YELEY TURNS IN BEST EFFORT OF 2007 BUSCH SERIES SEASON WITH SOLID 9TH PLACE RUN AT GATEWAY INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY

J.J. Yeley posted his best effort of the 2007 NASCAR Busch Series season Saturday night at the Gateway International Speedway outside of St. Louis by finishing a solid 9th in the Gateway 250.

Yeley qualified 16th in the 43-car starting field just a couple hours before the race and wasted little time asserting himself behind the wheel of the #1 Miccosukee Gaming & Resort/Northeastern Supply Company Chevrolet when the green flag finally waved.

Yeley’s machine moved to 15th on the scoreboard in four laps, and after the re-start from the first of the race’s 10 caution periods, the #1 Chevy continued to move forward. It was 14th by lap 25, 13th by lap 40, 12th by lap 50 and 11th by lap 60 in trying to chase down the leaders.

Yeley cracked the top 10 for the first time by the time the front running cars began making their first pit stops under green flag conditions on lap 65, and when every lead lap car had made their stops for fresh tires, fuel and adjustments, the #1 was showing in the 9th position after 75 of the race’s 200 laps.

“We had a good race car and were much better on long runs, but when the second half of the race produced so many cautions, it just killed our momentum,” said Yeley, who narrowly avoided disaster on lap 101 during one of those cautions when he was forced into the grass on the backstretch to avoid the spinning car of Mike Bliss. On this caution, five cars received damage from the incident that began with rookie driver Landon Cassill tapped Bliss’ Dodge from behind and sent it hard into the outside wall and subsequently across the track where Yeley’s Chevrolet was headed.

Slowing to avoid the wreck, Yeley dropped five spots on the grid to 14th but quickly worked his way back through the field and into the top 10 with less than 70 laps to go.

The #1 was 7th with 62 laps remaining and moved to as high as 6th by lap 150. He held the 7th position for the next 33 laps before losing one spot to current Series point’s leader and eventual 6th place finisher Carl Edwards with 9 laps to go. Edwards was involved in the race’s l0th and final caution flag with 23 laps to go and had to pit to repair damage to the rear of his Ford. He also was able to put on fresh tires that enabled him to pick up the 10 spots over the final 19 laps including the pass of Yeley.

J.J. then lost the 8th position to Ron Hornaday, Jr. with 8 laps remaining but still came home with his first top 10 finish of the season in 19 races. Replacement driver Johnny Benson did score a 9th place finish in the #1 Miccosukee Gaming & Resort/Northeastern Supply Chevrolet when he substituted for Yeley in Milwaukee due to J.J.’s Nextel Cup Series commitment to Joe Gibbs and the race that weekend in Sonoma, CA.

With the solid run, Yeley also jumped three spots in the driver championship point standing to 12th and is just 82 points out of the top 10 despite missing one race this season – the season opener in Daytona.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s young Reed Sorenson enjoyed a steady run all night and went on to earn his first victory in nearly two years, beating pole-sitter Scott Wimmer, David Reutimann, Jason Leffler and David Ragan to the checkers.