James Chadwick ‘Chad’ Finchum was born on September 22, 1994, in Knoxville, Tennessee, and grew up in a region where motorsports are deeply rooted in local culture. At just seven years old, he sat in a go-kart for the first time and competed in his first races at Dumplin Valley Raceway in Tennessee. His talent showed early: by the time he turned thirteen, he had already accumulated more than 200 go-kart wins on both dirt and asphalt tracks before making the transition to fully-bodied race cars.
Finchum’s next step led him to Late Models at Kingsport Speedway and to Bandolero and Legends Cars at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Summer Shootout. These formative years paid off: in 2010, he secured the Tennessee championship in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series. Through the K&N Pro Series East, where he debuted in 2011 with Lori Williams and later drove for Spraker Racing and Martin-McClure Racing, he steadily worked his way up. His breakthrough came in 2016 at Bristol: in only his third start for his team, he won the PittLite 125 against future NASCAR stars like Harrison Burton, Justin Haley, and Todd Gilliland.
Starting in 2017, Finchum focused on the NASCAR Xfinity Series, initially driving for MBM Motorsports before being named the full-time driver of the No. 40 car for the 2018 season. He made his Cup Series debut in April 2018 on his home track in Bristol, again for MBM Motorsports in the No. 66. In the Xfinity Series, an eleventh-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway in October 2020 remains his best result to date, along with over 110 starts in the series, primarily for MBM Motorsports and later Joey Gase Motorsports.
In the 2026 season, Finchum is listed as the full-time driver for Garage 66 in the NASCAR Cup Series, where he continues to pilot the No. 66. After years as a part-time driver in the premier series, his role with Garage 66 offers him the opportunity to convert his experience from over a decade in the NASCAR environment into consistent results and establish himself permanently in the Cup Series.
Chad Finchum in the News