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MARTINSVILLE, VA – Jonathan Findley, who is unsure of his plans heading into next season, made a statement with his performance at Saturday’s ValleyStar Credit Union 300 even though his finish did not do his run any justice.
Findley, 20, from Bristow, Virginia fell out of Saturday night’s race early, resulting in a 32nd place result.  However, he had worked his way inside the top-15 in the first stage of the ValleyStar Credit Union and won in his respective heat race earlier in the afternoon.
“Yeah, maybe 15-20 laps in, I think we were up to 11th,” Findley said.  “My car didn’t handle the greatest on short runs, but long runs, it was really good.  For once, Martinsville wasn’t a demolition derby.  My car needed a lot longer of a time to come on than the others, we just didn’t have a long enough run for it.”
Findley had been trying to rebound from an earlier incident in the race before he ended up being swept up in a multi-car accident on lap 132, ending his night.
“The guy who used to take care of my car, we got into it after the first stage break.  He sent me spinning in turns one and two, but what ended my day was the pileup behind the Taylor Gray flip,” Findley explained.  “I was in the pack and, Martinsville is not real wide and not a lot of room to go, but we got piled up and that ended our day.”
Findley was forced to run in the second of two heat races after falling just short of making the top-20 in qualifying on Friday.  Starting second in the race, Findley ended up taking the race lead and winning his heat race – propelling him to a 22nd place start in the feature race.
“We started second, had a lot of good cars to challenge us, but we had a good car and that’s what it takes at Martinsville is to go through the corners,” Findley commented.  “Everyone thinks it’s straightaway speed, but you have to get through the corners.  We had a lot of good challenges.  Sammy Smith, Davin Scites, Jeff Oakley, a lot of good guys who have had good runs there in the past.”
While he has reasons to be confident moving forward after a strong performance at Martinsville, there is not much on Findley’s schedule right now.
Citing funding, Findley says the only race that is for sure on his schedule right now is the CARS Tour season finale at South Boston Speedway on November 2nd.  He hopes to race in the Thanksgiving Classic on Sunday, December 1st at Southern National Motorsports Park, a track that he won a championship at in 2015.
“We’ve talked about the Thanksgiving Classic.  As of right now. we have one race left with the CARS Tour.  Money’s tight,” Findley stated.  “We don’t even know what we’re doing next year.  We have one last CARS Tour race and we don’t know how we’re going to do that.  Money’s tight and we really don’t have any plans for next year at all.
“My grandparents are the ones that are the biggest supporters.  They asked me this past weekend what I wanted to do, and I said the CARS tour again, but we just don’t know.”
Jonathan Findley (4) leads a heat race at Martinsville Speedway. (Corey Latham photo)
Tagged: featured Jonathan Findley Martinsville Speedway ValleyStar Credit Union 300
Andy Marquis is the managing editor of Race22.com, joining the team in 2011. Marquis has vast journalism experience, having covered ARCA, INDYCAR, NASCAR, AMA and IHRA Drag Racing. He has also covered politics from the local level in Maryland to the national level in Washington. Currently, he oversees the editorial side of Race22.com on a day-to-day basis while also contributing features and covering races on location.