By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
2018 has already been a big year for Tennessee’s Chad Finchum. Not only does he have a full-time ride in the XFINITY Series, but he’s just a week removed from his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series debut at his home track of Bristol Motor Speedway.
A late model champion turned Cup Series driver. All thanks to car owner Carl Long, who gave Finchum the stage to run full-time with MBM Motorsports in 2018 while also getting that crucial Cup Series seat time on the side.
It was all a long time coming for 23-year-old Finchum.
“Dating back to 2010, I made my jump into a full-sized stock car,” Finchum told Kickin’ The Tires. “I ran five or six years in late models in the local area back where I live in the tri-cities. And coming from those cars,I felt I was a pretty good talent in the short tracks, I wanted to get my shot.”
In 2017, Finchum made his XFINITY debut with MBM at Dover, finishing 34th. His seven starts that year gave Finchum stability leading into his first full season in 2018. However, he has still had lots to learn.
“I happened to meet Carl and he gave me that shot and I’m blessed to have it,” he said. “It’s a big change, a big learning curve. The cars weigh more, have more horsepower, bigger tracks, bigger speeds. A lot to learn and that’s the goal this year, to learn.”
Finishing 34th Friday night at Richmond Raceway, it was a decent night when put in perspective. Just two weeks earlier, Finchum suffered a massive Turn-1 wreck when the No. 40 backed into the wall and “trashed” the team’s best intermediate racecar. The goal moving forward, bring the cars home clean.
“We finished the race,” he said of Richmond. “Mechanical gremlins have been getting the best of us. There’s no damage to the car, we can carry this over to our next race and build off this week.
It’s no secret that MBM is an underfunded team. Through 134 entries since 2008, the team have yet to score a top 10 and have only eight lead-lap finishes. With that in mind, young Finchum knows where to place his expectations his rookie season.
“We have a limited supply of parts, cars and engines,” he said. “Any time we trash one like that, it’s not good. That happened to be our best car, I felt we were top 25 every week we unloaded that car.”
Another learning experience came in his Cup debut at Bristol. There, he finished 33rd in what was only the team’s second entry of 2018.
“Any time you get seat time at any track in any car is beneficial for a driver. A lot can apply over,” he said. “Bristol is my home track, raced there a couple times in the K&N car and had the chance to win there in 2016. That was a great place to make the Cup debut. It’s unfortunate we had mechanical failure to take us out.”
With a large focus on the team’s XFINITY program for 2018, Finchum also hasn’t ruled out a return to the Cup Series No. 66 seat.
“Obviously, I love the short tracks. Bristol in the fall would be a great comeback race as I would call it,” he said. “We showed good speed in both series there. If I were to make another Cup start, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were Bristol in the fall.”
Even with an outspoken car owner of Carl Long, it can be tough to gauge his feelings of what’s to come on the Cup side.
“Carl is a hard man to read sometimes [laughs],” he said. “Definitely jokes around a lot [saying], ‘Oh, we’re going to run you in this, run you in that.’ We’ll see what transpires. It all boils down to finances and sponsors and what we can put together.
“XFINITY is our main focus, we are competing for Rookie of the Year in it. Though we haven’t had the start we’ve wanted, that’s still our main program. We may see a few more Cup races this year.”