CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Twenty-year-old Brad Coleman will replace J.J. Yeley in the No. 96 Hall of Fame Racing Toyota beginning at the Aug. 17 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Michigan International Speedway.
Yeley, already set to sit out this Sunday’s Cup race at Watkins Glen in favor of road racing specialist P.J. Jones, was released by the team on Wednesday.
The Michigan race will be the Cup debut for Coleman, who has made 42 Nationwide Series starts and is currently 16th in the season points with one top-10, driving for Baker Curb Racing. A year ago, Coleman drove part-time for Joe Gibbs Racing and had three top-fives, including a runner-up finish at Kentucky, and five top-10s in 15 races.
“I really appreciate Jeff Moorad and Tom (Garfinkel, co-owners of Hall of Fame Racing) for giving me this opportunity,” Coleman said. “I have really enjoyed my time testing with the people on the team and I’m looking forward to having a successful weekend at Michigan in the DLP HDTV Toyota and helping Hall of Fame Racing finish out the season as strong as possible.”
Yeley, 31, spent the past two Cup seasons with Joe Gibbs Racing before moving to Hall of Fame Racing this year. In 95 career starts, the former U.S. Auto Club short track star has just seven top-10 finishes, one this season. He is 36th in the 2008 points.
“J.J. is a talented race car driver and a great person and this was a difficult decision to make,” Garfinkel said. “We all share responsibility that our performance hasn’t been what it needs to be, but we concluded it was time to make a change. This is a performance-based industry and we need to perform better. We’re confident J.J. will be successful in this sport in whatever his next challenge is.”
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