YELEY FINISHES 12TH IN RICHMOND

J.J. Yeley used long runs to his advantage Friday night at the Richmond International Raceway in Virginia in equaling his best run of the 2007 NASCAR Busch Series season with a 12th place effort in the Circuit City 250 presented by Funai.

Once again rallying from a disappointing qualifying effort that had the #1 Miccosukee Resort & Gaming/Northeastern Supply Chevrolet opening the event in the 29th position, Yeley and his Phoenix Racing teammates ran consistently all night.

Three of the race's eight cautions came in the race's first 14 laps, preventing Yeley from making much headway through the field. In fact, Yeley's machine actually became part of the race's very first caution when he and the Ford driven by Kyle Krisiloff got together in the second turn spinning out Krisiloff.

J.J. had fallen back to the 32nd position when the race was re-started following the day's third yellow flag period on lap 18, but the race went green for the next 63 laps and Yeley worked his way up to 24th place.

The caution that did fly on lap 81 to end the long green flag run resulted from a 3-car incident involving the cars driven by Jason Leffler, D.J. Kennington and Brett Rowe, a pile-up that Yeley narrowly missed himself. That's when Yeley's pit crew came out smelling like a rose by changing four tires and filling the car in lightening fashion and sending J.J. back onto the track in 18th place when the race re-started on lap 88.

Yeley never ran worse than 19th the rest of evening, working his way to 17th with 80 laps to go, 15th with 60 to run and 14th with 50 left. Only 14 cars finished on the lead lap, and when race leader and eventual race winner Clint Bowyer came close to putting the #1 Chevrolet down a lap, a badly-needed caution flag flew with just 29 laps remaining closing the field back up.

Yeley, in fact, helped cause the caution, his car getting a bit loose in the fourth turn and sliding into the side of the Chevrolet driven by veteran Derrike Cope, sending the latter's machine spinning. Yeley's crew again came out smelling like a rose on the subsequent pit stop Yeley made on lap 224, changing tires and putting in just one can of fuel and sending J.J. back onto the track in the same 14th position he was in before the yellow flag period.

Yeley was able to pick off the Ford driven by David Ragan for 13th place with 10 laps left and then got past points leader Carl Edwards with just five to go for his 12th place finish.

"We were as consistent tonight as we have been all year, and that is what I am most proud of," Yeley said. "We obviously were much better on long runs, and the cautions just happened to come out when we needed them most," he added.

Yeley jumped up to 16th in driver points with his strong performance and will seek to continue his climb up the standings next Friday night at the old Darlington Raceway in Darlington, SC during the running of the Diamond Hill Plywood 200. ESPN2 will again televise the race live nationally beginning at 8 p.m.