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IS THE IRL INSANE? WE'LL TAKE HIM: J.J. Yeley --
... leading all three of the United States Auto Club's highly-competitive open-wheel divisions and is trying to duplicate Tony Stewart's triple crown of 1995, recently broke a USAC record set by A.J. Foyt in 1961. His work ethic is right out of Foyt's era as he takes care of his sprint car and knows as much about a chassis and engine as any mechanic. At 26, he's very clever, handsome, articulate and marketable. Yeley is the ideal American oval-track racer and the perfect peg for the puzzle that has become Tony George's Indy Racing League, which was supposedly formed to restore deserving USAC drivers to Indy-car prominence. A series now dominated by road racers, foreign drivers and Japanese engines is crying out for a Heartland Hero from Indy's grass roots heritage like Yeley. But, unless one of the IRL's owners suddenly wises up and notices this kid's pedigree, he's headed south to join Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman, Jason Leffler and Stewart. Yeley will be yet another USAC star swallowed up by NASCAR's vortex because nobody in the all-oval IRL is paying attention. "I haven't heard from anyone in the IRL all year but several NASCAR teams have called me," said Yeley, who qualified for the 1998 Indianapolis 500 at age 21 but has only been employed to drive the IRL's two-seater around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway since that May. "There's nothing I can do about who's interested and who isn't. I don't have anyone chasing me in the IRL right now and that's fine by me. I've got some things happening in NASCARland and you know that's where the racers are going right now. There's nothing available in the IRL for us USAC guys. Our future is in NASCAR."(see full Robin Miller story at ESPN), imagine the IRL with Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman, Jason Leffler and Tony Stewart...and NASCAR without them.(8-13-2003)
... leading all three of the United States Auto Club's highly-competitive open-wheel divisions and is trying to duplicate Tony Stewart's triple crown of 1995, recently broke a USAC record set by A.J. Foyt in 1961. His work ethic is right out of Foyt's era as he takes care of his sprint car and knows as much about a chassis and engine as any mechanic. At 26, he's very clever, handsome, articulate and marketable. Yeley is the ideal American oval-track racer and the perfect peg for the puzzle that has become Tony George's Indy Racing League, which was supposedly formed to restore deserving USAC drivers to Indy-car prominence. A series now dominated by road racers, foreign drivers and Japanese engines is crying out for a Heartland Hero from Indy's grass roots heritage like Yeley. But, unless one of the IRL's owners suddenly wises up and notices this kid's pedigree, he's headed south to join Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman, Jason Leffler and Stewart. Yeley will be yet another USAC star swallowed up by NASCAR's vortex because nobody in the all-oval IRL is paying attention. "I haven't heard from anyone in the IRL all year but several NASCAR teams have called me," said Yeley, who qualified for the 1998 Indianapolis 500 at age 21 but has only been employed to drive the IRL's two-seater around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway since that May. "There's nothing I can do about who's interested and who isn't. I don't have anyone chasing me in the IRL right now and that's fine by me. I've got some things happening in NASCARland and you know that's where the racers are going right now. There's nothing available in the IRL for us USAC guys. Our future is in NASCAR."(see full Robin Miller story at ESPN), imagine the IRL with Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman, Jason Leffler and Tony Stewart...and NASCAR without them.(8-13-2003)
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