YELEY’S STELLAR TALLADEGA RUN COMES UP A BIT SHORT; POSTS 17TH PLACE FINISH AFTER CHALLENGING FOR THE LEAD

J.J. Yeley enjoyed his best run thus far this season in his #1 Miccosukee Gaming & Resort/ Northeastern Supply Company Chevrolet Saturday afternoon but was forced to settle for a 17th place finish in the Aaron’s Rents 312 NASCAR Busch Series event at the Talladega Superspeedway.

Yeley, who started the season’s tenth race in the 33rd position after another sub-par qualifying effort, ran up front for most of the race and was a serious contender for the win right up to the final re-start after a caution period with just four laps remaining. Unfortunately, J.J. was unable to get the drafting help he needed to challenge for the top spot over the extended green/white/checkered finish and found his Chevrolet losing positions as the final lap was run.

That is when the Chevrolet of Bobby Labonte passed the car of teammate and race leader Tony Stewart just 200 yards from the finish line to eke out the victory in stirring fashion. It was Labonte’s first triumph in a Busch Series race car since a race at Darlington, SC in 1998.

“We had a great car today, and we were still able to contend despite the damage to our nose,” Yeley said after the race. Yeley was referring to a hole that was punched in the front end of the Miccosukee Gaming and Resort/Northeastern Supply machine early in the race that hurt the car’s aerodynamics.

“The guys (crew) did a heck of a job making repairs to the car when they could, but I was able to tuck right behind other lead-lap cars in the draft that allowed air to pass over my car instead of hitting the nose and setting us back,” J.J. explained. “There is no telling just what we could have done in the race today had we not had that problem,” Yeley added.

The #1 machine was showing in the top 15 for most of the second half of the race and often worked into the top 10 thanks to the draft and Yeley’s ability to work the air.

Twice Yeley was able to avoid getting involved in several, multi-car wrecks; the last one coming with only eight laps remaining when he was able to drive against the outside retaining wall to avoid a 10-car melee in turn 4 that started directly in front of him. That is when the Dodge driven by Reed Sorenson got into the back of the Dodge driven by Steven Wallace and sent the latter’s #66 car careening off a bunch of other cars.

“My spotter was right on this accident, but I did have to react pretty quickly to avoid the wreck and was lucky that the outside lane remained wide open,” Yeley explained. “I’m just disappointed that our final finishing position does not reflect just how good a race car we had today.”

Casey Mears and rookies David Ragan and Kyle Krisiloff finished behind Labonte and Stewart to round out the top five. Twenty cars completed all 120 laps.

Yeley, who jumped four spots in the driver point battle to 18th, will seek his first top five of the 2007 season this Friday night when the Busch Series cars get right back in action at the Richmond International Raceway for the running of the Circuit City 250 Presented by Funai. This race is set to take the green flag at 8 p.m. with ESPN2 to televise the race live, nationally.

Carl Edwards, who finished tenth in Saturday’s race, holds a commanding 433-point advantage over second place Kevin Harvick in his drive towards his very first NASCAR championship.