Last week, TobyChristie.com reported that NY Racing would return to action in this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway. On Monday, the team and its driver JJ Yeley revealed that they will carry primary sponsorship from Ollie’s, America’s largest retailer of closeout merchandise and excess inventory.
The bright yellow Ollie’s colors will adorn the No. 44 NY Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for the first time at the home track for the company, which was founded in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania in 1982.
Yeley, 47, has attempted to make the field for three NASCAR Cup Series events with NY Racing this season, and he has locked into the field for two of them. The team’s best finish this year was a 34th-place outing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The No. 44 team retired early from the Coca-Cola 600 in May due to a steering issue after completing 114 laps.
The lone DNQ of the season for Yeley and NY Racing came in the season-opening Daytona 500, where Yeley electrified in the Bluegreen Vacation Duels. It appeared the driver was going to drive his way into the field for the Great American Race, but a frantic last-lap dash by Jimmie Johnson in the unchartered No. 84 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB entry, which ended with Johnson passing Yeley at the finish line, eliminated Yeley from the Daytona 500 starting lineup.
Yeley has started 380 races in his NASCAR Cup Series career and he has a career-best finish of second, which he achieved in the 2007 Coca-Cola 600 driving the No. 18 machine for Joe Gibbs Racing. Yeley’s most-recent top-10 finish in the NASCAR Cup Series came a season ago in a seventh-place effort driving the No. 15 Ford Mustang for Rick Ware Racing.
