ABOUT LANCE
Hooper first began racing in 1990 in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Series, and was named Rookie of the Year at Saugus Speedway. He went on to win the track championship there the next two years. Following that stint, Lance moved up to the NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series, and won seven races in his first year on the circuit, then won the championship in 1995. In addition to his success on Raceday, he won the pole award sixteen times, the Most Popular Driver award as well as breaking many track records.
After that, he moved to the NASCAR Winston West Series. In 1996, he won five races, as well as both the championship and the Rookie of the Year points title. That year, he made his Winston Cup debut as well, running the Dura Lube 500 and finishing 33rd in his own Pontiac. He soon caught the eye of legendary owner Richard Jackson, owner of Precision Products Racing, and the two ran six races together in 1997 in an undeclared Rookie of the Year bid in the Winston Cup Series. In 1998, the two made an abbreviated bid at the Busch Series championship, running 16 races and finishing in the top-20 three times.
Hooper made 18 Truck Series races in 2001, he ran every Truck race in 2002, and in 2003, Hooper began running his own entry in the Truck Series with fan-based sponsorships. He did not race again for five years, before returning to Trucks to drive for Key Motorsports and now for Tagsby Racing.
Qualifying
The #73 truck with Ben Stancill qualified in the 31st position, only 1 1/10 second outside the fastest time ran. However the motor in the #65 blows in the final practice. The crew managed to replace the motor in time to run the qualifying laps, however the replacement motor didnt meet up to the teams expectations, being beat out by less than a 10th of a second.
Race Result
Rookie driver Ben Stancill spins and hits the wall on the 18th lap. An unfortunate series of events for Tagsby Racing but the team has said this is not the end of the season for them. They will be back to race in at least one of the two final races.
ABOUT BEN
Ben Stancill was introduced to dirt go-kart racing by his Grandfather at the age of 7. He quickly captured several track championships and top finishes at the state level of competition in both dirt and asphalt. In 2002, Ben began racing Legend cars. Since that time, he has won several state championships and consistently finished in the top 5 in the Nation each year. Ben is a 2005 graduate of the Skip Barber 3-day Racing School (Sebring, Florida.) Ben has competed in as many as 66 races in one year with 42 top five finishes.
In 2006, Ben moved into a Late Model Truck and in his first year has captured the championship at Hickory Motor Speedway. During the 2006 season, Ben also acquired a Hooters Pro Cup car and competed in three events qualifying on the outside pole in his first Pro Cup race! Ben competed full time in the Hooters Pro Cup Series during 2007 and was the recipient of the Leavitt Chassis Hard Charger Award. Ben finished 7th in his first race with TRG at Chicagoland Speedway and topped the speed charts in his first test at Talladega Superspeedway!
Tagsby Racing displayed "Speedy Recovery J.J." on each side of the #65 and #73 this weekend at the Copart 200 at Gateway Intl Raceway. Although just stickers were shown on the trucks, the team was thinking of the injured driver, J.J. Yeley. Yeley fractured three vertebrae in his neck competing in a USAC Sprint race at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City. The 32 year old driver has competed in 5 NCWTS events this year with Tagsby Racing. Tagsby fielded truck #65 with Lance Hooper driving, and #73 with Dexter Bean. They finished 35th and 25th respectively.
J.J. Yeley, driver of the #73 Tagsby Racing Camping World Truck Series Team, was injured while competing in the Sprint Bandits Series Saturday night at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kan. J.J. unfortunately suffered three broken vertebrae as a result of flipping his car early in the race. J.J.'s car flipped in turn 1 and from there he was transported to KU Medical Center, complaining of neck pain.
J.J. will not be competing in the Chicagoland or Iowa races, therefore Tagsby Racing will continue to prepare for the rest of the season. For now he is home in North Carolina. We would like to thank everyone for their thoughts. We will keep you updated on his progress. If you would like to send J.J. a get-well wish, proceed to his website www.jjyeley.com and post your message to his mailbag.
The Tagsby Team takes the time to regroup after a devastating crash in turn two on the 52nd lap of the Built Ford Tough 225 at the Kentucky Speedway on Saturday, July 18th. After moving up in the pack from 25th to the 15th spot and just as J.J. seemed to have found his groove on the track, the rear end of the truck broke loose in turn 2, pitting J.J. up against the wall. Not as devastating as it could have been, the wreck was however bad enough to end the race for the team. After hitting the wall it became obvious that the race was over for the team when J.J. drove the truck into pit road with fluid pouring out from under it. "The radiator was ruined but all things considered that's not as bad as it could have been. We're just happy J.J. is ok. Nothing will stop us from getting a top ten finish before this season is over. We have one of the hardest working crews in Nascar and we will keep striving for success." Said Crew Chief Joey Sonntag.
J.J. Yeley will pilot the #73 County Building Centers Chevy and 39-year old Hazard, Kentucky native Jamie Mosley will pilot the #65 Lumbermens Millwork and Supply Chevy for Tagsby Racing at The Built Ford Tough 225 in Sparta, Kentucky on June 18th. Mosley, who is new to the Tagsby racing team, has raced in the ARCA Series and the NASCAR Busch Series since 2002.
The heat was on at Memphis Motorsports park. The average speed during the race was lower than the high temperature of the day. While under a heat warning from the National Weather Service the team was not alone in there suffering but the truck had its woes aswell. With just over half of the race complete, the #73 had to call it a day when the rear end overheated. J.J. had moved up to the 17th spot when disaster struck.
J.J. Yeley will be driving the #73 County Building Centers Chevy at the Travel.com 200 at Memphis Motorsports Park, Saturday, June 27, 2009, 5:00pm. Tagsby racing is also considering running the #65 truck, if a sponsor and driver can be lined out in time. As for now, we will have to wait and see.
J.J. Yeley and Trevor Boys both have mechanical difficulties at Michigan International Speedway. J.J. Yeley finished 20th with overheating problems and Trevor Boys finished 27th with ignition trouble. Both drivers had moved up in the pack when trouble struck. Yeley had started the race in the 24th position and Boys started at the back in 36th.
Trevor Boys has agreed to a one race deal with Tagsby Racing and will be driving the #65 Lumbermens Millwork and Supply Chevy at the Michigan 200 on Saturday June 13th. Boys will be racing along side J.J. Yeley in the #73 County Building Centers / Circle M Inspections Chevy.
Boys has been in and around NASCAR for many years, having driven over 100 races in the Winston Cup Series, aswell driving in the Busch Series and the Craftsman Truck Series.
The #73 County Building Centers/ Circle M Inspections, Tagsby Racing Chevy started the Win Star World 400 Camping World Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway in the 23rd position. After staying between 19th and 22nd most of the race, and after a few pit stops, the team found themselves 17 laps down, with a bad vibration. With no time to resolve the issue, they had no choice but to take the car to the garage. The #73 finished in the same position it started, 23rd.
The #65 Tagsby Racing truck driven by J.J. Yeley, finished 16th at the Kansas Speedway O'Reilly Auto Parts 250. The NASCAR Camping World Series team finished the rain shortened race at Kansas Speedway on the lead lap, in 16th place despite rain, cold and a depleted pit crew. Yeley drove the County Building Centers #65 with 16 green flag passes and 19 laps run inside the top 15. "The truck handled great despite our motor being down on horse power, we will hopefully have the motor issues resolved by Texas" said owner Joey Sonntag.
For Tagsby Racing, the most intriguing part of the Kansas race weekend came about a month before the race. One month ago, the team who ran a full and competitive schedule in 1999, 2000, 2001 did not even own a race truck. Around the end of March, team owners Ron Crosby and Joey Sonntag and team member Jimmy Sonntag drove to Charlotte with a truck and a trailer behind in hopes of landing some equipment to race with. Their search logged them two round trips to Charlotte and two round trips to Las Vegas to gather their race equipment to compete in the Camping World Series.
While Joey was logging most of the miles a handful of other Tagsby members were becoming familiar with equipment and preparing the truck for Kansas. One week before the race at Kansas, Joey saw himself back in Charlotte searching for a transporter just to get the truck and equipment to Kansas City. With all of the chaos before the Kansas race behind them, Tagsby Racing is looking forward to landing race sponsors and continuing 2009 success. Their next scheduled race is at Texas Motor Speedway June 5th, 2009.