When the checkered flag flew on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Atlanta Motor Speedway Saturday afternoon, thousands of fans stuck around to watch some future stars of the sport take to AMS with hopes of doing what Ryan Newman had done in the Truck race – celebrate in victory lane.

SPEED Broadcaster Bob Dillner's development drivers Chad Finchum and Kyle Plott had visions of taking a similar turn to victory lane and one was able to do it, while the other gave it everything he had to score an impressive top-five finish.

Chad Finchum, already the 2008 INEX Bandolero Young Gun National Champion at the age of 14, scored his first-ever INEX-sanctioned Legends Car victory in the Young Lions class at Atlanta .

“It felt great to get our first INEX-sanctioned Legends race win,” said Finchum. “We started outside pole and I think my dad and the crew were more torn-up nervous before the race started than I was. I was half-asleep in the car waiting to go. It felt really great to go out there and start second and to go out there and get the win.

With a strong starting spot, Finchum rocketed to the top spot early on and withstood a mid-race challenge en route to the victory.

“We got the green and the leader drove off into the corner real hard, so we fell back into second. But by about the third lap, I got underneath the leader coming off the second turn and got by him and never looked back.

“We had a caution right after halfway. On the restart, I missed a shift going down the straight-away and Blake (Jones) and Melina (Rolo) got under me going into one. But, I got by them both coming off of four, which was pretty cool.”

Finchum had scored victories in non-INEX-sanctioned Legends Car victories in his home state of Tennessee and in preliminary races at Lowe's Motor Speedway (NC) during the summer, but having his first official victory come in front of a huge crowd of NASCAR fans at Atlanta was a thrill Finchum won't soon forget.

“Every race I win, it's awesome, but it just felt really good to win that first INEX-sanctioned win in front of that big crowd with all the NASCAR people in town. We've raced in front of big NASCAR crowds in the Bandolero before and we knew we wanted to put on a good show for all those fans in Atlanta . We sat at home debating on what car to bring, knowing that we wanted to run this Legends car, but also thinking we'd have a good shot at winning with the Bando. Dad and the crew made the right call, I'd say. I was up on the wheel real hard at the beginning, but then I got more relaxed and the lap times picked up. We just set sail from there.”

Fellow BDI Racing driver, 12-year-old Kyle Plott, raced with the more experienced racers in the Semi-Pro class at Atlanta and held his own as a Legends Car rookie. Plott started deep in the field, but was able to work his way inside the top-five to a strong fourth-place finish in the tough Semi-Pro class.

“The car was real good, but the tires didn't finally come in until the final three or four laps,” said Plott. “I wish we could've drawn a little bit better to get a better starting spot, but the car was good overall and I'm glad I got that good of a finish.

“It was hard making passes out there because the tires hadn't come in to where they needed to be. I still need to get some more seat time in a Legends Car, so this run was good for that, too.”

Both Finchum and Plott will join BDI Racing teammate Meghan Dillner in the final Pro Challenge Series event of the 2008 season on Saturday, November 7 th at Georgia 's Peach State Speedway. Dillner and Plott scored top-five finishes in their most recent start, October 18 th at Orlando Speedworld in Florida, while Finchum will head to Peach State for the first time after scoring a runner-up finish in his first-ever Pro Challenge start earlier this month at Lonesome Pine Raceway in Coeburn, VA.