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

DID YOU KNOW?

*J.J. Yeley will pull double-duty this weekend at California Speedway. On Saturday, he will drive the #18 Vigoro / Home Depot Chevrolet in the NASCAR Busch Series race, and on Sunday, Yeley will make his 2005 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series debut. He will race Joe Gibbs Racing's #11 FedEx Chevrolet in Sunday's event.

*Saturday's NASCAR Busch Series race will mark Yeley's second Busch Series start at the two-mile facility. In February this year, he qualified on the outside of the front row, but suffered handling problems during the race and finished 23rd.

*J.J. Yeley currently stands 12th in NASCAR's Busch Series driver standings. He is just 53 points out of 10th and 142 behind seventh. Yeley has made a remarkable turnaround this year by scoring eight top-10 finishes in his last 11 NASCAR Busch Series starts.

*Sunday's Nextel Cup Series race will mark Yeley's third ever Nextel Cup Series start. Ironically, he made his Nextel Cup debut one year ago right here at California Speedway. He qualified his #11 Vigoro / Home Depot Chevrolet 32nd and suffered an accident and was credited with finishing 41st. Yeley's only other Nextel Cup Series start came at Atlanta in October of 2004, where he finished 27th.

*J.J. Yeley will race Chassis #1868 in Saturday's Busch Series race. This car has only been raced twice in 2005. Yeley finished eighth at Nashville and fifth at Michigan with Chassis #1868.

*On Thursday, September 1, J.J. Yeley will sign autographs with Tony Stewart at Home Depot Store #6629 in Monrovia, California. Yeley's appearance time is scheduled at 6:00 PM PST. 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 Bristol - "I was happy to leave Bristol. We had a pretty good Vigoro / Home Depot Chevy, but we got hit from behind twice and it just put us behind the eight ball. We were never able to recover, and we suffered a disappointing finish. But we've got an outstanding team, and I'm very confident that we'll bounce back at California."

Driver J.J. Yeley on this week's race at California - "I really enjoy racing at California Speedway. My favorite track on the circuit is Michigan, and this track has some of the same characteristics as Michigan. It's wide and fast, but it doesn't have the banking like Michigan. But you can run in multiple grooves at California, and that makes for a great race. We are definitely ready to put last week behind us and get back on track at California."