O’REILLY: J.J. Yeley the lone retiree at Indianapolis after early trip to the garage
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: Steven Taranto, @STaranto92
J.J. Yeley picked up the 16th last-place finish of his NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series career in Saturday’s Pennzoil 250 Presented by Take 5 Oil Change at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway when his #38 S&W Towing Ford fell out with fuel pump issues after he completed 39 of 100 laps.
The finish, which came in Yeley’s 402nd series start, was his second of the season and first since Nashville, six races ago. In the O’Reilly last-place rankings, it was the 12th for fuel pump issues, the 25th for the #38, and the 180th for Ford. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 40th from the fuel pump, the 65th for the #38, and the 1,099th for Ford.
Saturday marked Yeley’s first O’Reilly start since Chicagoland, where his latest turn in RSS Racing’s unsponsored #38 Ford ended with power steering issues after 55 laps, putting him next-to-last ahead of Dawson Cram who had engine trouble on the Mike Harmon Racing / Stange Racing #47 Chevrolet. His car for Indianapolis would carry a large logo on the hood for S&W Towing, the business co-founded by RSS team owner Rod Sieg.
Yeley was one of 38 drivers entered for as many starting spots. He was slowest in opening practice, where he ran just one lap at a speed of 57.517 seconds (156.415mph), a full four seconds off the fastest time by session leader Ross Chastain. He was third on track for qualifying, where he improved to 34th on the starting grid with a lap of 55.237 seconds (162.934mph).
Rolling off in the 38th and final starting spot was the #47 Cell Phones For Soldiers Chevrolet, which was again fielded by Mike Harmon Racing. While Dawson Cram was shown as the driver on Monday’s entry list, the plan was for David Starr to drive. According to Cram, a change in circumstances led to Cram practicing the car, where he ranked 32nd, before Starr took over for qualifying, where he ranked slowest at 58.652 seconds (153.447mph), 5.583 seconds off Sam Mayer’s pole and 2.273 seconds off the next-slowest car of Blake Lothian in the #53 The Texas Lawbook Chevrolet. Adding further complication, the rear of Starr’s car was re-wrapped on pit road for associate backer Crossroads Builders. Among the team’s associate backers was Applebee’s, a curious tie-in with Harmon’s famous war of words with Michael Annett back in 2019.
Joining Starr in the back of the field was 7th-place qualifier Chase Elliott, whose #88 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet had a right-rear tire go down due to a fender rub in qualifying, forcing a tire change and adjustments.
When the green flag dropped, Starr was last across the stripe, 3.498 seconds back of the lead and already two-tenths behind 37th-place Lothian (3.293). By the end of Lap 1, Starr was now 6.385 seconds back of the lead with Elliott up to 35th, and by Lap 3, there was a three-tenths of a second gap between the last two cars. That gap grew to a half-second on Lap 4, when Starr was 13.089 seconds back of the lead, then seven-tenths on Lap 6, and over a second on Lap 7. By Lap 8, Starr was 23.813 seconds back of the lead, just under two seconds back of Lothian, then up to four seconds on Lap 10. That time by, the now 35th-place Yeley radioed his team the handling on his Ford went away as he caught the draft of 34th-place Ryan Ellis in the #02 Tablo TV Chevrolet.
For the rest of Stage 1, Starr continued to lose touch with the leaders. On Lap 12, he was nearly seven full seconds behind 37th-place Lothian and 32.260 seconds behind the leader. His deficit grew to nearly ten seconds on Lap 14, by which point Lothian was in a two-car draft of his own behind 36th-place Nathan Byrd in the #42 Byrd Insurance Group Chevrolet. On Lap 16, Starr was 48.907 seconds behind the leader, his spotter counting him down to the end of Stage 1 on Lap 30.
By Lap 18, polesitter and race leader Sheldon Creed was closing quickly on Starr. At the time, Creed was 2.3 seconds ahead of a surprising Jeremy Clements, who qualified a career-best 4th in his #51 Sky Fund Aviation Chevrolet and had now taken 2nd from Creed’s teammate Sam Mayer. Coming around through Turns 3 and 4 on Lap 19, Creed caught Starr in a bad spot, both running nose-to-tail through Turns 4. Creed’s advantage over Clements disappeared almost instantly, drawing Clements to Creed’s rear bumper by Turns 1 and 2 with Mayer and the rest of the Top Five right behind. Creed voiced his frustration as Clements took the lead down the backstretch on Lap 24, dropping Creed to 7th by the end of Stage 1.
It was also on Lap 24 that Yeley dropped to 37th, showing 48.898 seconds back of the lead, and three-tenths behind Lothian. This led to Yeley losing a lap to Clements on Lap 27, followed by the duo of Lothian and Byrd on Lap 28. When the caution fell to end Stage 1 on Lap 31, Clements took his second career stage victory with 34th-place Joey Gase, the last car on the lead lap 53.569 seconds back of the lead in his #55 Flex Power Chevrolet.
Under caution, Starr reported his car got more loose the longer he ran, about a “four to five center off” on a scale of 1-10, but overall was lacking speed. The crew said they would tighten his car up, but Starr said he was already underpowered from the start, even before his car started to run loose. He made his pit stall with the few lapped cars, then was told to stop as he left his stall due to a missing lug nut. He returned to the track as the crew took inventory of their tires, and on Lap 36 he finally climbed to 37th ahead of Yeley, who took over last place under the continuing caution flag. By then, Yeley’s crew was discussing when they would pull into the garage. “How many laps?” asked the driver, unable to hear his team over the static. “Two laps,” he was told.
When the race restarted on Lap 37, Yeley trailed the pack by open track, anticipating a crash that would allow them to gain a couple spots. He was about to come in on Lap 38, but stayed out another lap when the leaders started running side-by-side. “Bringing it in this lap,” said Yeley on Lap 40, who was caught by TheCW’s cameras during a commercial break as he pulled onto pit road. “And then all the way down here by the pylon, make a left, go down to the trailer,” he was told over the radio as the crew headed back to meet him there. Already a second lap down and counting, Yeley climbed from his car, done for the day. NASCAR declared him out on Lap 54.
As it turned out, Yeley was the only retiree from the race. Starr managed to climb to 35th, passing Joey Gase, whose #55 was lapped by the leaders in the closing minutes. Both ended up 35th and 36th after late-race issues for Clements, who after dropping to 19th in the final stage made an unscheduled green-flag stop for a reported battery issue. Clements, who led nine laps during his stage victory, dropped all the way to 37th at the checkered flag, three laps down to first-time winner Carson Kvapil. Chase Elliott, who started near the back after his pre-race penalty, recovered to finish in 4th.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the second time that both J.J. Yeley and the RSS Racing #38 finished last in an O’Reilly race at Indianapolis. The other occasion as on September 7, 2019, when his #38 RSS Racing Chevrolet had suspension issues after 7 laps, a run which led to his 2019 LASTCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Championship.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
38) #38-J.J. Yeley / 39 laps / fuel pump
37) #51-Jeremy Clements / 97 laps / running / led 9 laps / won stage 1
36) #55-Joey Gase / 99 laps / running
35) #47-David Starr / 99 laps / running
34) #53-Blake Lothian / 99 laps / running
2026 LASTCAR O’REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) RSS Racing (4)
2nd) DGM Racing x JIM, Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen, Young’s Motorsports (2)
2nd) AM Racing, Big Machine Racing, Haas Factory Team, Hendrick Motorsports, Hettinger Racing, Jordan Anderson Racing Bommarito Autosport, JR Motorsports, Mike Harmon Racing, Sam Hunt Racing, SS-Green Light Racing, Viking Motorsports (1)
2026 LASTCAR O’REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (15)
2nd) Ford (5)
3rd) Toyota (1)
2026 LASTCAR O’REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
