Catching up with ... J.J. Yeley

J.J.Yeley drives the No. 18 Chevy for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Former USAC champion J.J. Yeley is a Nextel Cup rookie driving for Joe Gibbs Racing. He also drives a Busch Series car for Gibbs. He's 28th in Cup points with two top-10 finishes. In Busch, he's fifth in the standings with eight top-five finishes and 17 top-10s. He recently participated in a teleconference with reporters, including Rick Minter of Cox News Service.

Q. What is it like running both the Nextel Cup and Busch series full time, especially given the level of competition this year?

A. Bouncing back and forth between both the Busch and Cup Series has been a really good thing for me this year. It helps speed up my learning curve between these heavy race cars, compared to the openwheel cars I'm used to racing. I'm used to racing a hundred races a year, so throwing an extra one in on me, having two races isn't really that physically demanding on me, or mentally. The biggest struggle between bouncing back between the Busch Series and the Cup Series is the time you get to debrief with the crew chiefs to make sure each team is running at 100 percent.

Q. Do you think you could easily be a bit higher in the standings right now, given some recent good runs, if not for some bad luck?

A. Absolutely. That's something that really has kept the team motivated. Seems like week-in, weekout we have very competitive race cars.We're capable of running top 10, top 15 every race. For whatever reason, we always seem to have some kind of problem within the last five laps, last 10 laps. Because of that, you run 10th, get into some kind of problems near the end of the race, you end up 30th, [and] of course the points are going to suffer.

Q. How do you keep your spirits up going from a situation where you're winning a lot to a situation where you're not winning?

A. It's very difficult. I guess you have to realize once you get to the level of the Nextel Cup that the competition is so fierce that obviously you only get 36 chances to win a race. The guys have so much experience, it's going to make it tough. I guess being a rookie, you allow yourself some compensation, but at the same time,my teammate Denny Hamlin has won two races. It makes it tough. It definitely makes it tough. The biggest thing is you always have to keep your head up; you have to stay focused. I think if you let certain things that are out of your control affect you, then all of a sudden you're going to go to the racetrack with maybe not enough confidence to be able to get the job done.

Q. To have this Cup season be considered a success, what do you have to do from here on out? Do you need to win a race?

A. Even if I won a race right now, I still wouldn't call it a successful season just because I learned last year that in order to run good in the points, especially at this level, you had to be consistent. You couldn't afford to have bad weekends. I know we had a streak there where we had seven or eight races where, for whatever reason, we had a bad finish, outside of the top 25. I think at that point we were 19th in points, and all of a sudden you lose 400 points, you dropped all the way back to almost 30th. It's so difficult to dig yourself out of a hole. It almost seems the harder you try, the deeper you get.

Q. Can you point out the biggest challenge to being a rookie here at the top level?

A. The biggest thing is just trying to get used to some of these racetracks. Some racetracks are obviously a lot more difficult than others. Some of the Busch Series regulars don't get to race some of the racetracks the Cup cars get to go to. Most of the guys, especially the veterans, have been going there for 10, 15 years. They know the racetrack like the back of their hand, (while) we're still trying to figure out maybe the proper line or some characteristic of the racetrack that we can help if we're struggling with something on the race car.