Heartbreak for J.J. Yeley at Charlotte

Race Review

CONCORD, N.C. (October 16, 2005) - Heartbreaking would be the best way to describe the racing action for J.J. Yeley and the Vigoro / Home Depot team at Charlotte on Friday night. Yeley qualified tenth and ran inside the top 10 for the entire race and appeared to have a career-best finish on the horizon. In the closing laps of the 200-lap event, Yeley was running third behind NASCAR Nextel Cup competitors Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart. With nine laps to go, Stewart raced along the inside of Newman to battle for the lead. Seeing an opportunity, Yeley closed in and waited for an opening to either pass one or both drivers. As the three cars raced into Turn 3, Stewart's car broke loose and slid up the track collecting Yeley and ending the driver's run for the win.

"It's really hard to believe," said a dejected Yeley. "At worst we were going to finish third. When I saw Tony get under Ryan, I wanted to be in a position to pass as quickly as possible. But Tony got loose and I had nowhere to go. It's just a shame for everyone on our Vigoro / Home Depot team."

Cut tires were the story of the weekend at Charlotte as team after team suffered from cut tires, and several drivers wrecked out of Friday's Busch Series race. But Yeley's tires were never a fear. The car handled flawlessly the entire night. "Jason Ratcliff and our crew put an awesome setup in the car, and we were fast from the very beginning," said Yeley. "This same car ran up front at Dover, too, before some bad luck there as well. We'll get this car fixed and try to bring it back for Homestead."

After the accident with Stewart, Yeley brought his crippled car to the pits and was forced to retire from the race with a finish of 22nd. Yeley fell one position in the overall standings to 13th, but he is only 115 points out of the top 10 and 125 points shy of eighth with four races remaining.

Next up for Yeley and the No. 18 team will be the Sam's Town 250 at Memphis Motorsports Park on Saturday, October 22. Racing action will be televised live on TNT at 3:30 PM EST.