Chad Finchum will compete for XFINITY Series Rookie of the Year in 2018 by competing with MBM Motorsports for the entire 33-race schedule.
Finchum, 23, competed in seven XFINITY Series races in 2017, placing a season-high of 28th at Bristol Motor Speedway in late August. The Tennessee native had an average finish of 31.1 with two DNFs, both coming at Dover International Speedway.
Competing since being a toddler, Finchum is excited about the opportunity.
“That has been the goal since we started this,” Finchum told Frontstretch regarding the move to the XFINIY Series. “I’ve raced for many years and worked my way through different levels of racing and my goal has always been to be here in the XFINITY garage, the Cup side or Camping World Truck Series and compete full-time.
“The goal next year is to come out swinging hard and if everything can get squared off in the off-season, we’ve already kind of been prepping for a full season ride with Carl [Long, team owner] next year.”
Carl Long has owned a full-time XFINITY team for the past two seasons, however, no driver has run the full 33-race schedule. Because Finchum is bringing family owner A-1 Finchum on-board for at least part of the season, Long gave him the ride.
“There are people that come into our sport to race that have sponsorship with them and they develop themselves into being a good driver,” Long said. “Then, there are people who are really good drivers who have the potential to be great drivers and I really put Chad in that position to be a great driver. We just need to build together and get better equipment for him and as we get better equipment.”
Long admitted that Finchum got the ride due to sponsorship, but it’s undetermined what other sponsors will be joining Finchum’s family-owned deal.
“We are trying to seek other sponsors and that’s kind of going to be the determining factor,” Finchum said. “Unfortunately, motorsports is a very expensive thing to get into and to maintain in from week in and week out. Hopefully, we can brand some other partners into this program with ourselves and A-1 Finchum to get this thing up and rolling so we can go all 33 races next year.”
Dustin joined the Frontstretch team at the beginning of the 2016 season. 2020 marks his sixth full-time season covering the sport that he grew up loving. His dream was to one day be a NASCAR journalist, thus why he attended Ithaca College (Class of 2018) to earn a journalism degree. Since the ripe age of four, he knew he wanted to be a storyteller.
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