Notebook: Yeley leaves his hometown outside top 35

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- When NASCAR picks up down south at Talladega Superspeedway in two weeks, J.J. Yeley will be on the hot seat.

The Arizona native came to the desert 33rd in points but left 35th in the driver standings; the No. 96 Hall of Fame Racing entry is 36th in the series' owner standings, three points behind the 35th-place No. 01 car of Dale Earnhardt Inc.

Arguably, his finish was no fault of his own.

Yeley was chipping away at a solid run but his efforts were undone after an oil spill from Ryan Newman's blown engine during Saturday night's Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.

The first problem for the No. 96 came Friday when the team had to replace an engine forcing Yeley to forego his 22nd qualifying spot for the tail end of the grid on Saturday.

Despite the poor starting position, he worked his way up to 25th by Lap 109. When the race restarted on Lap 121, Yeley was on the lead lap in 17th place.

Then the oil sprayed on the track early in the race from Newman sent multiple cars spinning in Turns 3 and 4. Yeley thought he had the accident cleared but was hit in the rear by Reed Sorenson's No. 41 Dodge.

"It looked like the 12 [Newman] blew up right about the dogleg, and I'm surprised that NASCAR took so long to throw the caution," Yeley said. "I think if they could have got the caution out quicker, maybe everybody would have slowed down before we drove into [Turn] 3 there at speed and went into an ice-skating rink.

"The guys did a good job. They worked their tails off to get us back out there and pick up some points."

After returning to the race on Lap 218, Yeley managed to move from 42nd to 39th.

Mears Gaining Ground

Casey Mears, the Hendrick Motorsports driver rarely mentioned, is quickly climbing his way back to a respectable position in the points standings.

Coming off a seventh-place finish at Martinsville, and now an 11th-place finish Saturday night at Phoenix, he gained one spot in the standings putting the No. 5 Chevrolet in the 26th spot.

Of his finish Mears said, "We saved a lot at the end. I just completely was saving a bunch of fuel."

He knew it was going to be close.

"It was a gamble worth taking. We needed the points. I was looking at the flag stand and looking in the tri-oval. Once we committed to it, we just went ahead and let some of those guys go ahead and go. I'm excited where we ended up."

Gas woes hinder Harvick

Kevin Harvick took a dive (three points) in the driver standings after posting a 19th-place finish.

The No. 29 Chevrolet ran out of gas and struggled to get the car restarted.

"We had a great car and we kept getting it better throughout the race. Todd [Berrier] and the guys did a great job in the pits. We just got caught on pit road when we ran out of gas there near the end, lost some time having to re-fire the car. We should have finished at least in the top-five."

He is 100 points behind his teammate and points leader Jeff Burton.