year I got to know a little about his family, like when he first met his wife, Kristen.

"She would have nothing to do with me," Yeley said.

How did you overcome that?

"I was persistent."

And if you want to make J.J. Yeley smile, ask him about their daughter, Faith Anne. She turns 2 years old on May 31.

Last spring at Texas, he qualified second and finished 35th. He was 20th in the fall race. He's got some work to do the next two weeks; it could be tough, but Yeley once finished a race outside the track, upside down, in a junkyard. You come back from that, you are tough.

We had a pretty good time that day at the Brickyard Crossing. At least, I think we did. We finished fifth, or seventh or something. We each won a dozen Chevrolet golf balls. J.J. had to leave before the awards were handed out so I dropped his off at his rig in the garage during the weekend.

I don't know what's going to happen at Texas or Phoenix or anywhere down the road. But I do know Faith Anne's dad is a determined driver with a history of being a winner. You know what? Something good is probably just ahead for J.J.

At least, I think it is.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.