Yeley finishes 18th at Nashville

Plagued by a tight handling race car on the concrete racing surface of the Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday night, J.J. Yeley saw his chances go away early during the running of the Federated Auto Parts 300 NASCAR Busch Series race.

His car unable to turn smoothly through the corners, the last thing Yeley and his #1 Miccosukee Gaming & Resort/Northeastern Supply Chevrolet needed was a long green flag run early in the race. Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened with the 43 race cars that started the race running 60 laps without a caution period following a lap one incident that did bring out the first of the race's four yellow flags. Part of J.J.'s problem was starting well back in the field in the 32nd position, one that he immediately improve upon once the green flag fell but not well enough to stave on the faster race cars.

"That long green flag run at the start of the race just killed us," Yeley said. "The car was just too tight, and we needed an early caution to make some adjustments that would keep us from going a lap down early," added Yeley, who did go a lap down to then leader Scott Wimmer on lap 61.

The caution that Yeley was hoping for then happened just a lap later when the car driven by rookie Bobby Santos spun in turn four and came to rest in the infield grass.

Yeley was never to lose a lap again over the final 160 laps of the race nor was he able to get his lap back due mostly because of so few cautions - the four that did take place being the fewest ever for a race on the 1.33-mile Nashville oval.

J.J. languished with the cars that were a lap or more down for most of the race, running as high as 17th but no worse than 21st, but unable to get his lap back through NASCAR's Lucky Dog rule that puts the first car a lap down back on the lead lap during a caution period, Yeley just could only battle for the spoils.

He was one of five drivers who completed all but one of the race's 225 laps and was awarded an 18th place finish in the 2007 season's second race at Nashville. Yeley finished 12th in the initial outing at the Tennessee track back in April.

Red-hot Carl Edwards, the Series' points leader who now holds a commanding 662-point advantage on his closest rival (defending champion Kevin Harvick who did not compete in Nashville), rallied to win his fourth race of the 2007 season - passing the Chevrolet of Clint Bowyer with less than 20 laps to go. Edwards' Ford had fresher tires than Bowyer who led 117 laps with a dominant car but who lost out when his team elected not to change tires on their final pit stop.

Rounding out the top five finishers were Jason Leffler, Wimmer and Regan Smith. Yeley did improve five positions in the driver point standings to 15th with his performance but will be looking to get back to a contending position next Saturday night with the running of the Meijer 300 at the Kentucky Speedway. That race will be televised live, nationally, by ESPN2 beginning at 8 p.m. ED.