J.J. Yeley reaches a milestone achievement by starting the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (NOAPS) race at Nashville Superspeedway this weekend.
Yeley’s entry into the Sports Illustrated Resorts 250 marks his 400th series start, piloting the No. 38 Chevrolet for RSS Racing. The 49-year-old returns to Ryan Scott Sieg Racing (RSS Racing) for the second consecutive race, following a 34th-place finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
In 399 starts, Yeley has 15 top-5 finishes, 48 top-10 finishes, and three poles. He has run four full-time seasons and ran near-full seasons another five times, spanning from 2005 to 2022. Additionally, he has raced for 22 different teams in NOAPS competition. These stats in mind, referring to Yeley as a journeyman is an understatement.
From Dirt to Asphalt
Before NASCAR, Yeley was a young dirt racer on the rise. In 2003, the dirt racing superstar joined Tony Stewart as the only drivers to have achieved the USAC Triple Crown. Rather than pursuing a further career in open wheel, he chose to follow Stewart to NASCAR.
The next year, Yeley ran a partial schedule in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. In 16 starts, he achieved four top-10s before taking the seat full-time in 2005 and 2006. He saw immediate progress during this tenure, with four top-5s and 12 top-10s and an 11th-place points finish. This impressed Joe Gibbs who, in 2006, put him in the No. 18 full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series along with NOAPS.
Yeley’s first full-time NCS season was difficult, finishing 29th in points with a mere three top-10s, but his second full-time NOAPS season showed major improvement with eight top-5s, 21 top-10s, and a career best 5th-place points finish. He moved to Phoenix Racing for a majority schedule in 2007, where he only achieved one top-10.
New Opportunity and New Schedules
Four seasons of sizable schedules were followed by zero NOAPS starts in 2008, and only one attempt each in the following two seasons with back marker teams. A further eight starts came in 2011 and 14 in 2012, all also with various back-marker teams. Eight of Yeley’s 14 attempts in 2012 came in the final 10 races for The Motorsports Group, the same team he ran 15 races for the following season.
Between 2014 and 2017, Yeley attempted and started all but four races. 2014 saw a near-full schedule for JGL Motorsports, with a full schedule the next season. 2016 and 2017 saw the same arrangement, but this time for TriStar Motorsports. In these four seasons, he saw two top-5 and six top-10 finishes, including an impressive 5th-place at Road America in 2014.
2018 saw a near full-time season for the same RSS Racing he will make his 400th start for, with a best finish of 11th-place in the fall race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The journeyman was left without a ride to start 2019, but returned to RSS for 13 of the final 15 races that season.
The Phoenix native’s schedule shrunk a season later with only six starts, but he impressed in those limited starts. In those races with underfunded teams, he put up three top-15 finishes and a worst result of only 26th-place. Yeley was rewarded the next season with a 16 race schedule, highlighted by impressive top-15s at Homestead Miami Speedway, Phoenix Raceway, and Martinsville Speedway for the SS-Greenlight/Rick Ware Racing collaborative No. 17 Chevrolet Camaro.
Looking Ahead
2022 saw another near-full season effort, this time for Motorsports Business Management. Yeley was in the field for all but three races, including an 8th-place finish at Portland International Raceway, the first of two top-10s and his first since 2017. As of the writing of this article, the second top-10 at Daytona International Raceway remains his latest.
Yeley’s appearances in NOAPS competition the next three seasons were sporadic. 2023 saw four starts, 2024 saw seven, and 2025 only saw one. 2026 has seen six so far, his 400th start will be his seventh in 16 races.
Despite being one of the oldest drivers in the field whenever he enters, and despite his status as a journeyman, Yeley shows no signs of stopping.
“I don’t plan on retiring anytime soon, and you should probably learn to read carefully if you fell for this. April Fools,” Yeley posted on April Fools Day.
Yeley looks to rise up the all-time NOAPS starts list, as well as to lose his title as driver with the most starts without a win in NASCAR history. The latter may be a long-shot at this point, but if there’s one thing we know about the Phoenix-native, it’s that we should never count him out.
