JJ Yeley is about to make history

donthaveanickname

donthaveanickname

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Tonight's race will be Yeley's 665th start in a NASCAR national series race.
Unless he somehow wins the race, Yeley will beat JD McDuffie's record for the most winless NASCAR national series races in this race.
 
Yeley was dominant and a blast to watch in USAC sprints and midgets in the early '00s. Wish there was a lot of money in that and he never left. He was never the sort of finesse driver for whom the stock car transition made sense.
 
2 Sweet said:
A lot of folks don't remember (or don't know) he once drove the Gibbs 18 car in Cup. After Bobby, before Kyle. He wasn't good at all in it, unfortunately.
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I remember arguing with a well known NASCAR media columnist at the time who was making excuses that Yeley's performance was poor because Gibbs wasn't adequately supporting the #18 car. A year later Busch takes over, and somehow overnight the #18 was up to speed.
 
2 Sweet said:
A lot of folks don't remember (or don't know) he once drove the Gibbs 18 car in Cup. After Bobby, before Kyle. He wasn't good at all in it, unfortunately.
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Oh I remember. He took out Mark While pitting in Charlotte one night when Mark was having a good run, may have won.
 
gnomesayin said:
I remember arguing with a well known NASCAR media columnist at the time who was making excuses that Yeley's performance was poor because Gibbs wasn't adequately supporting the #18 car. A year later Busch takes over, and somehow overnight the #18 was up to speed.
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He may have argued that because Bobby Labonte wasn’t very good in the #18 his last couple years in it either, but yes, Kyle Busch getting in it in 2008 and winning 8 races debunked that theory.
 
ToyYoda said:
He may have argued that because Bobby Labonte wasn’t very good in the #18 his last couple years in it either, but yes, Kyle Busch getting in it in 2008 and winning 8 races debunked that theory.
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Even then, Labonte had 11 top 10s in 2004 and 7 in 2005, and almost won the 2005 Coke 600. Yeley had 3 top 10s in both 2006 and 2007. Labonte way out performed him.
 
hidesert cowboy said:
david ragan still gets rides too. I think because these drivers are approved for all tracks they end up getting the rides just because of that.
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It's because they're known quantities that can get good finishes. A quick check on Racing Reference confirmed my suspicion-

Out of the "core" Rick Ware cars last year...
BJ McLedod- 6 top 30s in 18 starts
Cody Ware- 1 top 30 in 13 starts
JJ Yeley- 9 top 10s in 15 starts

Ragan, Yeley, Timmy Hill, Tony Raines, Reed Sorenson- all guys who can take a 35th place car and drive it to 25th place once in a while. That's the job of an experienced backmarker. Their careers are as long as the Tony Stewart's and Jimmie Johnson's in the world- there's still a place for them in NASCAR.

They're definitely not talented. You could put a rookie in those cars and they'd wad it up in the wall each week trying to keep it a single lap down.
 
Speedbowl14 said:
It's because they're known quantities that can get good finishes. A quick check on Racing Reference confirmed my suspicion-

Out of the "core" Rick Ware cars last year...
BJ McLedod- 6 top 30s in 18 starts
Cody Ware- 1 top 30 in 13 starts
JJ Yeley- 9 top 10s in 15 starts

Ragan, Yeley, Timmy Hill, Tony Raines, Reed Sorenson- all guys who can take a 35th place car and drive it to 25th place once in a while. That's the job of an experienced backmarker. Their careers are as long as the Tony Stewart's and Jimmie Johnson's in the world- there's still a place for them in NASCAR.

They're definitely not talented. You could put a rookie in those cars and they'd wad it up in the wall each week trying to keep it a single lap down.
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9 top 10s, way better than I thought
 
gnomesayin said:
I remember arguing with a well known NASCAR media columnist at the time who was making excuses that Yeley's performance was poor because Gibbs wasn't adequately supporting the #18 car. A year later Busch takes over, and somehow overnight the #18 was up to speed.
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holy wow I totally forgot he drove the 18 for Gibbs. Fully funded with Interstate too.
 
Blaze said:
All these records being counted across all three series now. :( ya hate to see it.
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That confused me at first too, I was thinking there’s no way JJ Yeley’s been in that many Cup races, but then I realized it’s across all three.

For the record, JD McDuffie’s record of most winless Cup starts(653) will likely hold forever. From what I could find, the guy in second for the record is Cecil Gordon, who is over two hundred Cup races behind(449).
 
Blaze said:
All these records being counted across all three series now. :( ya hate to see it.
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The different eras aren't comparable anyway.
Petty's 200 cup wins will likely remain untouched forever, as well as his 1,184 starts and McDuffie's 653 races without a win.

I think it's quite impressive that Yeley managed to stick around for so long after his terrible stint at JGR. He had some pretty good races for TriStar, Sieg and RWR.
 
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