Tire Leak Ruins Yeley’s Last Ride in No. 18 Car
Early Problem Makes Long Season Finale for Interstate Batteries Team
Date: Nov. 18, 2007
Event: Ford 400 (Round 36 of 36)
Series: NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series
Location: Homestead-Miami Speedway (1.5-mile oval)
Start/Finish: 24th/31st (Running, completed 263 of 267 laps)
Winner: Matt Kenseth of Roush Fenway Racing (Ford)
Champion: Jimmie Johnson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
J.J. Yeley’s last ride in the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) began leaking away less than 10 laps into Sunday’s Ford 400 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The result was a disappointing 31st-place finish in the season-ending event.
Right from the start, Yeley knew he had his hands full with a car that was extremely loose. So loose, in fact, that it caused him to brush the wall on lap 24 and to be lapped after just 29 circuits around the 1.5-mile oval.
Even with an extremely ill-handling car and contact with the wall, Yeley kept the Interstate Batteries machine on the track until the first scheduled pit stop on lap 49. But just one lap later, the caution flag flew, trapping Yeley two laps down.
To add insult to injury, crew chief Steve Addington made drastic changes on the first pit stop of the day without yet knowing that the right rear tire had been slowly leaking throughout the first 50 laps of the race, thus causing the ill-handling condition.
“We had a slow leak our very first run out,” said Yeley. “I couldn’t figure out why it was so bad, because after 10 laps the car really went away. I got really loose running the top, where you had to be, and I was really tight running the bottom at the beginning of a run. I was just baffled on what was wrong. We finally pitted and had to make some huge changes, and that’s when we found out we only had about 15 pounds of air pressure in the right-rear tire.”
After learning that the tire leak was most likely the root of Yeley’s early problems, Addington adjusted on the car throughout the race. But the drastic changes made early in the 267-lap race put the No. 18 team in a hole they could not dig out of.
“We made some drastic changes before we found out the tire was going flat,” said Yeley. “It’s one of those deals where we made a ton of changes and went way too far because we didn’t know about the tire issue. We got the car to where it drove pretty decent in the end, but we were down two laps and gave up so much track position early that it pretty much ruined our day. It’s a horrible way to finish off my career at Joe Gibbs Racing.”
Yeley moves to Hall of Fame Racing in 2008, where he’ll drive the No. 96 car.
Yeley’s JGR teammates – Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart – finished third and 30th, respectively, in the Ford 400. Stewart’s finish dropped him one spot to end the year sixth in points. Even with the top-five finish at Homestead, Hamlin finished the year 12th in points. Yeley dropped one spot in the standings to 21st, missing the top-20 by just 31 points.
Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 team of Hendrick Motorsports won this year’s Nextel Cup championship. It is the second straight championship for Johnson and the seventh Nextel Cup title for Hendrick Motorsports.
Matt Kenseth dominated the Ford 400 by leading eight times for a race-high 214 laps en route to his 16th career Nextel Cup victory, his second this season and his first at Homestead. Kurt Busch finished .852 of a second behind Kenseth, while Hamlin, Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards rounded out the top-five. Martin Truex Jr., Johnson, Jeff Burton, Mark Martin and David Ragan comprised the remainder of the top-10.
There were seven caution periods for 32 laps, with three drivers failing to finish.
The 2008 season of the newly named NASCAR Sprint Cup Series kicks off Feb. 8-18 with the traditional Speedweeks at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. The 50th Daytona 500, the first point-paying race of the season, is scheduled for Feb. 18 and will be broadcast live and in high-definition on FOX.
