J.J. Yeley will get the call to drive the No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford once again, this time at the 1.5-mile tri-oval of Chicagoland Speedway. The Geico 400 race weekend will be Yeley’s third time piloting the No. 38 Ford Fusion since joining Front Row Motorsports in July. He has two top-25 finishes with that crew so far this season, finishing 23rd at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and 25th at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway.
The No. 38 team is 40 points outside the top 35 in owner points and wants to eliminate that gap before season’s end to guarantee a starting position for the beginning of the 2012 season.
Yeley has three previous Sprint Cup starts at the Joliet, Ill., track. His best career finish is 10th (2006).
Comments from Long John Silver’s Ford team driver J.J. Yeley heading to Chicago:
“Chicago is actually one of my favorite racetracks we get to go to. I enjoy the mile-and-a-half racetracks and, to me, Chicago is one of the ones that doesn’t have the banking that some of the higher-speed mile-and-a-half racetracks have. It makes handling a little trickier and usually there’s two- and three-wide racing, so to me it’s exciting. Between Chicago and old Las Vegas, I’d say those are my favorites. So, to get to go back and run another race in the No. 38 there, it has me very excited.
“I’ve run two races now in the ’38’ and we’ve had good runs. We led some laps in Atlanta and we were very competitive in New Hampshire, and obviously those are two completely different types of racetracks. So, it’s good to get to run the car now in Chicago. Every time I’ve run the car, I feel more comfortable with crew chief Jay Guy and the entire crew. And I’m sure the more time we spend together the better we can make the car fit my driving style.
“That’s the biggest unknown in working with a new crew chief, just trying to find that niche between myself and Jay. Going into our third race together, I think he’s got a better understanding of how I need the car to be, as far as the freeness of the car, which is going to help give us a better base set-up. And the better the car can be once we unload for the weekend, the more we can fine-tune and have a better racecar for Sunday’s race.
“Of course, we have to qualify for the race on speed, which is tough on the nerves. I think it’s the most nerve-wracking situation to be in as a racecar driver, knowing that you have to put together the perfect lap. You really can’t afford to have a set-up too far off because usually it’s less than hundredths of a second between making the race and possibly missing the race. But we’ve been strong every week, so I’m confident will be racing on Sunday.”
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