From the 2003 USAC Triple Crown to Joe Gibbs Racing, Hall of Fame Racing and a long run of Cup and Truck starts.
Yeley, born in 1976, won the 2003 USAC Triple Crown, one of only seven drivers to do so. He later raced part-time in NASCAR's Cup and Xfinity series, with stints at Joe Gibbs Racing, BK Racing and Rick Ware Racing.
J.J. Yeley is an American stock car driver whose career began in USAC open-wheel racing in 1997 and later spread across NASCAR's Cup, Xfinity and Truck series. He is one of only seven drivers to win the USAC Triple Crown, and he holds a rare record of starts across NASCAR's top three divisions without a win.
Who is J.J. Yeley?
Yeley was born on October 5, 1976, and races as an American professional stock car driver. He is nicknamed J. J., a name that draws on Jimmy Jack, the name of his father and a close family friend.
He has run part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series and in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, and his career has also included the Craftsman Truck Series, the ARCA Menards Series, the Whelen Modified Tour and IndyCar.
A USAC Triple Crown champion who has raced across NASCAR's Cup, Xfinity and Truck series since 2004.
How did his open-wheel career start?
Yeley won the 1997 Indiana Sprintweek title and was named rookie of the year in the USAC National Sprint Car Series, although he had started relatively few races. In 1998 he competed in four Indy Racing League races, including the Indianapolis 500.
At Indianapolis he finished ninth, his only top-ten in those four starts, even though he had spun in the opening turn. That spin nearly collected eventual winner Eddie Cheever Jr.
He returned to USAC after an underfunded Indy Racing League effort with McCormack Motorsports in 2000.
Why did the 2003 season matter?
In 2003 Yeley won the National Sprint, Silver Crown and National Midget titles in one season, which made him only the second driver to achieve the USAC Triple Crown in a single year. The first was Tony Stewart in 1995.
Stewart owned the Sprint and Silver Crown cars that season, and the Midget Yeley drove was Steve Lewis' No. 9, which Stewart had driven in 1995.
Yeley's 24 USAC wins that season beat the old mark of nineteen, which A. J. Foyt had set in 1961. That record was later tied by Sleepy Tripp and Jay Drake.
What was his first stint with Joe Gibbs Racing like?
Yeley signed with Joe Gibbs Racing in 2004 and started 17 of 34 races in that year's Busch Series, with four top-ten finishes. He also made two Nextel Cup starts in the No. 11 car.
In 2005 he ran every Busch Series race for Gibbs in the No. 18, collecting twelve top-tens and finishing eleventh in points. After Jason Leffler left the No. 11 car, the remaining races were split among several drivers.
In November he was named as the successor in the No. 18 Chevrolet, at Phoenix International Raceway. That announcement made him the team's regular Cup driver for the following season.
How did the 2006 season go?
Yeley ran full seasons in the Nextel Cup and the Busch Series during 2006. His best Cup finishes were eighth places at California and Loudon, and he finished fifth in the Busch Series points.
The most damaging moment came in the Bank of America 500. Yeley cut down the track to reach pit road, ran into Mark Martin and sent him into the wall. The crash ended Martin's championship hopes, since he had been second in points before it.
Yeley ended the year 29th in Cup points, despite racing for a team with a strong reputation.
What happened in 2007?
In 2007 Yeley scored a career-high second-place finish in the Coca-Cola 600 on a fuel gamble, with Casey Mears taking the win. Exactly three weeks later at Michigan he earned his first Cup pole, beating Jimmie Johnson by .001 seconds.
The season was filled with rumours about his release. Joe Gibbs announced that the team would switch to Toyota in 2008, and that Yeley would not return, and Kyle Busch was signed to drive the No. 18.
What did the Hall of Fame Racing years bring?
In 2008 Yeley switched to Hall of Fame Racing, a Joe Gibbs affiliate, taking over from Tony Raines in the No. 96 Toyota. The team's results slipped, and he was released from his contract on August 6, 2008.
On July 5, 2008, he took over the No. 20 for Tony Stewart, who was unwell. For most of the race he ran well, but two crashes in the last five laps dropped him to twentieth.
In 2009 he switched to Truck racing, piloting a Chevrolet Silverado, No. 73, for Tagsby Racing. Mayfield Motorsports also picked him for its No. 41 entry after Jeremy Mayfield was suspended for a substance abuse violation on May 9.
Later in 2009 he broke three cervical vertebrae in a USAC crash. He still raced at Daytona in 2010 with Daisy Ramirez Motorsports, a Truck Series team, and came tenth after starting 36th.
What did the 2010 and 2011 seasons bring?
In May 2010 Yeley was announced for the Whitney Motorsports No. 46 Cup car. He made the field for nine of the fourteen races he tried, and his best result for the team came at the Coke Zero 400, where he finished nineteenth.
In 2011 he raced his way into the Daytona 500 through the Gatorade Duels for Whitney Motorsports. He finished 43rd, after an engine let go eleven laps in.
How did he drive for smaller teams from 2012 to 2016?
In 2012 Yeley signed with Robinson-Blakeney Racing for the No. 49 Toyota, and later that year he moved to Max Q Motorsports in a partnership with Tommy Baldwin Racing. In 2013 he drove Tommy Baldwin Racing's No. 36 Chevrolet.
His 2013 Daytona 500 ended tenth, his first top-ten since 2008, and he finished 32nd in points. In 2015 he returned to BK Racing full-time in the No. 23 Toyota, replacing Alex Bowman.
He also ran the Xfinity Series in 2015 for JGL Racing in the No. 28 Toyota. In 2016 he drove TriStar Motorsports' No. 14 from Atlanta onward, and his Xfinity starts continued alongside them.
Did he return to the Cup Series?
Yes. In 2017 his Cup comeback at Texas came in a Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet SS, numbered 7, starting 27th and finishing in the same spot, four laps down.
Elsewhere in 2017 he drove part-time for Tommy Baldwin in the No. 7 and full-time in TriStar's No. 14. A season-best sixth place came at Iowa Speedway, his strongest result of the year.
How did 2018 and 2019 go with NY Racing and Rick Ware?
In March 2018 Yeley took a Premium Motorsports entry, the No. 55, to the STP 500, finishing 31st. Two months later he joined NY Racing Team for the Coca-Cola 600, qualifying 40th and finishing 38th after a fuel pump failure.
That summer Yeley returned to the No. 23 car, which NY Racing ran in coordination with BK Racing for several races.
The 2019 plan was a No. 7 Steakhouse Elite Ford Mustang for NY Racing, but the Pocono 400 came with Rick Ware Racing, followed by a debut in its No. 54 at Bristol. On November 14 the team announced that he would race full-time for it in 2020.
What happened in the 2020 to 2022 seasons?
Yeley missed the 2020 Daytona 500 when he finished 21st in Duel 2. In March 2021 he was announced for MBM Motorsports' No. 66 in select Cup races, but he later said he would not drive for the team, and he did take the No. 66 out at the 2021 South Point 400.
In 2022 he tried for the Daytona 500 again in MBM's No. 55, but he failed to qualify. He instead ran the full Xfinity Series season in the No. 66 for MBM, and he scored the team's first top-ten at Portland, finishing eighth.
Alongside that programme he made numerous starts for Rick Ware Racing's No. 15 that year.
At Michigan he triggered a pileup on lap 25 that involved Kyle Busch. Later in 2022 he substituted for Cody Ware in the No. 51 at the Charlotte Roval.
What were his later Cup and Truck appearances?
Subbing for the suspended Ware, Yeley took eleventh at Talladega on April 23, 2023, a result that was his strongest since the 2013 race at Daytona. At Atlanta later that year he came seventh in the Quaker State 400, a race cut short by rain.
In 2025 he was in the No. 7 Chevrolet of Spire Motorsports for a Truck race at Talladega, ending 13th. The table below summarises the years that most shaped his record, and several rows show how much his results depended on the equipment he had at the time.
| Year | Series | Team | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | USAC National Sprint Car Series and Indiana Sprintweek | Sprintweek | Sprintweek champion, plus Rookie of the Year |
| 1998 | Indy Racing League | Indianapolis 500 | Ninth despite a first-turn spin |
| 2003 | USAC | National Sprint, Silver Crown, National Midget | Triple Crown, 24 wins |
| 2005 | NASCAR Busch Series | Joe Gibbs Racing | Eleventh in points |
| 2006 | Nextel Cup | Joe Gibbs Racing | 29th in points |
| 2007 | Nextel Cup | Joe Gibbs Racing | Second at the Coca-Cola 600, first pole at Michigan |
| 2010 | Truck Series | Daisy Ramirez Motorsports | Tenth at Daytona |
| 2013 | Cup Series | Tommy Baldwin Racing | Tenth in the Daytona 500 |
| 2023 | Cup Series | Rick Ware Racing | Eleventh at Talladega |
| 2025 | Truck Series | Spire Motorsports | 13th at Talladega |
What is his latest chapter?
In January 2024 Yeley said he would not return to Rick Ware Racing. A late call put him in the No. 44 for NY Racing Team at the 2024 Daytona 500, but he failed to qualify after finishing sixteenth in Duel 1.
Greg Biffle had been rumoured for the No. 44 seat, but he decided not to run it, which opened the door for Yeley's late call.
NY Racing put him in the car at Las Vegas, where he finished 34th, and in summer he reached a season-best 23rd at Atlanta. In 2025 his best Cup result was 30th at Las Vegas in October.
Much of his Cup record since then is a story of part-time starts, often for small teams, with Truck and Xfinity races filling the gaps between them.
In 2026 he ran a limited Cup programme with NY Racing Team, plus Xfinity starts for three teams in the series now called the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series.
