J.J. Yeley

Yeley made eight Cup Series starts last season, mainly with Rick Ware Racing. His 2022 plans have not been announced.

Yeley patched together what was nearly a full slate of Cup Series starts last season, split between Spire Motorsports, Tommy Baldwin Racing and Rick Ware Racing. The 44-year-old veteran made 34 of the 36 events between these two race teams. It was Yeley's biggest slate of racing in NASCAR's top division since 2015. However, the results were spotty at best. He claimed no Top-10 finishes and just four Top-25 finishes. The average finish checked in around 31.0, which has been the norm for this driver over the past four seasons. Yeley's plans for 2021 have not been announced at the time of this writing, but he appears to be involved with Rick Ware Racing to some degree and that team's four different cars. It's difficult to forecast Yeley's potential impact without some idea of his degree of participation, but it could be anywhere between 15-to-30 starts. However, the level of performance seems pretty well established for this driver and the trend line is pretty well set.

Yeley is signed to pilot one of the three Rick Ware Racing rides in the upcoming season. The 15-season Cup Series veteran now has close to 300 starts for his career. Yeley raced roughly half the schedule last year (15 starts) for RWR with some mixed results. The best of the lot was an impressive 12th-place finish in the July Daytona race. Yeley hasn't competed in a full schedule since the 2015 season, so there could be some concerns with regards to conditioning for the 43-year-old driver. One thing is for certain though, Yeley will give his full 100-percent to this race team and have them running at the end of most of their races. He'll keep them out of trouble and minimize those dreaded DNF's.

Made 18 starts for multiple race teams in 2018. Yeley only mustered two Top-20 finishes in those starts. His 2019 plans have not been announced, so it's uncertain where and how much he'll race in 2019.

At the time of this writing it has not been announced, but it assumed that Yeley will return behind the wheel of the No. 14 Toyota in the upcoming season. The 13-season NASCAR veteran did some hard work with this small team last year. Yeley peddled to one Top-10 and nine Top-15 finishes for TriStar Motorsports in the previous campaign. That's not awe inspiring, but it's pretty good performance and consistency given the limitations of this race team. Yeley limited his DNF's to just five and that was key in keeping his average finish for the year at an acceptable 20.0 mark. Assuming that he returns to this team and pairs with crew chief Wally Rogers once again, he should post similar workmanlike numbers in 2018.

It has not been announced as of this writing, but Yeley is expected to return to the No. 14 Toyota of TriStar in 2017. The 40-year-old veteran spent his first full season with this team last year and posted some respectable results. Yeley's three Top-10 finishes were a high mark since his strong 2006 season for Joe Gibbs Racing. He also finished a respectable 14th in the overall driver standings. The veteran driver didn't show many weaknesses last year, and down the stretch he was very strong with more Top-15 finishes than not. We would anticipate he'll be reunited with crew chief Frank Kerr and the two should pick right up where they left off in 2016. Yeley has been a full-time two-division NASCAR driver for much of the last decade, so he's got a bit of an ironman in him.

Yeley is another in a handful of drivers who are not set for 2016 as of this writing. He made 34 starts between two teams for BK Racing. The journeyman driver is expected to return to the seat of the No. 26 Toyota of BKR in the upcoming year, though it has not officially been announced. Yeley's lone bright spot last year was a top-15 finish in the spring Talladega race, however, the rest of the year it was a struggle just to finish in the top 30 most weeks. With only four DNF's for the entire year, it wasn't equipment failures that were setting this driver and team back, just a general lack of speed. Finishing on the lead lap each week was a near impossibility.

The journeyman driver spent much of last season split between three different race teams. Yeley will return to the No. 37 Chevrolet team that he finished last season with. The Max Q Motorsports team will put him behind the wheel again in 2013 and hope for better results. In only a handful of starts last year they were mostly a start-and-park effort. However, Yeley did compete in the entire race in the season finale at Homestead and finished 35th. This small team needs a major cash and personnel infusion in order to be more competitive. Yeley will probably start-and-park a lot with this team in the coming year.

Yeley makes the jump from the Busch Series and makes his bid for the rookie of the year in 2006. This team is in flux after the departure of the slumping Bobby Labonte, so expectations can't be too high with the rookie coming aboard.