FANTASY NASCAR Racin

He was formerly known as JJ Haley until he changed his name in January 2016 to avoid confusion with fellow competitor JJ Yeley. Haley began his racing career at age nine in Quarter Midgets at Kokomo Quarter Midget Club during the late summer months of 2008. In 2009 and 2010 he scored the KQMC, Indiana State Series and Light 160 State Championships. In 2014, Haley ran three K&N Pro Series East races, recording a best finish of seventh at Dover International Speedway. The next year, he joined HScott Motorsports to compete full-time in the Pro Series East, competing for Rookie of the Year honors. In 2016, Haley recorded his first career Pro Series East win at Greenville-Pickens Speedway. Haley won his first Pro Series East championship in 2016 after finishing in the Top 10 in all 14 races, the only driver to do so in

series history. In 2015, Haley made his Camping World Truck Series debut at Bristol with Braun Motorsports, driving the No. 32 Chevrolet Silverado. On December 9, 2016, it was announced that Haley would drive the No. 24 truck for GMS Racing in 2017, starting with the third race of the year, due to NASCAR's age restriction. He missed the playoffs and finished 12th in the final point standings. In 2018, he earned his first career win at Gateway in June, locking him into the playoffs for the first time ever. Haley would get his 2nd win of the season at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, after leaders Todd Gilliland and Noah

Gragson took each other out in the final corner. In Texas, he got his third win wheeling the #24 FOE Chevy, after race leader Todd Gilliland ran out of fuel on the last lap. As result of these 2 wins, Haley qualified for the playoff finale at Homestead. Haley finished 3rd in the points standings, after finishing 8th at Homestead. For the 2019 season Haley has left the GMS team to go drive the Kaulig Racing Chevy in the Xfinity series. Haley ran well but wasn't a dominant car in 2019. Of course with 'the big three' of Bell, Custer and Reddick claiming so many win it seemed the rest of the field was running for fourth place every week. It seems Haley usually finished between fifth and tenth place.

In fact, during the first 15 races, he posted 11 finishes in those spots and had a worst finish of 17th. He made his Cup series debut in April driving the Spire Motorsports car at Talladega. He kept the car up front with a shot to win but with seven laps remaining, he was collected in a crash and relegated to a 32nd place finish. He raced again at the road course of Sonoma and finished 34th. The July weekend at Daytona was Haley's highlight of the season. He just got edged out for the win by Ross Chastain; who also drove a Kaulig car that race. Then on Sunday he wheeled the Spire Motorsports car in the Cup Series once again. In the race, with around 30 laps to go, Austin Dillon and Clint Bowyer tangled, causing "The Big One". Haley,

narrowly avoided it and sneaked into 3rd. Weather had been an issue all weekend and rain was in the area. NASCAR announced that they would go green next time by; so leaders Kurt Busch and Landon Cassill peeled off and headed for the pits leaving Haley on the point. Before the field got back around a lightning strike occurred. For the 2019 season most major sports (including NASCAR) had implemented a rule that if lightning struck, things stopped and went into a 30 minute delay. SO instead of coming to the green flag; the pace car pulled the entire field down pit road and things haled to wait out the 30 minute delay. Before the 30 minutes was over it lightning struck again and the 30 minute clock started over. During that time heavy rains came and as dark was closing in NASCAR pulled the plug and called the race official, leaving Haley as the winner. This gave Haley his first career Cup win in

only his third start, and Spire Motorsports their first win in their maiden season. Since Haley had announced he was racing for Xfinity series points, he was not eligible to make the Cup series Chase even though he had a Cup win. Haley was able to make the Chase in the Xfinity on the strength of his strong runs. He encountered problems during the Roval race at Charlotte and wasn't able to advance to the second of the Chase. He finished 12th in the points for 2019. Haley was back with Kaulig racing in 2020 and had Ross Chastain as a teammate. Haley proved to be the super speedway king in 2020. Haley finished sixth at Daytona to open the season. He then went on to win all three remaining super speedways. Kaulig Racing builds some awesome super speedway machines and their

their drivers were always at the front. At Talladega, Haley won while teammate Ross Chastain finish second. Later at Daytona, Haley was running third as they come off the last corner. Chastain dove under teammate AJ Allmendinger to make the pass; Allmendinger threw a block and the two crashed. Haley was there to capitalize and take the win. In the fall Talladega race; Haley swept by Noah Gragson with two laps to go and grab the win. The win came in the first round of the Chase and advanced Haley into round two. He battled all the way to make it to the Championship race at Phoenix. Austin Cindric ran great in the Championship race; and Haley finished eighth in the race' third in the points. Haley was back in the #11 driving for Kaulig Racing in 2021 and had a new teammate. Jeb Burton will take over the #10 as Ross Chastain moved up to the Cup series AJ Allmendinger still remains as a team mate also. Haley had a busy season in 2021, as he raced the full season in BOTH the Xfinity and Cup series. He drove 31 of 36 races in the Cup Series for upstart team

Spire Motorsports. He wheeled the Fraternal Order of Eagles sponsored Chevy to season best sixth place finish at Daytona in August at Daytona. He also had an eighth place finish in the Indy Grand Prix. His next best finish was 20th for the new team. In the Xfinity Series he raced for Kaulig Racing. Except for events where he had mechanical issues or crashed; Haley finished in the Top 10 all but four times. He finished second at Mid-Ohio and also at Richmond. He grabbed a win at Daytona in August. After that win his worst finish was ninth except for a brake issue at Martinsville. He had nine Top 5 and a whopping 24 Top 10 finishes. The big news was that Haley and Kaulig Racing announced they would go full time Cup Racing. Haley is

a great little super speedway driver; and in fact already has a Cup series win; coming at Daytona. Kaulig ran a second full time Cup car in 2022. It was shared between AK Allmendinger; Noah Gragson, and Daniel Hemric. Haley showed some progress in 2022 as he adjusted to the new Next-Gen race cars. He started off the year with a 23rd place finish at Daytona; but at Atlanta came in 11th at the newly reconfigured super speedway. He made many runs finishing in the low teens; and posted a season best finish of third at Darlington in the spring race there. He kept posting consistent finishes in all the race where he

didn't get involved in a crash or have mechanical issues. He finished seventh when the series returned to Atlanta, and matched his season best third place finish at Texas. He got his third top five finish at Charlotte on the Roval. He had four top ten finishes; with 14 top 15 finishes. He will be back with Kaulig in 2023 and AJ Allmendinger will drive full time for Kaulig in 2023 also. It is thought Justin can acquire some knowledge from Allmendinger to improve his results. But in 2023, results were up and down for Haley. He only had one Top 5 all season; this came on the street course at Chicago where he led 23 laps, before being passed by Shane van Gisbergen who took the win, leaving

Haley runner up. He had a total of six Top 10’s on the season as he finished sixth at Talladega and Bristol, and came home eighth at Las Vegas, Darlington and Atlanta. He finished the year outside the Top 20 in points. He did make five starts in the Xfinity series. His best run came at Atlanta in the Spring, driving for Kaulig where he finished fourth. He had three tenth place finishes, two coming at Daytona, and the other at Atlanta in the Summer. At the end of the year Haley would be on the move. He is leaving Kaulig Racing to go drive for Rick Ware Racing. This writer can’t see where that is a beneficial move for Haley, but Ware is growing and expanding so we’ll see.

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

JUSTIN C HALEY - 04/28/1999