Friday, Nov. 21, 2003 | 10:49 a.m.
Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at [email protected] or (702) 259-4089.
Open-wheel racing has lost another promising American driver to the NASCAR ranks.
USAC star J.J. Yeley has signed a multiyear deal with Joe Gibbs Racing and will drive in selected ARCA, NASCAR Busch Series and Nextel Cup Series races beginning in 2004.
Yeley, 27, is well on his way to becoming only the second driver to win USAC's Triple Crown -- national championships in Sprint, Silver Crown and Midget. Yeley already has clinched the Sprint and Silver Crown championships and holds a 121-point lead in the Midget standings.
Tony Stewart, who owns the car Yeley drove to this year's Sprint championship, is the only driver to have won all three USAC divisions in the same year.
"J.J. Yeley is a very talented racer who everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing is excited to have," Joe Gibbs said. "He has accomplished a lot in a very short period of time in many different racing disciplines.
"His track record in USAC mirrors Tony Stewart's before he came to NASCAR, and Tony's time spent driving stock cars for JGR has worked out very well for him and for us. We're hoping the same is true with J.J."
Yeley, a Phoenix native, has a USAC-record 24 victories this season, shattering the previous record of 19 held by A.J. Foyt (1961), Sleepy Tripp (1988) and Jay Drake (2000).
"This has already been a great year for me," Yeley said. "There's still some work for me to do in USAC, but having the opportunity to drive for Joe Gibbs Racing is something any driver would want.
"It's a good home, with Tony Stewart and Mike Bliss -- guys who came up through the USAC ranks before me -- already there. It's a great challenge and there's a lot to learn, but I'm ready for it."
Yeley hopes to follow the same path Stewart took to stardom in NASCAR. Like Stewart, Yeley competed briefly in the Indy Racing League in 1998 and 2000; he finished ninth in the 1998 Indianapolis 500.
"J.J. is the number one candidate from the USAC series to move up," Stewart said. "What he can do on dirt tracks is awesome, and all year he's gotten better and better with what he's been able to do on pavement.
"It's just a matter of time before he gets the hang of stock cars. He's shown his adaptability since he came to USAC in 1997 and his versatility will be an asset in NASCAR."
Stewart, who won the 2002 NASCAR Winston Cup championship and the 1997 IRL title, said he wouldn't be surprised to see Yeley join him as a USAC "Triple Crown" winner.
"There really haven't been that many drivers of J.J.'s caliber who can go out in three different divisions and have the equipment in three different divisions to reach such a milestone," Stewart said. "He has three good race teams to drive for and he's got a lot of talent. You can have the three best cars in three different series but still not get the job done if you don't know what to do behind the wheel.
"J.J. knows what he's doing in USAC and he knows what he's doing by coming (to Joe Gibbs Racing)."
CART and OWRS have signed a definitive merger agreement in which OWRS will purchase all outstanding shares in CART for 56 cents a share. CART's stockholders must approve the agreement. OWRS' investors include current CART owners Gerald Forsythe, Paul Gentilozzi and Kevin Kalkhoven.
CART has released a 2004 schedule that includes a May 16 race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, although LVMS general manager Chris Powell said Thursday the speedway does not yet have a signed agreement to host the race. CART's development series, the Toyota Atlantic Championship, also plans to run a support race on May 16 in Las Vegas.
McMurray will join the 14 other pole winners from 2003 and six past winners in the field for the 2004 Shootout, which traditionally opens the NASCAR portion of SpeedWeeks in Daytona.
McMurray, Jeff Green, Dave Blaney, Bobby Labonte, Ryan Newman, Elliott Sadler, Jeremy Mayfield, Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte, Steve Park, Jimmie Johnson, Boris Said, Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick and Mike Skinner earned spots in the race by winning at least one pole this season. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace, Ken Schrader, Bill Elliott and Dale Jarrett will be in the field as past winners of the Shootout.
Las Vegas native Kurt Busch, who finished 11th in this year's Shootout, did not win a pole this season and did not qualify for next year's race.
BMW of North America is negotiating with CART to host select races in conjunction with CART races in the U.S. and Canada in 2004. The 2004 Formula BMW USA schedule is expected to consist of 14 races, with two races being run on each of seven weekends between June and September.
The Red Bull Driver Search Program, headed by former CART and Formula One driver Danny Sullivan, is designed to identify and support young American drivers who want to break into Formula One racing.
Practice, heat races and support races run from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Supermoto Unlimited final is set to begin at 6:30 p.m. and the Supermoto final is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
The Super Chevy Show will feature professional and sportsman bracket drag racing as well as a midway that includes parts and apparel. Drag-racing legend "Big Daddy" Don Garlits is scheduled to sign autographs on Saturday and Sunday.
Additional information can be found at www.superchevyshow.com.
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