J. J. Yeley will be back on track this July 4th weekend for the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway. As he pilots the No. 46 Red Line Oil Chevrolet Impala for Whitney Motorsports, the driver has just one word for the superspeedway: ‘impressive.’
“I will always remember the first time I went to Daytona International Speedway,” Yeley said. “I couldn’t believe that the race track was right in the middle of town.”
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“It’s such a magnificent facility,” Yeley continued. “The fact that this city has grown up around the track and has supported it like they do is what makes it so special.”
“It’s a place that takes your breath away.”
One thing that Yeley knows for sure is that he will have to have a qualifying lap that will take his breath away at Daytona. He is in the unenviable position of being a ‘go or go homer’ for this race.
“When you come to a place like this, you’ve got what you got,” Yeley said. “We’ll tune on the engine as best we can and hope that the new body that we’ve put on this car is streamlined enough to make us fast enough to qualify in.”
“It’s a horrible position honestly to have to be in, especially when you come to a restrictor plate track,” Yeley continued. “It’s tough because there is nothing that I can do as a driver to help make the car go faster. But if we can make it into the race, we’ll be pretty excited about it.”
While Yeley is not terribly fond of the two-car tandem racing that has become the norm at Daytona, he is still excited about trying to find that partner to hook up with to go to the front.
“As long as you have a partner, it’s kind of exciting,” Yeley said with a chuckle. “The problem is there are 43 cars that start the race so someone is going to be left out.”
“The toughest part is the vision,” Yeley continued. “If you are the car that is pushing, you really are limited in what you can see. For the most part, you’re just looking at the back of the car in front of you, hoping that wherever he is going to lead you is a safe place.”
Yeley, like so many of the other Cup drivers, already has a partner in mind with whom he would like to race. But he also realizes that he may have to have a backup plan, a particularly difficult situation for a single car team.
“Everyone knows who they are going to work with at the start of the race,” Yeley said. “I worked with Terry Labonte a bunch at Talladega and we worked very well together, but then he had an engine problem.”
“Unfortunately, we don’t have others on speed dial,” Yeley continued. “Being a single car team, it’s not going to be as easy to have other guys on the same system, like the Hendrick guys.”
“We’ll sit down and talk and go through the scenarios,” Yeley said. “We know the single car teams that also need help.”
“There’s guys that you want to work with and guys that you want to stay away as far as you possibly can,” Yeley continued. “Hopefully, we can hook up with Terry Labonte again and can get to the front.”
Yeley is looking forward not only to partnering with other drivers for the Daytona race but also is seeking sponsorship partners so that he can race more this season.
“We have run five races so far this year,” Yeley said. “We’ve had to start and park the rest of them.”
“This is one of the races on our schedule where we will run the entire race.”
While looking forward to running the full race, Yeley is also strangely looking forward to ‘silly season,’ a time when drivers and teams start making changes. And he is making sure that he is at the track and keeping his name out there as part of the ‘silly season’ mix.
“Right now, we’re getting into ‘silly season’ and there’s a lot of teams looking to make changes,” Yeley said. “I’m trying to be a part of those discussions. The biggest thing for me is to qualify and be competitive with the equipment that I have so we can prove to people that this is where we belong.”
Another way that Yeley is keeping his name out in front, as well as connecting with his fans, is through the use of social media. He has concocted interesting games and promotions, from ‘Speed Dice’ on his Facebook page to ‘Pay it Forward Friday’ on his Twitter account.
“Obviously, this is the time and age of technology,” Yeley said. “So, you have to take advantage of everything you can.”
“I’ve been on Twitter for a year and a half and now Facebook,” Yeley continued. “It’s a way you can really communicate with fans one on one.”
Yeley hopes that all fans, including his Facebook friends and Twitter followers, will be watching him not only as he qualifies his way into the Coke Zero 400 but also as he races toward the checkered flag. What are Yeley’s predictions for the big race?
“If I could look into my crystal ball and we were able to come out of Daytona with a top-10, that would be very special for this team and myself,” Yeley said. “For a team with one car and one speedway engine, that would be great and is very doable.”
