NEWTON, Iowa. – On the heels of a strong performance at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway last month, Chad Finley Racing (CFR) heads to Iowa Speedway with driver Chad Finley looking for their second career top-10 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series (NGOTS) finish in Saturday night’s M&M’s 200.
In his second NGOTS start of the year in the backyard of NASCAR country at Charlotte, Finley put on a thrilling performance which included rallying from a mid-race miscue to bolt into the top-10 before a late-race restart buckled the team’s opportunity to capitalize on their strong night.
Knowing they could have easily finished inside the top-10, being in the wrong lane at the wrong time on the final restart of the night hindered Finley’s opportunity at earning his best speedway finish in Trucks and instead left the Mooresville, N.C.-organization with an 18th place finish.
Still, the team is upbeat about their Charlotte effort and plans to finish what they started in the Midwest at Newton’s Iowa Speedway.
“I’m really hoping for a strong weekend at Iowa Speedway,” said Finley. “I’m really proud of the efforts of my Chad Finley Racing team and their ability to put a fast Strutmasters.com, Air Lift Company and Auto Value Certified Service Centers Truck on the race track. No doubt we’re going to Iowa this week planning to finish what we started at Charlotte.”
It’s been 10 years since Finley has been to Iowa’s 0.875-mile short track. In 2009, Finley, a native of DeWitt, Mich. competed in an ARCA Menards Series race driving for Brad Keselowski Racing. Despite qualifying mid-pack, Finley rallied to earn a ninth-place finish in just his second career ARCA start.
His second consecutive top-10 finish at the time is one of 11 top-10 finishes in 20 career ARCA Menards Series races that spans over five seasons. While competing at a track a decade ago can be tough to rekindle, Finley still has a good memory of the facility and the type of racing it embraces.
“Iowa is a fun place,” Finley added. “It’s been a long time, a real long time since I’ve been there, but I’m hoping the fundamentals are pretty much the same.
“While there’s plenty of racing grooves, track position and tire conservation is still incredibly important. Thankfully, when it comes to my team, I feel like I have one of the best in the business in my crew chief Bruce Cook and look forward to seeing what we can do on Saturday night.”
Strutmasters.com, Air Lift Company and Auto Value Certified Service Centers will serve as the primary marketing partners for Saturday night’s anticipated thriller.
