Chris Ferguson
Over the course of his Dirt Late Model career, Chris Ferguson has won plenty of feature races around his home region. But during these most recent seasons, the Mt. Holly, North Carolina driver has branched out to compete in many of the sport’s biggest events while racing fewer times regionally. And in 2022, that move has paid off handsomely as the 32-year-old pilot has scored two wins in events that have doled out a $50,000 first prize.
Ferguson beat the field to the checkered flag for his first big payday of 2022 in an XR Super Series show at the Bristol Motor Speedway back in March. He later followed that up in May by winning the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series-sanctioned Show-me 100 at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri. And while not as lucrative but highly prestigious, the No. 22 Team Zero Race Car pulled into victory lane at the Eldora Speedway after scoring a win in an Eldora Million preliminary affair.
Ferguson did not start off his season early on like so many other Dirt Late Model stars. Rather than racing during Georgia-Florida SpeedWeeks in January and February, his team waited until early March to kick off their campaign. It was a conscious choice made with an eye toward reducing the total number of races in favor of hitting bigger events.
“Definitely. I think myself and my team are where we need to be as far as competitiveness to run good in these big ones and to be contending,” Ferguson told InsideDirtRacing.com. “Budget wise, we have enough money to be out on the road, not full time, but picking and choosing the races that we want to go to. To me, with it just being my dad, my brother, and volunteer crew guys, it only made sense to focus on the big races that we wanted to run and then not overdo it. I know about the time I decided to run 80 or 90 races and I don’t have fulltime crew guys I would be behind when I came to these big shows.”
‘Fergy’ believes that racing fewer times has allowed his crew to spend more time making sure they have everything completely ready before hitting the track.
“There would be a lack of preparation and all of that stuff,” he explained. “So the way we race now when we come to these big races, we’re prepared. We feel like we’re in position to run good in them and win them. I’m very, very fortunate with all the pieces of the puzzle coming together the last few years as far as shocks, cars, motors, my dad and my brother crew chiefing. My driving, I feel like I’m driving better now than I think I’ve ever drove. We’re just trying to make the most of the situation. I tell everybody it would be cool being a national champion but I’d much rather win every crown jewel before I win one national championship.”
Chris Ferguson’s Team Zero Race Car has raced less than some but more effectively than most
Every race team has to do what is best for their program. Ferguson points out that while racing regionally is the best move for some, he believes he has reached the point in his career that broadening his scope serves his situation best.
“The ceiling and the floor is so different when you go to a bigger race compared to a regional race,” he said. “There’s definitely a place for both of them just like there’s a place for local racing. You just have to see where you fit and what you want your goal to be as a driver. For me, the amount of money that we invest in our equipment, in our hauler, in the tires, the motors, everything that’s going on, we have to get as many dollars per lap as possible.”
Being competitive enough to make the biggest shows justifies the travel and other expenses involved in racing further from his home base.
“The only way you do that is to go run the mega events, the races that pay the most money per lap,” Ferguson stated. “When you come to these big races, if you make the show you get $1,000, $1,500, $2,000 to start- that’s the floor. When you get to the point where you can travel to these races and feel like you’re confident enough to make the shows, then you know you’re going to cover your fuel and the costs. Then if you run good, you actually make a little bit of money.”
Chris Ferguson in BMS victory lane
There are some drivers who have won a big event once then never were able to follow up on that triumph with another. Ferguson’s two $50,000 wins serve as confirmation that he is no one hit wonder on Dirt Late Model racing’s biggest stages.
“There’s been a lot of guys in the history that you’ve seen run up front in the big races and I feel like I’ve done that the last two or three years with our top-5s in the Dream and the World,” he declared. “I think it just took that little bit of a kick in the butt to get over the hump of being top-5 to winning. Now I feel like people consider us one of those guys that can win and it doesn’t matter if it’s at Eldora, Wheatland, Florence, basically about anywhere. At Portsmouth I’ve been on the pole and I’ve been in contention in the Dirt Track World Championship two or three years in a row. I think it solidifies it for sure. I think it makes up for me not racing with these guys regularly. A lot of people consider the best to be those guys who run the national tours, and that is the case, but there’s also a lot of guys who can win the crown jewels who don’t run a tour.”
There may be some who have raced more often than Ferguson this season, but his careful planning and preparation are allowing him to make the most of his on-track opportunities.
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