180 N0RTHEASTERN SUPPLY CUSTOMERS ENJOY RICHMOND HOSPITALITY AND WATCH J.J. YELEY DRIVE FROM BACK OF FIELD TO 19TH PLACE FINISH

A host of the Northeastern Supply Company’s top customers from the Virginia region enjoyed pre-race hospitality and then watched driver J.J. Yeley drive through the field and post a 19th place finish in the NASCAR Busch Series race at the Richmond International Raceway last Friday night.

Bused in for the race on a sunny but very warm late summer afternoon, nearly 180 customers, vendors and Northeastern Supply Company officials ate, drank and were very merry in preparation for the running of the Emerson Radio 250 race at the ¾-mile RIR oval that night.

Yeley, driver of the #1 Miccosukee Gaming & Resort/Northeastern Supply Company Chevrolet Monte Carlo, made a brief visit to the hospitality area to greet the group and promised to pass a lot of cars from the 37th starting position he had earned in qualifying earlier in the day.

Yeley did just that, driving methodically and patiently through the field of 43 cars that started the race and working hard to earn the respectable in the 28th of this season’s 35 scheduled races

“We had to work on the chassis all night to give me a chance to race with other cars, but in the end, a 19th place finish when we were short on horsepower and had some handling issues isn’t all that bad,” Yeley said after the race.

Yeley, who actually was forced to start the race from the rear of the field after failing to attend the driver’s meeting, began improving his track position from the drop of the green flag, moving to the 36th position after just nine laps.

Electing to pit under the race’s very first caution period on lap 11 for a chassis adjustment and to top off the gas tank, Yeley and the #1 Chevrolet dropped all the way back to the 40th spot when the race was re-started on lap 14. Yeley also came through with a magnificent move in turn 2 to avoid a 2-car wreck involving the machines of teammate Mike Wallace and Kevin Conway on lap 35, that incident bringing out the second yellow flag of the night that brought all of the lead lap cars into the pits, including that of Yeley’s, for their first change of tires and fuel.

Re-starting the race this time from the 23rd position after only taking on two tires during his pit stop, Yeley fell back to 26th after 30 more laps of racing and by lap 74 went a lap down to then leader and eventual race winner Kyle Busch.

Yeley was never to come close again to losing a lap the remainder of the 252-lap race, using timely pit stop, some good adjustments from the crew and excellent pit work to eventually move back into 23rd place by lap 119.

Still complaining about the lack of bite in his car through the corners, Yeley made the best of his situation and moved up to 21st at lap 162 when his team picked up two spots during another pit stop. Yeley would finally break into the top 20 on lap 195, showing 18th on the scoreboard and battling seven other cars for position who were also a lap down to the field.

By the race’s end, one that had to be run under a green-white-checker format when the race was red-flagged late, J.J. was showing as the first car a lap down but was never able to get that back in posting the final 19th place finish. That came after numerous laps of spirited battles with the cars driven by Stephen Wallace, Stephen Leicht, David Reutimann, Bobby Labonte, Marcus Ambrose, Tim McCreadie and Landon Cassill. Yeley did end up beating all of them except for the ones piloted by Labonte and Wallace.

“The guys really worked hard tonight, and to come back around from where we had been during the early part of the day and through qualifying, that’s a credit to this team’s never-say-die attitude,” Yeley exclaimed.

J.J. and his teammates will use a week off to regroup and to attempt to keep Yeley on the lead lap and in contention when the Busch Series races again at Dover, DE on Saturday, September 22. That race is scheduled for a 3 p.m. start and will be televised live nationally by ESPN2.