Chad Finchum Scores Top-Five Finish at South Boston Speedway

Chad Finchum scored a top-five finish in his first feature race start at South Boston Speedway in Virginia on Saturday.  The fourth place finish gives Finchum optimism entering the Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown on April 23^rd.

While the race was his first feature race start, Finchum has been at South Boston before when he attempted to make the field for the 2014 Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown.  His effort was derailed by an accident in a heat race.

“We went up there last year for that Denny Hamlin race,” Finchum said.  That was my first time ever there in my life and practice, practice of the race and the heat race were the only laps I made there.  This year is like a whole new start again.”

This weekend presented Finchum with an opportunity he did not have in 2014 – a chance to compete in feature races at South Boston Speedway and log laps around the track that will again host the Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown.

“I didn’t have a lot of track time so in a way it was still my first race up there,” Finchum remarked.  “We went up there, unloaded, was eighth fastest.  The car wasn’t handling all that well.  Second practice, made some adjustments, went to fifth, qualified fifth.  In the race, ‘I told them I’m new here and I’m not here to tear up anything.  I’m here to learn’.”

Once Finchum figured out what he needed in the race, he was able to race his way into the fourth position in the first of two Late Model races but adjustments made in between the two races threw his team off in the second race.

“We took the green flag, I fell to the rear, got comfortable, drove up to fourth, was catching the guy for third and ran out of laps,” Finchum explained.  “We started third in the second race and the adjustment we made, we went backwards.  We knew what the car needed, we made a spring change and it hurt the car bad.  I fell from third to last in two laps so I let everyone go.  We made some adjustments, got back out and, laps down, we drove back up to eighth and set the fastest lap of the race on Race Monitor in the race.”

Finchum is returning to South Boston Speedway on Saturday, April 11^th as he continues to log laps ahead of the 2015 Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown which will be held on Thursday, April 22^nd.

“We’re going to go back this weekend and unload with the same setup we had and hopefully we can win it.  We feel real confident that we can.”