World of Outlaws Driver J.J. Yeley - How The West Wins

There's a duel brewing in the open wheel world and it's turning out to be a pretty fierce one. In this case it's the powerhouse of the East versus the cowboys of the West.

From the East we have the steady and successful talent of the Kinsers and a group of talented young drivers shooting for a win in the top series of USAC and the World of Outlaws. It's the West, however, that's taking aim with some fearless talent of its own.

Just like in stock car racing, where Westerners such as Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch have made names for themselves, some of the top guns in open wheel have given the West Coast something to shout about.

Phoenix Phenom
The Western bunch leads off with J.J. Yeley, who is trying to make history this year. Since 1955, when the United States Auto Club was established, Tony Stewart has been the only winner of the sanctioning body's coveted "Triple Crown." With the 2001 Stoops Freightliner Sprint Car Series championship under his belt, Yeley is hungry to become the second "Triple Crown" winner.

The 25-year-old Phoenix, Arizona, native is the son of "Cactus" Jack Yeley, a respected driver in his own right. J.J. started in quarter-midgets at the age of 10. A short time later he was behind the wheel of a midget and well on his way to making a name for himself.

At an age when most kids are excited to get behind the wheel for the first time, Yeley was a seasoned veteran of four-wheeled machines. At 16 he was the youngest driver to be licensed by USAC.

One year later Yeley was competing full time in 800hp, 410 non-winged sprint cars. In his rookie year he set five track records with the Sprint Car Racing Association (SCRA); a couple of those still stand.

For the next few years Yeley stuck with the SCRA and continued to rack up track records and victories at tracks around California and Arizona. In 1997 Yeley started racing regularly "back East" and won the 27th annual Tony Hulman Classic and the Jim Hurtubise Memorial Sprint Classic at Terre Haute (Indiana) Action Track. With those two wins, he became the only USAC rookie to win back-to-back races at the famed Indiana track.

If open wheel race fans had not heard of J.J. Yeley already, they had by May of 1998. Yeley qualified for the 82nd Indianapolis 500 and ended the day with a ninth-place finish.

Yeley completed his first full season in USAC's Silver Crown division with an eighth-place finish in 1999, but it was two years later when he finally saw the "Triple Crown" in his future. That's when Yeley won the 2001 Stoops Freightliner Sprint Car Series championship on the last race of the season.

Yeley followed up his spectacular 2001 season by winning the 2002 SCRA season opener in a Billy Wilkerson/Gail Forester-prepared sprint car owned by Dwight Chaney.

California Cool
Spectacular is just the word to describe Jay Drake's career. No doubt when people think of the driver from Val Verde, California, they recall his extraordinary 2000 season in both midgets and sprints.

Drake started racing quarter-midgets at the age of 8 and continued with TQs and midgets-eventually winning the 1996 USAC Western States Midget Series championship.

Drake's 2000 season was a dream season for any driver. Not even fellow Californian Jeff Gordon has had a season like Drake experienced two years ago: Ten wins in 23 starts in the USAC sprint series; 14 fast times; 17 heat-race wins; 26 total feature wins; six track records. He missed the sprint car championship by just 24 points.

What is so amazing about those numbers is that Drake has only been racing in USAC's sprint car division since 1998. He essentially swept the non-winged World Championship in 2000, as well as USAC's Sprint Week. From mid-June to the beginning of August, Drake captured nine victories and took home the Pennzoil Indiana Sprint Week title. His sprint wins, combined with the other USAC feature wins he captured during the season, helped him tie a record held by A.J. Foyt and Sleepy Tripp.