In the 2024 RAPTOR King of Tough 250 from Atlanta Motor Speedway, J.J. Yeley made his 800th start in NASCAR’s three combined National Series.
This includes races in the Cup Series, Xfinity Series, and Craftsman Truck Series. 47-year-old Yeley’s historic feat occurred in the second 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season race on Saturday, February 24th. Fellow competitors A.J. Allmendinger and Ryan Ellis made their 100th Series starts in the same event.
Over the weekend, I happened across the statistic by pure luck. It stemmed from a piece I was working on about drivers who did not land a long-term NASCAR ride in 2024. Adding up his 378 Cup starts, 385 Xfinity starts, and 36 Truck starts equaled a total of 799. Upon the wave of Saturday’s green flag, he would partake in his 800th NASCAR National Series event.
2003 USAC Triple Crown winner J.J. Yeley became the 31st driver in NASCAR history to compete in 800 combined races. He joins the following list of veterans who have reached this career milestone (as of Monday, February 26th, 2024; numbers accumulated from Racing Reference):
In 2022, Todd Bodine returned to the Truck Series for six races to achieve 800 combined starts. Denny Hamlin was the most recent addition to the club with his Cup start at Richmond Raceway in April last year.
In 2023, J.J. Yeley made 26 starts for Rick Ware Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series. A 7th place in Atlanta’s summer race was his first Top 10 since the 2013 Daytona 500 and his best finish since a 3rd at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in June of 2008. Yeley did not return to the team this year in pursuit of a full-time Xfinity Series opportunity. Unfortunately, nothing would materialize.
In the days leading up to the 2024 Daytona 500, NY Racing Team signed on Yeley after Greg Biffle pulled out due to contract conflicts. Due to a slow qualifying effort and being a non-charter, the pair had to race their way in by competing in the Bluegreen Vacation Duels. Yeley was to battle 7-time Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson in Duel 1. His impressive run caught the attention of many, and on the white flag, he found himself ahead of Johnson. Coming off the final corner, Yeley was ultimately passed and failed to make the 66th running. The opportunity would have been his seventh Daytona 500 and his 800th NASCAR National Series race.
Embed Link:
Happy Friday friends…. So close but unfortunately not close enough. Thank you to everyone for the support it means so very much
JJ YELEY
(@jjyeley1) February 16, 2024
J.J. Yeley was brought on to race with Xfinity team SS-Green Light Racing for Atlanta’s RAPTOR King of Tough 250. He had previously made starts for Bobby Dotter including eight Truck races from 2011 to 2016 and 17 Xfinity races from 2020 to 2023.
The pair qualified 36th of 38 total entries. In the early part of the race, Yeley raced his way to nearly the top half of the field. However, on lap 59, he would be spun out by Kyle Weatherman on the front stretch. Despite no significant damage, most of their race was spent marred two laps down. Yeley would pilot the No. 14 to a 24th-place finish. The night ended with a post-race altercation after Yeley’s crew chief physically confronted Weatherman on pit road.
The milestone of 800 starts was not mentioned during the Fox Sports 1 broadcast.
We congratulate J.J. Yeley on his historic NASCAR accomplishment and wish for continued success in his racing career. Stay tuned here at LWOS Motorsports for NASCAR news, results, updates, and more.
More must-reads:
Get the latest news and rumors, customized to your favorite sports and teams. Emailed daily. Always free!