Hall Of Fame Racing Replacing Raines With Yeley

Hall Of Fame Racing Replacing Raines With Yeley
Posted on September 4th, 2007 at 12:47 pm by Editor

J.J. Yeley will replace Tony Raines at Hall of Fame Racing, allowing him to maintain his association with Joe Gibbs Racing. Yeley was scheduled to be introduced as the driver for the No. 96 car at a Tuesday news conference, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made. Yeley won’t be far from Gibbs’ reach at Hall of Fame Racing, a single-car team that has a strong alliance with JGR. The team was launched in 2003 by an ownership group that included Hall of Fame quarterbacks Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach and relied heavily on support from Joe Gibbs.

Majority ownership of Hall of Fame Racing was sold last week to Jeff Moorad, chief executive officer of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and Tom Garfinkel, the chief operating officer. The new owners said their alliance with Gibbs will continue. That made Yeley a good fit for Hall of Fame because he’s already familiar with the JGR equipment and structure. Plus, he’s from Phoenix and can do cross-promotion with the Diamondbacks if the new team owners desire. The deal will also give Toyota another young driver in its rapidly expanding stable. JGR is expected to announce this week it is switching from Chevrolets to Toyotas next season, and Hall of Fame will follow. That would give the Toyota organization four new drivers – including two-time champion Tony Stewart – and three of them are 30 are younger.

Yeley is 20th in the points, with one pole and one top-10 finish this season. He was a career-best second at Charlotte in May.