J.J. Yeley - Chicagoland Pre-Race Notes and Quotes

Yeley and his Vigoro/Home Depot teammates tested at Chicagoland in June.

Last year at Chicagoland, Yeley led 25 laps and seemed to be on his way to his first career NASCAR victory. But with 20 laps to go, the team surrendered the lead to make a pit stop under a caution flag period. Yeley restarted in 11th and was only able to race his way back to 9th at the checkered flag. While Yeley was leading with 20 laps to go, the two drivers running second and third (Justin Labonte and Mike Wallace) eventually staged a great battle for the win with Labonte coming out on top.

The Vigoro/Home Depot team will bring Chassis #1866 to Chicago. Yeley scored the best finish of his career with this particular chassis, a fourth-place finish at Milwaukee.

J.J. Yeley will join several employees from Spectrum Brands, makers of Vigoro, to assist The Home Depot and their Racing to Play initiative on Thursday, July 7, in the Chicago area. Racing to Play aims to build playgrounds in race communities for youths, and a total of 10 race-themed playgrounds will be built across the country. The project is a joint effort that includes The Home Depot, Joe Gibbs Racing and KaBOOM!, a national nonprofit organization that works with businesses and communities to build playgrounds. Volunteers are invited to meet Yeley and help build a new playground on Thursday morning at 15315 Calitonia Drive, Markham, Illinois.

Also on Thursday, July 7, J.J. Yeley will sign autographs with Tony Stewart at Home Depot Store #1975 in Oswego, Illinois. Yeley's appearance time is scheduled at 6:00 PM CST. Fans must obtain a wristband in order to receive an autograph, and 700 wristbands will be handed out at the store three hours prior to the drivers' scheduled appearance.

QUOTES

Driver J.J. Yeley on last week's race at Daytona - "We've had really good engines from our shop this year, but unfortunately we suffered some trouble in Daytona. I know our team will figure out what went wrong, and we'll be just fine next week at Chicago. It's disappointing, but we had a very fast car. It was much better than any car I've had at Daytona or Talladega."

Driver J.J. Yeley on this week's race in Chicago- "We had a great two-day test session at Chicagoland last month. I am very confident and comfortable racing at this particular track. We felt like we gave a win away last year, so we're looking to make amends and take what's ours on Saturday."