Yeley has the talent, grit it takes for success in Cup

Every year leading up to the Brickyard 400 one of the most valuable invitations in all of racing is sent out. At least, I think it is one of the most valuable. It's an invite to play golf at the Brickyard Crossing. Chevrolet is the sponsor and it is a fantastic day. At least, I think it is. I love playing golf. My father taught me the game and he also taught me it's the only thing he did that took his mind off of work.

You may not be familiar with the Brickyard Crossing. The 18-hole course is on the grounds of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Four of the holes are inside the track. It is a very challenging course. At least, I think it is. Tough par 3s over water. Long par 5s and a drivable par 4 on the back nine that makes you want to swing so hard your back will hurt for a week.

Bill Weber

There are drivers from Nextel Cup, the Busch Series and the Craftsman Truck Series, members of the national media, local reporters and, of course, VIPs. There's food, beverages, fantastic prizes for the people who turn in an honest scorecard, Kyle Petty in plaid knickers, everything you could want for a fun day at the course.

Last year I got to play with J.J. Yeley. That day I got to know J.J. Yeley. It was in the middle of a terrible season. He had torn up more cars than a Lethal Weapon movie and hadn't shown any of the promise and performance that was expected.

He finished the season 29th in points. His averaging starting spot was 21st. His average finish was 25th. If nice guys don't finish last, maybe they finish 25th or so.

Yeley is a nice guy. He brought an air horn to the golf tournament. Now that's something you won't find in most golf bags, but he brought one. And he used it. When friends were about to play a shot on a neighboring hole, out came the air horn and in the middle of their backswing ... J.J. pulled the trigger. It was pretty funny. At least, I thought so. But then, he never used it when I was playing.

Yeley finished eighth at New Hampshire in September, sandwiched by a 13th at Richmond and a 30th at Dover. In the last nine races of 2006 his best finish was 16th; in six of the last nine he was 30th or worse. Maybe someone was blowing an air horn into his headset on the roll-off. After the first six races this season, Yeley is still looking for his first top-10 finish. Right now the driver of the No. 18 Chevrolet is 18th in points but looking to make a point, that this is one of those teams that is better than the numbers might indicate.

"I think so. At Martinsville, it was driver error, and at the races prior to that we had a couple of pit stops that cost us," Yeley said.

"We need to just come together as a group to get that top-five finish that I know we are capable of."

Few rookie seasons are outstanding. Yeley's was dreadful. He is on a mission to prove he belongs in Nextel Cup, and can be competitive there. In 2007, he is trying to take the next step.

"I think I have a lot better feel for managing the race in the car. I have a better feel for when I need to race and when I need to take it a little bit easier if the car is not there," Yeley said. "I'm learning to work more with [crew chief] Steve [Addington] to make the changes that I'm looking for with the car. I'm learning to keep Steve more abreast of the car's changes as the race goes on versus telling him right before we pit. It might give him more time to think about what changes he wants to make to the racecar to make it better late in the race.

"It all boils down to teamwork. We've got all the right pieces, but we just need to put everything together so we can go out and make it happen."

When we played golf at the Brickyard Crossing, Yeley was pretty open about his season. I actually did a radio interview on my cell phone while our foursome was putting out on one hole. I know that's a no-no but I had promised an Indianapolis radio station I would give them the time and because of a rain delay in the golf outing, the two commitments crossed over.

When the talk-show host heard I was playing with J.J., he asked me to grade his season. It was a little awkward because I was really just getting to know him; we had been enjoying the round of golf and J.J. had promised me some free golf balls with the Fed-Ex logo. He said he was getting his from teammate Denny Hamlin. Maybe that explains why when one, or more, went astray off the club face, we didn't have to go look for them.

"Disappointing. Trying too hard. Tearing-up too much equipment," I told the audience, including J.J. who was standing nearby. "I really expected better results. It's tough to be a rookie in Nextel Cup with the competition being as tough as it is. But I have talked to some guys on his team, they have confidence in him. I think if he stops trying so hard he might do better."

I never got the Fed-Ex golf balls.

At that time J.J. agreed with some of my points and disagreed with others. He pointed out that not everything had been his fault on the track. He had been the victim of some other guys making mistakes, too. And he was right about that. But, he knew the season, to that point, had been less than what was hoped for.

J.J. Yeley is the son of a racer. He started racing quarter-midgets at the age of 10. He worked his way deeper into the sport and in 1998 he was the youngest driver to ever qualify for the Indianapolis 500. He was 21. (A.J. Foyt IV, at the age of 19, now holds the record).

By 2001 he was a full-fledged USAC star, winning the USAC Sprint Car championship. He won the USAC Silver Crown championship in 2002.

In 2003, Yeley really got in the gas with 24 USAC wins, breaking the single-season record of 19 victories, accomplished by none other than A.J. Foyt in 1961.

He also became just the second driver in USAC history to win the Triple Crown by capturing the Midget, Sprint and Silver Crown championships in a single season. Once again, J.J. was right in the tire tracks of a fairly accomplished racer who has enjoyed some success in NASCAR -- teammate Tony Stewart, who turned the "triple" in 1995.

Yeley turned 30 this past October. Next week the series goes to Phoenix, his hometown. This week he races in Texas, the home state of his sponsor, Interstate Batteries.

"There's still a great opportunity with the points and we can't falter at Texas or Phoenix with Texas being the home to Interstate Batteries and then heading back home to Phoenix," Yeley said.

"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.