UPDATE: On Saturday, shortly after the original story was published, NY Racing confirmed to TobyChristie.com via an Instagram comment that J.J. Yeley would be piloting the No. 44 Chevrolet Camaro in the 2025 Daytona 500.
A native of Phoenix, Arizona, Yeley has been the primary driver for NY Racing throughout its existence, including an eight-race schedule for the team in 2024.
After failing to make the 2024 Daytona 500 by the slimmest of margins, part-time NASCAR Cup Series organization NY Racing Team plans to return to the 2.5-mile superspeedway with a vengeance in 2025.
Speaking with John Roberts and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Saturday, Jay Guy, the crew chief for the No. 44 Chevrolet, confirmed that the organization would indeed make the trip down to Daytona Beach, Florida for the season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway.
Talking about an upcoming break for the holiday season, Guy said: “We’re going to enjoy the holidays with our families and spend a little time, and then we’re going to get back at it and ready for Daytona. We’re going to have two cars in the trailer down there in case we hurt one, so all of those things take time to get them built so they’re ready to go if we need it. We’re looking forward to a bit of a break here, then we’ll be back at it hard.”
NY Racing, owned by Johnathan Cohen, has been fielding an entry in the NASCAR Cup Series on and off since 2012, choosing to revive the organization again in 2022 upon the implementation of NASCAR’s seventh-generation racecar.
Last season, the organization attempted nine races with the No. 44 Chevrolet – eight with primary driver JJ Yeley behind the wheel, and the late-August event at Daytona International Speedway with Joey Gase driving.
According to Guy, other than attempting the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway in February, the team’s plans for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series campaign aren’t quite set in stone and largely depend on the amount of sponsorship the team can secure.
“We’re certainly hard at work,” Guy said providing a status update on NY Racing. “We’re currently in the process of getting the freshened up and building a new car and getting ready for the season. There’s nothing really to announce yet, a lot of our season is pending on sponsorship. We need sponsors to be able to play in this great sport of NASCAR, so we’re just getting ready for when those opportunities come.”
“It’s certainly a part of the business. I mean, to put one of these cars out on track is several hundred thousand dollars to get it out there, and you don’t want to just show up, you want to go out and race,” Guy said. “We’ve made improvements from 2022 until last year we made improvements, we finished races, we had better pit crews, we had a 20th-place finish and a couple of other finishes in the 20s, and we had a couple of mechanical failures, but we learned from them and it’s been a positive.”
“The aspect of having drivers come in with money is great, but you don’t want to just put anybody behind the wheel. You know we certainly want good caliber drivers like JJ Yeley, or somebody like him to drive, but the facts are you need money.”
When the NASCAR Cup Series field comes down to Florida in February, NY Racing will be looking to successfully qualify for the team’s third Daytona 500, after missing out last season in the final moments of their Bluegreen Vacations Duel.
“You know, it’s not like we haven’t run well at the speedways, we missed the [Daytona 500] last year by – we were in the [Daytona 500] until the last eighth of a mile, and then our line checked up and Jimmie Johnson came pulling through the middle and we missed it. We could see it, we were there, and then all of the sudden we weren’t. So, the 500 is such a big race, it pays well, but that’s not really why you’re at Daytona – you’re trying to win the 500.”
“We’re going to go down there and try it again, and hopefully we can get in the big show and see what we can do.”
When it comes to the identity of the driver who will pilot an NY Racing entry in the season-opening Daytona 500, Guy didn’t identify any candidates. Those announcements will come in due course.
