NY Racing’s return at Homestead shows improvement

HOMESTEAD, Fla. —  J.J. Yeley and NY Racing Team struggled, yet progressed, with not enough speed and an ill-handling car Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

It was the team’s first NASCAR Cup Series race since Atlanta, four weeks before, when the team was involved in one of the big wrecks, severely damaging the front end of the car. With NY Racing being one of the smaller teams in the garage, getting new parts and fixing the car was more of a challenge.

Going into Homestead, the team had virtually no idea what the car was gonna do.

Practice and qualifying was a massive struggle as the No. 44 car was considerably off the pace, even to the next car in front of him. The main complaint was no grip anywhere and lack of speed, the latter due to their engine program being weaker than what the chartered teams run.

Starting at the rear anyway, the team made final wholesale changes to the No. 44 car for raceday.

Despite radio communication indicating the car had improved significantly, their lack of speed plagued them all day. However, the crew was more focused on getting their car running how they wanted.

Through attrition and pit strategy, Yeley had climbed from 37th (last) to 35th and had only lost three laps on pace at the finish.

After the race, Yeley and crew chief Jay Guy agreed the car was way better and that Atlanta was far into the past now.

As of now, it’s not clear when NY Racing Team’s will race next but the team is hopeful to continue improving their cars and overall program.

The team qualified for nine Cup Series in 2024.