Yeley off to fast start in new year with new team

By Mark Aumann, NASCAR.COM
January 9, 2008
03:54 PM EST

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The catch word seems to be "new" for J.J. Yeley in 2008. New opportunity, new team, new make.

Based on this week's Sprint Cup testing at Daytona International Speedway, Yeley hopes to add "and improved" to that. And so far, the No. 96 Toyota has been one of the big surprises -- near the top of the leaderboard seemingly every session.

"It's how you're supposed to start out, trying to be the fastest in everything," Yeley said. "I'm just proud of these guys.

"I think we ended up fifth overall in single-car runs and fastest in drafting. It doesn't necessarily mean much, but the car drove really good. I was able to come from the back of the pack to the front a couple of different times, in a couple of different packs."

However, even with all that success, testing remains a necessary evil.

"Coming to Daytona to test is probably one of the most miserable things we have to do all year because it's so repetitious," Yeley said. "You make changes, find something small and make another change, and go in the other direction and lose two- or three-tenths. You just want to go and beat yourself against the wall."

Yeley ran the past two seasons for Joe Gibbs Racing, winning a pole at Michigan, finishing second in last year's Coca-Cola 600 and scoring six top-10s. But his time with the team was numbered when Kyle Busch became available.

Yeley, a Phoenix native, then landed a ride with Hall of Fame Racing, which just happens to be owned by Jeff Moorad and Tom Garfinkel of the Arizona Diamondbacks. And so far, Yeley feels like he fits in perfectly with his new organization.

"We've already had a couple of tests at smaller racetracks, and when we unloaded the first day to when we packed up the second day, we were more than a half-second faster," Yeley said. "Every time we were on the racetrack, I felt more comfortable in the car, and we always seemed to make the car better, which is definitely good.

"Between myself and [crew chief] Brandon Thomas, and the entire engineering staff, it's been really good. I'm overly optimistic about the way my season is looking this year. Looking back on the past two seasons, I'm definitely a lot farther along at this point."

And Yeley's not that far removed from his old job, since Hall of Fame's technical assistance still comes from the Gibbs operation. But unlike during his time at Gibbs, Yeley's now the No. 1 driver -- albeit on a single-car team. However, not having a teammate doesn't seem to faze him.

"At the end of the day, I have to rely on the information that I give my crew chief and how he fixes the racecar," Yeley said. "That doesn't always translate, even when you do have teammates, because there's different driving styles and different methods of thinking as far as the way crew chiefs and engineers work together.

"I know we've added a lot of personnel from what they had last year. And the addition of Toyota and some of their engineers, it's going to be a huge gain. And that just gets us closer to the main goal. At the end of the day we still have to put together a package that's good for me to go out and drive in order to be successful."

And based on how things have gone, Yeley can't wait to come back next month and see just how improved his new team might be.

"I'm surprised how comfortable I already am with the team, how well we've jelled as a group and we haven't had a race yet," he said.