Yeley Secures 10th Place Finish – Third Top-10 of the Season

JJ Yeley, driver of the No. 44 Zachry Toyota, claimed his third top-10 finish of the season in the Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Motor Speedway.

 

Qualifying efforts slotted the Phoenix native to roll off the grid 21st to start the 200-lap event. Running 17th on lap 32, Yeley relayed the Zachry Toyota was “perfect”. Being caution free for the first 50 plus laps, Crew Chief Frank Kerr called Yeley to pit under green flag. Yeley requested changes to tighten up the handling a “tiny bit”. He returned to the field 18th. With a caution on lap 102, Yeley radioed the Zachry Toyota was a little free and requested changes to make it a little snug to be able to run the higher groove. Pitting under caution for tires, fuel and adjustments, he cycled back through to 16th but was posted a lap down from the leader. Soon thereafter, a timely caution regained his lap as the free pass recipient and was posted back on the lead lap. As the race progressed and under a long green flag run, the leaders began to pit allowing Yeley to advance to the Top-5, as high as 4th. As the competition completed pit stops, Yeley continued to run in the top-15 but once again fell a lap down. Being the first car a lap down allowed him the free pass under the next caution. As the race neared end, Yeley began to gain ground finishing 10th in the Zachry Toyota at Kansas Speedway.

 

Yeley: Another great day for our Zachry Toyota TriStar Motorsports team. The car handled great all weekend. We spent most of practice fine tuning for today’s track condition. This particular car has a little more downforce and drag which worried me for qualifying but was fun to drive all race long. I was able to run almost wide open every lap. Once I changed lanes to the top groove, it really improved my lap times half way into a fuel run. We caught a few breaks and dodged some wrecking race cars to log another top-10 before our break leading into the final three races.