Yeley Captures 18th in Iowa

NEWTON, IOWA (August 2, 2015) - In what proved to be a challenging day, NASCAR veteran J.J. Yeley and his JGL Racing team overcame many obstacles to capture yet another NASCAR XFINITY Series top-20 finish on Saturday night in Iowa.  At the end of a dramatic 250-lap event, Yeley brought his No. 28 Toyota home to an 18th-place finish in the running of the US Cellular 250 at Iowa Speedway.

"That was definitely a hard fought finish tonight and a total team effort by everyone on this JGL Racing team," said Yeley.  "TJ Bell stepped in and did a great job in practicing the car for me on Friday while I was in Pocono.  I got to the track on Saturday and we didn't quite have the qualifying effort we wanted.  We battled the first half of the race but Steven Lane (crew chief) made some great adjustments and our car was at its best at the end of the race."

After missing the two practice sessions on Friday while in Pocono for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice and qualifying, Yeley arrived at Iowa Speedway in time for qualifying for the Saturday night event.  While advancing to the second round, J.J. and his JGL Racing settled for the 20th starting spot for the 250-lap event.  The early part of the race would see Yeley battle with the handling condition on his No. 28 Toyota.  A few long green flag runs at the beginning of the race gave the JGL Racing few opportunities to tune on their car and eventually falling two laps down to the leaders.

In typical fashion for this JGL Racing team and Yeley, collectively they would battle and regain their two laps to get back on the lead lap with just 20 laps remaining in the short track battle.  With multiple cautions late in the race allowing for some key adjustments to the No. 28 Toyota, Yeley would charge inside the top-15 in the closing laps.  With the race going into overtime with a Green/White/Checker finish, Yeley made his charge towards a top-10 finish before being pushed into the outside wall off turn two on the last lap.   The end result was a damaged No. 28 Toyota coming to the checkered flag in the 18th position.

"With our car best there at the end of the race we were in position to really capitalize on what was a challenging night," added Yeley.  "Unfortunately a couple of cars got together there on the last lap and it pushed us into the outside wall and we lost at least five spots.  But in all, this JGL Racing team battled hard all night and we overcome being down two laps to post a solid finish."

With the 18th-place finish Yeley remained in the 13th position in the overall NASCAR XFINITY Series drivers' standings - a mere 14 points out of the 12th spot.

Yeley and his JGL Racing team will set their sights next on Watkins Glen International.  The running of the Zippo 200 will be Saturday August 8th and can be seen LIVE on NBC Sports Network at 3:00 pm ET.  It can also be heard on Motor Racing Network (MRN) and Sirius Channel 90.