KNOXVILLE, TN :: The 2014 racing season for Chad Finchum of Knoxville has been outstanding, and there’s just one final weekend of NASCAR Whelen All-American Series racing remaining before he hopefully wins a track championship for the second straight year.
Coming off winning both the Kingsport Speedway and Tennessee State NASCAR Whelen All-American Series championships in 2013, Finchum looked to contend for a second consecutive title at “The Concrete Jungle” while also trying to win the championship at Lonesome Pine Raceway in Coeburn, Va.
On the season Finchum has recorded nine Late Model Stock victories at the .375-mile banked Kingsport Speedway concrete oval through 18 events, with 15 top-five finishes (nine wins, three third-place, two fourth-place runs and one fifth-place effort) overall. He sits second in the point standings behind leader Kres VanDyke, who has five victories and 17 top-five finishes. Finchum leads the division with nine wins.
Through 15 races this season at Lonesome Pine Raceway, Finchum has recorded 10 victories with 14 top-five finishes (10 wins, two second-place, two fourth-place and one sixth-place effort) overall, while sitting atop the standings with a 36-point advantage over Ryan Stiltner.
If Finchum were a Major League Baseball player, based on his overall winning (19 victories in 33 starts) percentage between Kingsport Speedway and LPR, he would be commanding a multimillion dollar contract in the big leagues with well over a .500 batting average.
After starting fifth in the first 40-lap Late Model Stock feature Saturday at LPR, Finchum moved into second quickly behind leader VanDyke. VanDyke slowed on lap 16 with a flat tire to bring out the caution. Back under green, Finchum powered into the lead and never looked back in rolling to a convincing victory over Brian Blevins, Stiltner, VanDyke and Kevin Wolfe.
In the second race, Finchum battled early on with VanDyke before moving ahead on lap 10 for a lead he would never relinquish. Finchum was chased to the checkered flag by VanDyke, Stiltner, Thomas Beane and Blevins. The 19-year-old Finchum captured both Late Model Stock feature wins for his fourth sweep of doubleheader nights of racing at the track this season.
“Wow, to get another sweep of the racing at Lonesome Pine Raceway, that’s just awesome,” said Finchum following his third and fourth straight wins at the track. “The track held a different format for qualifying and we were off just a little on the (chassis) setup, and our time put us starting the first race from the fifth spot. But we closed to behind (Kres) VanDyke pretty quickly. Once he had the flat tire, off the restart we jumped out to the lead and really just cruised to the victory.
“There in the second race, we raced with VanDyke for the lead a few laps before I pulled ahead. We made a few adjustments on the car following the first race, and man, what a difference that made because the car just drove great. When you can get your car to where it’s getting into and through the center of the corners really well you’ll be able to get back in the gas and have good forward bite racing up off the turn. And with the changes we made to the car, I was able to just roll through the corners very well on both ends of the track and then just (mash) the gas to accelerate down the straightaway.”
With the final weekend of NASCAR Whelen All-American Series racing coming up, Finchum will be all about business on Friday at Kingsport Speedway and then Saturday at Lonesome Pine Raceway. He’ll be looking to reach the 20 victory plateau for the season.
“We’ve built up a pretty good points lead over (Ryan) Stiltner at LPR,” said Finchum. “You want to just go and race and try to be careful to make sure you wrap the championship up. But yet in the back of your mind, you’re a racer and anytime you get behind the wheel of a race car you want to try and win. We’ll just see how everything goes to see what kind of strategy we might use. Maybe we’ll be somewhat on the conservative side in the first race and then just go all-out in the second twin feature.
“But first things first, we’ve got Kingsport Speedway on Friday night and we’ve won five straight races there and it sure would be great to end the season winning our sixth consecutive event. We’ve had a good year, I mean really good year at Kingsport Speedway. We’ve actually won more races this year than we did last year when we won the championship. I have to give (Kres) VanDyke credit for his consistency all season long with his five victories and 17 top-fives. We’ve won nine races and had 15 top-five finishes, but we had three DNF’s (Did Not Finish) and that’s why we’re second in points behind VanDyke. We’ve got 19 victories overall between the two tracks, and to be able to get 20 wins, man, that would be awesome. You can bet we’re going to give it our best effort to get that 20th victory.”
In the latest (Sept. 8, 2014) NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national points, Finchum is sixth in the standings ranked among the top 500 in the United States and Canada, and he’s also the third-winningest driver in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series. To view the NWAAS national points click http://hometracks.nascar.com/standings/Whelen-All-American-Series/national_top500/2014.
The next NASCAR Whelen All-American Series racing action for Chad Finchum Racing will be on Friday, Sept. 19 at Kingsport Speedway and then on Saturday, Sept. 20 the team will journey to Lonesome Pine Raceway.
Chad Finchum Racing, owned by James and Linda Finchum, is headed by crew chief Patrick “Dinky” Torbett (2013 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series UNOH Ultimate Mechanic Challenge Award), with crew members Tony Cordell, Tyler Reed, Eric Romines, J.E. Blankenship, Sam Couch and Jacob Ruble.
Supporters for Chad Finchum Racing in 2014 on the No. 19 Ford Fusion include: A-1 Finchum Heating & Cooling, Texas Roadhouse, Finchum Paint & Body, Loveland Baptist Church, RW Race Engines, Five Star Race Car Bodies, CARS Etc., and Hedgecock (Race Cars) Racing Enterprises.
