KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Chad Finchum opened the 2013 racing season at Kingsport Speedway by capturing the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series “Dalton Direct Carpets” Late Model Stock feature win, which placed him in the divisional points lead. Finchum remained there over eight out of the first 10 weeks of racing, with only Adam Long and Daniel Pope II briefly dropping him from the top spot.
Finchum kicked off the month of June’s racing action at “The Concrete Jungle” by once again vaulting back atop the Late Model Stock points leaderboard, where he will carry a 291-286 advantage over second place Zeke Shell into Texas Roadhouse Night at the Races on Friday, June 14. Third in the standings is Kres VanDyke at 284, with Pope sitting in fourth place with 280 points.
Through the first 11 events on the schedule Finchum’s recorded six top-five finishes, with 11 overall top-10 runs in 11 starts, while his lowest finish has been a seventh-place effort.
Finchum qualified second in the 19-car field last Friday on Celebrity’s Hot Dog Night at the Races with a time of 15.239 seconds, just behind Paul Nogradi Jr.’s fast-lap at 15.205. With the top-four from qualifying inverted for start of the 60-lap main event, Finchum lined up inside of row two in the third spot.
Shell immediately jumped out into the lead at drop of the green over Ronnie McCarty, Nogradi, Finchum and VanDyke. With Shell in command out front, behind him there was a serious battle for real estate racing around the .375-mile banked concrete oval involving McCarty, Nogradi, Finchum, VanDyke, Pope and Lee Tissot.
Pope’s night ended on lap 25 when his engine went up in smoke, thus meaning he would be relegated to a 17th-place finish deep in the field. With the longest stretch of green flag racing this season taking place, Finchum knew long as he finished inside the top-five he would reclaim the points lead from Pope. The 18-year-old chauffeur from Knoxville took care of business and brought the car home with a solid third-place run.
“Hey, we’ll gladly take our third-place showing tonight,” said Finchum following the race in the pits. “Man, you just don’t know how bad I want to get back in victory lane. We’re running good, but not great each week. We’re just a tick off and trust me, with the caliber of competition here if you’re off just that little bit, you’re looking at the difference in winning or just running in the top-10. Not inside the top-five, but in the top-10 because some races you will have the top 10 finishers be within three-to-five seconds of each other from first back to tenth in the running order. But we’re putting ourselves into contention to where it’s just a matter of time before we get us another win. I really believe it’s coming.
“I guess you could say all-in-all we had a pretty decent car tonight, because actually this is the first time in 2013 we’ve run this car here at Kingsport Speedway. Handling-wise through the corners and then having good forward bite coming up off the corners, really we were pretty good. But one major thing that hurt us tonight was we were having brake issues. At this place where you’re on the (brake) pedal hard at end of the straightaway, it’s a really big deal when the brakes aren’t what you need. My crew chief Dinky Torbett and the guys who work on the car, I’ve got complete confidence in them and I know everything will be taken care of preparing the car during the week back at the race shop. With Texas Roadhouse being one of my major sponsors, it would be really awesome to get back in victory lane and win again on Texas Roadhouse Night at the Races. We’ll give it our best effort, you can be assured of that.”
Besides leading the Kingsport Speedway Late Model Stock points, in the latest (through June 9) NASCAR Whelen All-American Series point standings Finchum ranks ninth nationally out of drivers from all across the country. Visit the NASCAR Home-Tracks website at http://hometracks.nascar.com/node/228 to see the national point standings.
Chad Finchum Racing, owned by James and Linda Finchum, is headed by crew chief Dinky Torbett (Torbett Race Cars), with Tony Cordell, J.R. McKinney, Mark Wilkerson and Tyler Reeb crew members.
Supporters for Chad Finchum Racing in 2013 on the No. 19 Chevrolet SS include: A-1 Finchum Heating & Cooling, Texas Roadhouse, Finchum Paint & Body, Creekside Grill & Catering, Embassy Suites Concord, Brickyard Bar-b-Que in Powell, Loveland Baptist Church, Robbie White Race Engines, and Leavitt Race Cars.
To learn more about possible sponsor opportunities with Chad Finchum Racing, contact James Finchum at (865) 740-3535. To keep up with Chad Finchum’s racing throughout the season visit his website at www.ChadFinchum19.com or follow him on Twitter @ChadFinchum.
PHOTO CREDIT: Chad Finchum Racing