Sometimes it's not as easy as A-B-C. For J.J. Yeley, the ARCA-Busch-Cup route culminated with 95 Cup Series starts between 2004 and 2008 and included two top-five finishes and seven top-10s.

Plucked into NASCAR's national touring series by Joe Gibbs, Yeley made his debut on March 6, 2004, at Las Vegas in the Busch Series' Sam's Town 300. He started seventh and finished 23rd in the JGR No. 18 Chevrolet.

“

It's time for me to get back into a race car and prove myself and get back to doing what I always loved.

”

-- J.J. YELEY

Yeley started his first Cup Series race on Sept. 5, 2004, at Fontana. He crashed out and finished 41st in Gibbs' No. 11 Chevy.

More than five years later -- and a year removed from his last Cup Series start -- Yeley is recovering from another crash and trying to put together the pieces of his once-promising career.

"For the most part it was a typical Sprint Car type of accident," Yeley said. "At the start of the race, the race track 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," he said. "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."

Yeley, the 2003 USAC Triple Crown champion, fractured three vertebrae in his neck during the crash Aug. 22 at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kan. He had surgery to fuse two vertebrae with screws and a metal plate, and is using physical therapy to rebuild the muscles in his neck and shoulders.

The healing process has been above average, according to the specialists and doctors Yeley has spoken with in the past two months. He hopes to be cleared by doctors in December.

"That's the beauty of the surgery that I ended up having," Yeley said. "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.

"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."

Yeley endures laser treatments to help speed up the process of the fusion with the bone and is already returning to a daily routine in many regards.

"I'm back to doing all the things I've always been able to do," he said. "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; I have a little more aches and pains than I did before," Yeley admitted. "Racing as long as I have and just racing in general takes a toll on a body, regardless. I do have some lower back pain that I get all the time, so it's just one added pain that I didn't have before."

And he's also eyeing a return behind the wheel. "[Doctors] want to do another X-ray in December, and at that time, at the rate I've been going, they see no problems to clear me to go back to racing," Yeley said. "Obviously, that gives me plenty of time to get ready for the 2010 racing season. For the most part, I've got 80 to 85 percent of my original range of motion in my head and neck. I'm able to turn my head fine. I'm just a little slow from looking up. I think that's probably my most challenging maneuver is to try to look up at the sky. I just don't have quite the movement I did before.

"I also understand that by fusing two vertebrae, I'm going to lose a little bit of motion anyway. From the people and specialists I've seen, they are already very surprised at how far and advanced I am in getting back to normal."

The next race on Yeley's agenda is the legendary Chili Bowl Nationals on Jan.12-16 at Tulsa (Okla.) Expo Raceway.

"It is my plan. I've been spending a lot more time on the phone, talking with different sponsors and scouting out different opportunities," he said. "Getting back into NASCAR, it does look like there are some pretty good possibilities for getting back into a Nationwide ride next season. I have some meetings in the next couple of weeks that could secure the sponsorship and make that all happen.

"As far as looking forward to the Chili Bowl and some of the bigger races that guys always get a chance to go do, I would probably be healed by then. We will just kind of play it by ear and see how things go as far as the big plans for next year.

"The beauty of it is, I've obviously gotten to spend a lot of time with my family and my daughter. In between [wife] Kristen and [daughter] Faith, they've made this whole process a lot easier on me. But it's time for me to get back into a race car and prove myself and get back to doing what I always loved, and that's trying to win races and go out and do a good job."