TOLEDO OH (10-27-09) - ARCA RE/MAX Series rookie Chad Finley has talent beyond his years. At least that's what some are saying these days. And, the 17-year-old high school senior has got some numbers to back it up.

Finley, the son of veteran ARCA racer Jeff Finley, made four ARCA starts in 2009, earning a career-best third place finish at Berlin Raceway.

"Our season went alright," said Finley. "At Iowa, we were better than we ended up."

And despite Finley's Iowa outlook, the second-generation driver still finished ninth at the Newton, Iowa state-of-the-art speedplant.

"And then to go to Rockingham and sit on the pole was an awesome experience. We were up front and led some laps."

In fact, Finley led 42 of the first 44 laps. However, the first two laps-led went to Parker Kligerman, who was fighting for the title; and of course laps-led equal points. Kligerman is under contract with Penske Racing; and so is Brad Keselowski, who just happens to be Finley's ARCA car owner. Draw your own conclusions. Nonetheless, Kligerman went on to lead the most laps anyway, not to mention win the race. Finley, given how good his car was, had figured-in a podium finish; but it didn't turn out that way.

"We got piled up on that one restart, and it pushed the fenders in. Car wouldn't turn after that. I think we would have finished third had that not happened, but that's the way it goes."

Keselowski, who had won the NASCAR Nationwide Series race the day before at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, flew in for the Rockingham race.

"He (Keselowski) came in because I was on the pole. Wayne (Setterington/crew chief) and the guys were always joking with him that if I ever won the pole that he was going to have to come in for the race. Well, when he actually showed up from the west coast ......... well, that was pretty cool."

But after the incident that knocked the nose in on Finley's Auto Value Service Centers Chevrolet, the car just didn't work as good and he faded to 15th in final running order, the last car on the lead lap.

No matter, the impression that the young Michigander had already made was clearly visible. Finley, who had never seen Rockingham Speedway, and certainly didn't test there like so many on the entry list did, earned the Menards Pole Award presented by Ansell. That was impressive enough, enough so that Keselowski hopped a ‘red-eye' and marched through the garage gate at ‘The Rock' Sunday morning.

Finley no doubt impressed the ARCA troops right from the get-go with a solid sixth place finish in his series debut at Toledo Speedway in May. Through it all, Finley's performance this year was noteworthy to say the least. And, no doubt, he learned a lot.

"The ARCA cars are so much different than anything else I've ever driven. You can actually move them around on the track a lot more than what I was used to. It was a lot of fun. You could figure out different lines according to how your car was handling, so it teaches track techniques. Coming in for pit stops, running the longer 200 lap races; it was all new to me, and I learned a ton."

Finley hopes to learn more in 2010.

"Right now things are iffy. We're planning on running some more ARCA races. We'd like to run some truck races. We just need some marketing partners to really show what this team is capable of. I can't stress that enough. We've got the people. We've got the car owner. We just need marketing partners to go with us."

Right now, Finley's got more on his plate than just going fast in circles. Graduating from St. Johns High School in the Lansing, Michigan area is paramount.

"I'm taking extra classes right now. Instead of being here till two, I go till five, two days a week. My goal is to graduate in March. I want to get in a position to spend as much time with the team as I can, and test in North Carolina. I'm going to be 18 so we're planning on going to the Daytona test in December.

"It's all good."

And if you consider how well he's done without ‘marketing partners', gotta wonder how he'd do with one.