by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief

Chad Finchum picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s Ally 400 at the Nashville Superspeedway when his #66 Cooper & Hunter Ford fell out with electrical issues after 132 of 331 laps.

The finish, which came in Finchum’s seventh series start, was his first of the season and first in a Cup Series race since October 24, 2021 at Kansas, 93 races ago. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 44th from electrical issues, the 67th for the #66, and the 745th for Ford. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 91st for the #66, the 140th from electrical problems, and the 1,040th for Ford.

Finchum’s most recent last-place finish was also his most recent Cup Series start, carrying sponsorship from Smithbilt Homes on a Toyota entered by Carl Long’s team Motorsports Business Management. Since 2022, he’s made another eight starts in the XFINITY Series with a best of 22nd at Darlington last fall, when he drove for SS-Green Light Racing. In that time, he’d yet to make a start in the NextGen car, though he was scheduled to run last week at Loudon before his entry was withdrawn, leaving open a ride for Armani Williams in a joint venture with JD Motorsports.

As a Tennessee native, Finchum prepared to run double-duty at the Nashville track, competing in both the XFINITY and Cup Series. On the XFINITY side, he again drove for SS-Green Light Racing in the #14 Ted Russell Ford of Knoxville Ford. After qualifying 35th and spending some laps in last place, he climbed to 34th by the finish.

On the Cup side, Finchum again drove for MBM, this time carrying two sponsors. The hood carried a logo for HVAC company Cooper & Hunter, also the sponsor of the first-time Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, plus quarter-panel backing from Tennessee bridge loan form Land Loan TN. Among the 38 entrants, Finchum struggled for speed early on, running the slowest lap in practice more than a full second off the car in 37th. He was then nearly two seconds off the next-slowest car in qualifying with a lap of just 32.706 seconds (146.395mph).

Joining Finchum at the tail end of the field was 33rd-place qualifier Justin Haley, whose #51 Pinnacle Home Improvement Ford was docked for what Bob Pockrass reported was a team member putting their hand in an area they weren’t allowed to touch after technical inspection. In addition to ejecting Haley’s car chief, J.R. Norris and losing pit selection, Haley would drop to the rear and have to serve a pass-through penalty after taking the green flag.

Since no other drivers were sent to the tail end of the field, Finchum remained in the final spot, and was directed by NASCAR to start last on the outside line behind the #71 Jockey Outdoors by Luke Bryan Chevrolet of Zane Smith. At the start, Finchum was 2.976 seconds back of the lead to the now 37th-place Haley’s 2.906. Haley served his pass-through penalty, and while heading down pit road took over last place, 16.003 seconds behind the leader and 8.823 behind Finchum. By the time Haley was back up to speed on Lap 3, the gap from Finchum back to Haley grew to 19.817 seconds, Haley about to be lapped by the leader, 29.033 seconds behind.

As Haley was back up to speed on Lap 3, Finchum was already losing touch with the rest of the pack, a full 2.436 seconds behind Erik Jones, then the 36th-place runner in the #43 Family Dollar Toyota. This allowed Haley to steadily catch the #66 each lap. On Lap 6, their interval was 16.799 seconds, then 15.366 on Lap 7, 12.527 on Lap 9, 11.409 on Lap 10, 10.295 on Lap 11, 8.912 on Lap 12, 7.540 on Lap 13, and 6.284 on Lap 14. By then, then-leader Denny Hamlin had caught Haley, but struggled to put him a lap down. On Lap 17, when Finchum had fallen 9.284 seconds behind new 36th-place runner Daniel Hemric in the #31 Cirkul Chevrolet, Haley broke loose in Turn 1, causing Hamlin to check-up and allowing teammate Christopher Bell to make the pass on the outside to take the lead. On Lap 19, Bell lapped Finchum entering Turn 3, and the next time by, NBC’s cameras caught the moment Haley dropped Finchum to last place down the backstretch.

Still under green, Finchum radioed his crew that he had a brake issue and wanted to pit, which he did on Lap 27. That time, the crew removed most of the tape from the ducts on either side of the grille. He returned to the track three laps down and stayed out as the leaders began to make their own green-flag stops. On Lap 52, the new 37th-place runner became John Hunter Nemechek, whose #42 Massey Motor Freight Toyota was caught speeding in Section 2 on pit road, dropping him two laps down. Finchum’s brake issues continued, as did problems with the radio, causing the spotter to relay messages between Long and Finchum. Noticeably off the pace, Finchum was caught on the outside lane on Lap 85 as Bell and Hamlin continued their battle for the lead in heavy traffic. This dropped Finchum a fifth lap down.

On Lap 92, Finchum reached the caution to end Stage 1 and updated his team. He reported the “balance of the car feels really neutral,” a water temperature of 206 degrees, and said his driver cooling hose had become blocked. He soon discovered the hose had come unhooked from the duct, so Long planned to fix that on the second of two stops under the yellow. Their first stop involved removing all remaining tape over the brake ducts. After the Lap 98 restart, 37th-place Nemechek spun into the infield grass off Turn 4, costing him a third lap to the leaders, while on Lap 126, Ty Gibbs’ spin in the #54 Interstate Batteries Toyota gave Finchum one of his laps back. Under the Gibbs yellow, Finchum declined a water bottle and would be given an ice pack.

Finchum remained five laps down for the Lap 131 restart, but a caution, then red flag flew for lightning, then a pop-up rain storm, on Lap 136.

The track dried in less than two hours, but when cars rolled off pit road, Finchum’s needed a push. NASCAR called for a wrecker which got the #66 rolling again, but the engine sounded so rough that Finchum ended up coming right back to pit road, staying on the apron. “It ain’t hardly running, Carl, it's missing like crazy,” said the driver. “Yeah, it just died. I couldn't even get it around here.” With that, Finchum immediately turned behind the wall, then came to a stop before he could enter his garage stall. The crew brought him the rest of the way and worked under the hood.

In the process, Finchum finally completed his 132nd lap. Since his pit stall – Number 27 – was before the starting line, and after the red flag was withdrawn, he’d only completed the lap by going to the garage, the result was a time of 5,022.355 seconds, or just under 84 minutes. Per Seth Eggert, this equated to a lap time of just 0.953mph.

On Lap 140, Long had the crew back Finchum’s car out of the garage to refill it with fuel. He then prepared to make a battery change. But on Lap 155, Long radioed that, even if he got the car running, he’d declare the car out of the race. Five laps later on Lap 160, NASCAR confirmed Finchum was the first car out of the race, citing electrical issues. The team later tweeted that water had made it into the car’s wiring system during the rain delay, causing a short circuit.

Finishing 37th was Riley Herbst, whose #15 Monster Energy Zero Sugar Ford was clipped by a sliding Corey LaJoie entering Turn 1. Contact from the right-front of LaJoie’s #7 Garner Trucking Chevrolet into Herbst’s left-rear sent Herbst sliding up the track and into the outside wall, ending his race. Taking 36th was Christopher Bell, whose #20 Dewalt Toyota dominated the event after his pass on Hamlin, leading 131 laps and sweeping both stages. But on Lap 228, he broke loose in Turn 1 and hit the wall with the driver’s side. In 35th came Michael McDowell, who led 31 laps in his #34 Love’s Fleetguard Ford as he tried stretching his fuel in Stage 1, only to suffer a driveline issue around the midway point. Erik Jones completed the Bottom Five after suspension issues resulting from a flat tire, also in Turn 1, that damaged his #43.

Zane Smith nearly pulls off stunning upset

No fewer than five overtime finishes were needed to complete the race, which ran a full 31 laps past its scheduled distance. With many of the top contenders running out of fuel, including eventual race winner Joey Logano off the final corner, the race nearly saw one of the sport’s biggest upsets. Zane Smith, who has struggled all year in Spire Motorsports’ #71 Jockey Outdoors by Luke Bryan Chevrolet, pulled alongside Logano at the stripe and came within just 0.068 second of an upset victory. It was Smith’s first top-five finish in his 28th career Cup start, besting his previous mark of 10th in last year’s Coca-Cola 600, when he drove for Front Row Motorsports. This race also saw Smith lose the 2024 LASTCAR Cup Series lead to Christopher Bell, who had been the day’s most dominant driver.

Smith also finished just three-thousandths of a second ahead of 3rd-place Tyler Reddick, who close behind him saw an equally impressive Ryan Preece in the #41 HaasTooling.com Ford. With the impending closure of Stewart-Haas Racing at the end of the year, Preece earned his first top-five finish in Cup since last summer at Richmond, when he took 5th, making it his best-ever finish on a non-superspeedway, this in his 170th career start.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*This marked the first last-place finish for the #66 in a Cup Series race at the Nashville Superspeedway. Incidentally, the number had only once finished last at the Nashville Fairgrounds Raceway: August 2, 1964, when Paul “Lil’ Bud” Moore scored his first last-place finish in his series debut after his #66 1963 Ford overheated after three laps.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

38) #66-Chad Finchum / 132 laps / electrical

37) #15-Riley Herbst / 201 laps / crash

36) #20-Christopher Bell / 227 laps / crash / led 131 laps / won stages 1 & 2

35) #34-Michael McDowell / 239 laps / transmission / led 31 laps

34) #43-Erik Jones / 287 laps / suspension

2024 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Spire Motorsports (3)

2nd) Kaulig Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing, Motorsports Business Management, Penske Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing (2)

3rd) Hendrick Motorsports, Legacy Motor Club, RFK Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Rick Ware Racing (1)

2024 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Ford (8)

2nd) Chevrolet (7)

3rd) Toyota (3)

2024 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP