BLOOMINGDALE, TN :: Chad Finchum won the track championship at Kingsport Speedway on Friday night over Zeke Shell in a thrilling duo of races. Finchum also set a new track record and won the first of two 50 lap Late Model features while finishing second in the second race.
“Picture perfect,” Finchum said. “It would’ve been awesome to have a weekend sweep and get both wins, the pole, track record and everything. It would’ve been awesome to have that sweep but, in my book, it was a weekend sweep. We backed off in the second race after the penalty. We have it mathematically figured out down to a tee where we needed to finish. We were comfortable with a second place in the last race.”
Finchum’s night was not without adversity. Contact with Ronnie McCarty forced Chad Finchum to restart at the rear of the field early in the second feature. Despite the penalty, Finchum would overcome the incident and work his way back up to the second position.
“I told the guys to let me know when I get to 10th,” Finchum explained. “The guys are incredible. I couldn’t ask for a better crew chief. Dinky Torbett works his butt off non-stop 24 hours all week long. I can’t be more thankful to have him on our side and getting all these victorious wins.”
Ben Rhodes ended up scoring the victory in the second race.
“These guys, especially Zeke Shell, have been racing me clean so I raced them clean,” Rhodes said. “I know they’re in an intense points battle so I helped them out as much as I could. We were racing to win and they don’t call it the ‘Concrete Jungle’ for nothing. I’ve been learning this place is tough and those restarts are tough. We finally got a long green flag run at the end. There were so many cautions, it was unbelievable. Once we got that green flag run, the car came to us and we were able to pull away with it.”
Zeke Shell finished second in the points standings.
“It was a big mess,” Shell said. “All the front runners went straight to the back, at least those who finished, and had to power back to the front. That’s how it always is in the last race of the year. Only half the field finished so we did pretty good today. We know what we need to bring to the table next year. The competition got real stiff. We came out of the gate hitting hard, winning left and right. Next thing you know, here comes someone from the woodworks who takes it from us. It’s a little disheartening but it’s not like he didn’t earn it.”
Finchum and Shell finished first and second in the first race with Rhodes finishing third. Rhodes won the second race over Finchum and Derrick Lancaster.
Finchum finished the season with six wins on his way to being the track champion. His track championship also earns him the NASCAR Whelen All American Series (NWAAS) Tennessee State Championship.
