J.J. Yeley has eight career IndyCar starts, including a ninth-place finish in the 1998 Indianapolis 500. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
For J.J. Yeley, being forced to sit idle and watch races as opposed to driving in them has been one of the toughest things he’s had to endure since he first began racing 16 years ago.
Everything changed the night of Aug. 22 for the Phoenix native when the Sprint Bandit car he was driving at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas, quickly turned Yeley into a passenger on a wild, hair-raising ride.
The race had just restarted for the third time when the 2003 USAC Triple Crown champion, who was running third at the time, took off into turn one. As he went into the corner, his car caught the track, flipped and barrel-rolled at least eight times. Although Yeley thought he had nothing more than a sore neck following the crash, he soon learned that he had fractured three vertebrae.
Since that night, Yeley has worn a neck collar and undergone neck surgery, where doctors fused two vertebrae with screws and a metal plate. And now, just a month after the outpatient surgery, the 33-year-old is working out daily to rebuild the muscles in his neck and shoulders. So far, his healing process has been speedy, above average according to the specialists and doctors Yeley has spoken with in the last two months. With one more test to pass, he hopes to be cleared by doctors in December, which he says is just in time for the 2010 racing season.
With that in mind, Yeley, who has 95 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts and 118 NASCAR Nationwide Series starts, has been working the phones, talking to prospective teams and sponsors about a return to the sport that he loves. Being a spectator has refueled Yeley’s passion, and he is ready to race again.
Following are Yeley’s thoughts on returning:
What happened in that Aug. 22 accident at Lakeside Speedway?
For the most part it was a typical Sprint Car type of accident. At the start of the race, the racetrack had a lot of grip, so it was real tacky. It was actually the third restart from cars that had already flipped. I just went in the corner by myself, caught a rut, the car bicycled and started flipping off the left side of the cage. It did a good amount of barrel rolls, probably close to eight or 10. It hit two or three times really hard and I’m thinking the next-to-last hit was the one that jarred me in a way that was kind of like a major whiplash that would have stretched my neck and fractured the vertebrae. It wasn’t necessarily a break as much as it had taken two of the vertebrate in my neck and perched them on top of each other.
What kind of rehab have you had to undergo?
That’s the beauty of the surgery that I ended up having. I could’ve went the natural healing route, which would’ve put me in a neck collar for a good three to four months, and at the end of that time the vertebrae would’ve fused themselves.
I chose to go ahead and do the surgery with Dr. (Dom) Coric (a neurosurgeon with Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Associates in Charlotte) in North Carolina who is one of the best neck surgeons in the United States. It was an outpatient procedure. I went in at 7 a.m. and was home by 1 o’clock in the afternoon. They went through the front of my neck, so I will always have a little tiny scar in the front to show my little battle wound.
It’s the first time I’ve ever been injured in a racecar. For me, I guess I should consider myself lucky that I’ve made it right at 16 years racing professionally without any kind of major injury. The major thing for me is just basically taking it easy, letting the fusion heal 100 percent for where they inserted the screws and the plates.
How long will it be before every day, normal things are easy for you?
They’ve been very easy for me, and I know from talking to some of the different doctors and people who have been in related situations to what I’ve been in that a lot of people are surprised of how far along I already am with my recovery. I’m back to doing all the things I’ve always been able to do.
With regard to lifting weights, I’m just taking it easy. I don’t want to push myself too far, too fast. But as far as everyday stuff, I’m able to do regular yard work. I’ve played golf a couple of times and I play just as bad now as I did before I hurt myself, so I guess I’m back to as normal as possible. For the most part, I feel fine.
