O’REILLY: J.J. Yeley shows impressive speed in Stage 1 at Bristol, but it’s another early trip to the garage for the RSS No. 38
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: David PeQueen, @CarSDS2078
J.J. Yeley picked up the 17th last-place finish of his NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series career in Friday’s Food City 300 at the Bristol Motor Speedway when his unsponsored #38 RSS Racing Ford fell out with fuel pump issues after he completed 108 of 305 laps.
The finish, which came in Yeley’s 403rd series start, was his third of the season and first since July 25th at Indianapolis, six races ago. In the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series standings, it was the 13th from the fuel pump, the 27th for the #38, and the 182nd for Ford. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 41st for the fuel pump, the 68th for the #38, and the 1,105th for Ford.
Bristol saw Yeley return for his tenth O’Reilly start of the season and his fifth in RSS Racing’s lone Ford, which has continued to be on “start-and-park” duty this summer. This marked his first start since the last-place finish in Indianapolis, and only the third time the number had been run since. Those two races were Ryan Sieg’s first career victory in Daytona, the result of a number swap to get Andy Jankowiak into his NASCAR national series debut, and Brad Perez’ last-place finish in the Chase opener in Darlington. The car did not enter last week in Gateway, even with a rare short field with two available starting spots.
Yeley was one of 39 drivers entered for Friday’s 38-car starting field. In practice, he ranked 24th with a best lap of 16.206 seconds (118.401mph), just 0.263 second off the fastest lap set by session leader Brandon Jones for Joe Gibbs Racing. He was to be the second car on track for qualifying, but rain cancelled the session, placing him in the 38th and final starting spot. The lone driver sent home was the #43 Lindamood Demolition Chevrolet of Landon S. Huffman, seeking his NASCAR national series debut in the first series attempt for SPS (Sigma Performance Services) Racing.
Prior to the start, Lavar Scott incurred a tail-end penalty for an engine change on his #45 TruShine Car Wash Chevrolet that began during qualifying. Incredibly, the exact same thing happened to this same team and sponsor combination in this very race two years ago, when Stefan Parsons was driving. That night, Parsons missed the start and didn’t join the race until Lap 14. This time, the Alpha Prime Racing crew completed the change just in time for Scott’s car to be pushed to the grid.
By Lap 3, Scott had climbed past 37th-place starter Natalie Decker, who was the midweek substitute for Dawson Cram in the #47 for Mike Harmon Racing. This wasn’t one of Harmon’s chasses, however, as Young’s Motorsports provided the Chevrolet sponsored by her returning backer T.N. Dickson’s Witch Hazel. By that third lap, she was 6.779 seconds back of the lead, about six-tenths back of Scott. By Lap 20, she’d lost a lap to race leader Jesse Love. Yeley, meanwhile, had already climbed from last up to 30th on Lap 31, and was still hanging onto a lead-lap run. On Lap 41, Decker lost a second lap to the leaders, then a third on Lap 65. Just before she lost that third lap, she was clocking laps in the 16.8-second range, and her team told her to stay near that time. She was also advised to not “overslow the middle” of the corners.
Soon after, a series of flat tires and single-car incidents occurred that didn’t bring out any cautions, but did jumble up the back of the order. First to find trouble was Jeb Burton, who while running 15th on Lap 64 blew a right-front tire and bounced off the wall in his #27 Sprayaway Chevrolet, then came down pit road with heavy right-side damage. Two laps later, 11th-place running Rajah Caruth did the same in his #88 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, also with a flat right-front. While Burton lost two laps, Caruth lost three, and on Lap 71 took the last spot from Decker. On Lap 74, just after Burton and his fresh tires roughed-up Nick Sanchez in the #87 3Dimensional.com Chevrolet coming through Turns 3 and 4, Burton nearly collided with a slowing Austin Hill in Turn 2. Hill, too, had a flat tire, losing a lap as he slowed down the backstretch, then another two by the time he returned to the track. On Lap 79, Hill was now 35th, on the same lap as both last-place Caruth, 36th-place Decker, and 35th-place Carson Ware in the #53 frik.io Chevrolet. Finally, just seconds before Stage 1 ended on Lap 85, Anthony Alfredo also cut down a tire on his #96 Dude Wipes Chevrolet. Alfredo was furious over the radio, saying that NASCAR failed to throw the caution after Burton dropped debris on the track after his cut tire started this sequence. He also didn’t get the Lucky Dog when the first caution finally fell on Lap 87.
By then, Yeley had lost a lap in 23rd – one spot ahead of teammate Kyle Sieg in the #28 Sustainachem Chevrolet – but race leader Love was suddenly having trouble passing lapped traffic. The sticking point was Logan Bearden, whose #42 T3 Vodka Chevrolet climbed from 24th on Lap 49 to 20th on Lap 79, all the while still hanging onto the lead lap. By then, 2nd-place Justin Allgaier had caught Love for the lead. Both then eased past Bearden (who ultimately finished a career-best 18th), but had trouble catching Sanchez, who was now the one defending his lead-lap run amidst a pack of three other cars. With three laps left in the stage, Allgaier squeezed ahead after Sanchez nearly triggered a three-car wreck with Josh Williams in the #92 KK’s Diecast Chevrolet and Jeremy Clements in the #51 One Stop Convenience / All South Electric Chevrolet. When the caution finally fell, it was Sanchez who got his lap back, leaving Alfredo laps down along with the other victims of flat tires.
Under the ensuing yellow, Decker retook the last spot on Lap 95 when she’d fallen a fourth lap down. Three laps later, she radioed, “I don't know why, but my clutch is starting to feel like it's slipping. . .When I put the clutch in, the car still wants to go forward. . .it doesn't go into neutral.” Decker later reported she’d been having the clutch issue since the race started. She went ahead and restarted on Lap 99 with Josh Bilicki now holding the 37th spot, his #07 Mando Chevrolet shown three laps down. On Lap 103, Decker tried to radio her team, but the message came out garbled. She tried again on Lap 107 and reported a vibration in the left-front that was making it hard for her to turn. She repeated the message three times as the spotter had trouble hearing her.
Around Lap 109, Yeley was still running one lap down in mid-pack when he slowed and entered the garage on the Turn 4 side. By Lap 112, he was in 34th, three laps down, then on Lap 115 took last from Decker as he pulled up to the team hauler, now five down. The crew thanked Yeley for his help, and on Lap 123, NASCAR declared him out with fuel pump issues.
The instant Yeley was declared out, Decker spun on the backstretch and lightly bumped the inside wall. She tried to shift into reverse, but again reported the clutch was slipping, so she continued to lose laps. She’d fallen eight laps down by Lap 127, when she was now rolling on the apron. The team then told her to stop as the leaders were entering pit road. On Lap 129, her crew directed her to pull into the garage by the Goodyear trailer for the crew to examine the clutch issue. By Lap 131, they determined there was nothing they could do to repair it, so they were done for the night. The crew announced this on Lap 136, and NASCAR’s official in the garage first attempted to report it on Lap 143. The officials told him to wait, so it was finally relayed on Lap 145. She finished in 37th, and was listed out with transmission issues.
Taking the 36th spot was Scott, who after nearly missing the start ran in the back of a slowing car, then pulled behind the wall with a busted oil cooler. It was Scott’s entering of the garage that was NASCAR delayed the confirmation that Decker was done for the night. Blaine Perkins held the 35th spot after suffering damage to his #31 Capriccio Red Blend Sangria Chevrolet during a late-race incident. But he returned to the track and completed another 38 laps by the checkered flag, just enough to climb to 34th by the finish. The one driver Perkins caught and passed was David Starr, whose #55 Marathon Coach Chevrolet trailed a long streak of fluid to the garage area, but was reported out with suspension issues.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #38 in an O’Reilly race at Bristol, but the second at the track for Yeley. He finished last in another start for RSS Racing on August 17, 2018, when he was driving the team’s #93 Chevrolet for nine laps before brake issues.
*The 108 laps completed by Yeley are the second-most for an O’Reilly last-place finisher at Bristol. The record remains with Garrett Smithley, who turned 176 laps this past spring. Before this year, the record had been 84 laps, set by Derrike Cope in the #28 AMD / FOX Sport en Espanol Ford on April 4, 2005.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
38) #38-J.J. Yeley / 108 laps / fuel pump
37) #47-Natalie Decker / 119 laps / transmission
36) #45-Lavar Scott / 138 laps / oil cooler
35) #55-David Starr / 206 laps / suspension
34) #31-Blaine Perkins / 230 laps / running
2026 LASTCAR O’REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) RSS Racing (6)
2nd) Mike Harmon Racing (3)
3rd) DGM Racing x JIM, Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen, Jordan Anderson Racing Bommarito Autosport, Young’s Motorsports (2)
4th) AM Racing, Big Machine Racing, Haas Factory Team, Hendrick Motorsports, Hettinger Racing, JR Motorsports, Sam Hunt Racing, SS-Green Light Racing, Viking Motorsports (1)
2026 LASTCAR O’REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (18)
2nd) Ford (7)
3rd) Toyota (1)
2026 LASTCAR O’REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
