“But, on the sprint car side of things, it was me and my wife, we did everything during the week. I had two guys that would come in, one guy helped a little when he got off work, then the other guy helped drive the truck and trailer.
“It was basically just us on sprint car side of things. I drove for Steve Lewis on the midget side. And then Bob East and Tony Stewart on the Silver Crown. Those two programs were very self-sufficient.”
Yeley found plenty of amusing times while competing for different race teams.
“There were a lot of times where the midgets and sprint cars raced on the same night,” Yeley said. “It made my job exciting because I was a factory Ford guy when I drove the midget and I was a house Mopar driver in a sprint car.”
Racing in all three series certainly wasn’t smooth sailing on his way to three titles.
“The things that you’re worried about that don’t necessarily equate to speed,” Yeley said. “I get done with the midget race, I’m changing uniforms to make sure the sponsors are happy even though I would probably have been better off spending some of that time adjusting the race car because I just got off the track.
“To think back now, obviously, that’s been 20 years, which easily makes yourself feel old when you have to look that far back,” noted Yeley, who is 46. “But it was a great time in my career. I definitely enjoyed it. Kind of left my staple on the sport on my way out.”
Shortly after that, Yeley tested a NASCAR Xfinity Series car for Ford, but his future remained uncertain.
“I know at that point, they put Kasey Kahne into a Ford program,” Yeley said. “I think they were trying to evaluate what they really wanted to do with me. At that point, I was probably older than most of the development drivers.”
However, Yeley’s NASCAR career quickly kicked into high gear after a call from one of NASCAR’s prominent teams.
“Then, I got the call from Gibbs to go do a test at Kentucky Speedway in a Cup car of all things,” Yeley said. “So again, no experience, no real clue what to do. Never driven other than one stock car race, and here I am in a Cup car at Kentucky Speedway.”
A successful test with JGR led to a partial Xfinity Series schedule aboard the No. 18 Chevrolet in 2004. He ran the full series the following year and earned 12 top-10 finishes.
Yeley moved to the Cup Series to replace Bobby Labonte in 2006, teaming with Stewart and Denny Hamlin. Yeley quickly learned the challenges of funding in the series.
“My first year, there was some residual sponsors from Bobby’s program,” Yeley said. “My second full year in the 18, it was only Interstate and Interstate wasn’t a FedEx-type of sponsor. Great sponsor, they’ve been around forever, I love Norm Miller and everyone there.
“But they didn’t have the capability to be a $15 million to $20 million sponsor. This sport is driven by money. It’s all about sponsors, it’s about business. At that point, I think it was a little bit of a struggle to get those things in place for me.”
Yeley struggled with performance at the Cup Series level with only six top 10s and one pole between 2006-’07.
The writing was on the wall.
“When they had the opportunity to sign Kyle Busch and knew that M&Ms was coming on with him, I don’t know that it would have made a huge difference of who was in it, because it was a great package,” Yeley admitted. “You’re getting a young driver who was very established and he’s coming with a big sponsor along with it.
“So, from a car owner, I can see that’s like the perfect dream.”