JJ Yeley is about to make history

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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