KNOXVILLE, TN :: Chad Finchum recorded strong performances over the weekend with a fourth place finish at Kingsport Speedway and an eighth place finish in one of the twin races at Motor Mile Speedway. Finchum overcame a late race accident at Kingsport on Friday to finish inside the top-five.
Finchum started second in the race and led laps early in the race but faded during the long run. A series of late race cautions gave Finchum a chance to challenge for the win before getting caught up in an incident with another car. He was able to rebound to finish fourth.
“We had a really strong car,” said Finchum. “We took the lead early on and it started off really well. Then we had an early caution. I guess our temps weren’t right and Tissot got by us. We fell to third or fourth. We rode around and the water gage kept going up. We lost a lot of power. That last caution came out with 10 to go. We got the water temp back down to 160° and that’s where the engine makes peak horsepower. We started working back towards the front and made our way up to second and then, going in to turn three, they made it three wide on the inside of us and came across our hood. We had to change a tire. We got back out, came back with 10 laps to go and wound up fourth.”
Finchum went to Motor Mile Speedway on Saturday night where he started in the 20th position in the first twin race. Finchum worked his way up inside the top ten en route to an eighth place finish. In the second race, he started eighth and was running inside the top ten when a broken axle forced him to retire from the race.
“The guys that were running behind us in the race finished second,” said Finchum. “I had a good feeling about that race. I had a good car for the second feature. In the first feature, the car was tight. Going from 20th to eighth with a tight car at Motor Mile with that level of competition is hard to do. I was proud of myself and the team.”
Finchum will return to action again on Friday night, June 7th at Kingsport Speedway.
