Nashville Not Kind to Yeley, Will Look for Luck in Four-Leaf Clover

Event: Federated Auto Parts 300
Date: June 10, 2006
Start: 18th
Finish: 16th
Laps completed/Total: 224/225

Race Review

Nashville, TN (June 11, 2006) – J.J. Yeley had just passed teammate Denny Hamlin for third place on Lap 144 and threatened the leaders on his way to a potential breakthrough victory when he unknowingly ran over a small piece of debris and flattened his right-rear tire. Yeley brought his Vigoro / Home Depot Chevrolet to the pits for an unscheduled pit stop to change tires moments later, and he fell off the lead lap for good. “I just can’t believe it,” said a disappointed Yeley. “Everything was going perfectly to plan, but we had a hose clamp embedded in one of our Goodyear Eagles and that took us out of contention. We needed the race to stay green so the leaders would be forced to pit under the green and we could have got back on sequence, but it wasn’t to be.”

As Yeley explained, just a few laps before the leaders would need to pit for fuel, the caution was displayed for debris on the track at Lap 172, trapping Yeley down one lap. As the race concluded, Yeley would run in and around the top five, only to finish the race in 16th.

The night started off well for Yeley as he moved up from his 18th-place starting position and into the top 10 on Lap 17. He continued marching forward and was running eighth when the leaders pitted for the first time on Lap 36 under a caution flag. The Vigoro / Home Depot team put Yeley back on the track in seventh.

Once the race resumed, Yeley wasted little time in cracking the top five, and he moved up to fourth after another round of pit stops on Lap 99. “We were a little too tight in the middle of the corners for most of the night, but Jason Ratcliff made the car better and better,” said Yeley. “We just did not get the finish that we deserved.”

Because Yeley practiced his Nextel Cup Series car at Pocono earlier in the day, Joe Gibbs Racing tapped Casey Atwood to practice their Vigoro / Home Depot Chevy at Nashville. “Casey did a great job for us,” said Yeley. “He and Jason put a good setup underneath me, and I want to thank him for everything he did for us at Nashville. I feel really good about him helping us out at Kentucky next weekend and at additional races down the road.”

Yeley and his Vigoro / Home Depot teammates will look to rebound next weekend at Kentucky Speedway, and they might have the good luck charm to do just that. “My mother (Judy) just sent me several four-leaf clovers, and she even found one five-leaf clover,” said Yeley. “We’ll see if they can turn our luck around.” The Kentucky race will be televised live on FX at 7:30 PM EST. Yeley will arrive in Kentucky sixth in the overall driver’s standings while the No. 18 car is fifth in the overall owner’s standings.