Eldora Speedway
Briefly, Ferguson relishes breakthrough at Eldora
By Kevin Kovac
DirtonDirt.com senior writer
Eldora Million prelim winner Chris Ferguson (Zach Yost)
ROSSBURG, Ohio (June 9) — Chris Ferguson finally won a feature at the famed Eldora Speedway and he was able to enjoy it for exactly … 10 or 15 minutes?
The 32-year-old driver from Mount Holly, N.C., climbed out his car on the half-mile oval’s winner’s stage after leading Thursday afternoon’s first 25-lap preliminary feature for the Eldora Million from flag-to-flag without a challenge. He waved to the crowd, did an interview with announcer Ben Shelton, hugged his family and crew members and posed for pictures. | Complete Eldora coverage
Then Ferguson reported to the post-race technical inspection area for a quick once-over by DIRTcar officials and headed for his trailer in the upper pit area — not to relax and savor his long-awaited breakthrough win at Eldora, but to immediately begin prepping his No. 22 machine in hopes of making it even faster to chase the evening’s grand prize of $1,002,022.
A rain-induced doubleheader means the richest dirt track race ever contested commences just hours after the final checkered flag of the preliminary program.
But as nice as it would be to sleep on his first Eldora win, Ferguson seemed to realize that this situation might be a bit less nerve-racking. Diving right back in with his team — led by his car owner and father, Bryan Conard, and his crew chief and brother Brandon Conard — rather than stressing over the monumental amount of money on the line and what he should do to his car for nearly 24 hours keeps his mind from straying.
“Yeah, I think it does,” Ferguson said when asked during post-race tech whether going right into the big show after a win can be beneficial. “Everybody’s been driving pretty sane, but there’s a million dollars on the line next. Let’s just get right to it.”
While Ferguson’s Team Zero Race Car looked indomitable as he cruised to a caution-free $12,000 triumph — he beat Chris Madden of Gray Court, S.C., to the finish line by 1.635 seconds — he was certain he still had room for improvement. He was ready to make some tweaks to achieve that without agonizing about them overnight.
“This is a different car than we had at Wheatland,” Ferguson said, referring to his recent career-first crown jewel victory worth $50,000 in May 28’s Show-Me 100 at Missouri’s Lucas Oil Speedway. “But our cars have been so good that we just focus on what’s in front of us and let the rest play out. Now we just gotta go out there and focus and get the car a little bit better. I was pretty happy with it in clean air, but when I got in dirty air (through lapped traffic) I felt a lot freer.”
Ferguson displayed a sense of calm amid the whirlwind of a mega-money event as he spoke. His Show-Me 100 triumph carried him to Eldora with a newfound confidence — the feeling that he can indeed win a Big One with his talent and his relatively modest family-operated racing program — and controlling the preliminary feature from start-to-finish was just more proof that he has arrived as one of the drivers who can contend at the highest level.
The track conditions certainly played a role in his serene appearance. Like every other competitor who unloaded at Eldora, he was worried about the surface. Would it be a rough, heavy, car-eating monster like it was less than two weeks ago for the Johnny Appleseed Classic? Or would it be the usual smooth, slick Eldora?
Ferguson was very impressed that a frenzy of work by Eldora owner Tony Stewart and his track from Tuesday through early Wednesday — they removed the new clay laid down for 2022 — had brought the speedway back to normal.
“It’s pretty wicked,” Ferguson said of the track. “It’s slick all the way across. I think it’s because that dirt’s so old, but this is optimal track conditions for day racing. Like, nowhere else in America is gonna race two-, three-wide during the day like Eldora. They did a great job taking all that dirt off and then giving us this today. It’s got a little character but nobody complains about that.”
Setting Ferguson at ease even more, of course, was the heartening progression of his day. He’s never gone through a crown jewel program at Eldora in better fashion.
“I’ve been wanting (an Eldora win) a long time, and after beating around the bush, everything went our way,” said Ferguson. “We didn’t qualify great (11th fastest in his group) but I had a late draw, so just for me to be in the top 10, 11, 12, I knew we’d have a shot.
“And you know, these (heat) inverts have always killed me here, so today it actually played in my favor to start on the pole of the heat.”
Yes, it seemed like perhaps the tide had begun to turn for Ferguson’s fortunes at Eldora when he landed on the pole for the third heat. Then the feature invert determined by qualifying times among the heat winners fell in his favor again to put him in the number one spot.
“It felt like a lot of things went my way today,” Ferguson said with a smile. “It’s amazing how one lapped car, or one wrong move, any situation here, can take you out (of prime position). You gotta keep putting yourself in position to win and we did today.”
Ferguson felt even better about the trajectory of his day after Mike Marlar of Winfield, Tenn., Thursday’s top points earner thanks to his fastest qualifying lap, heat win and third-place finish in Fergy’s feature, spun the inversion wheel and it stopped at ‘0’ to align Thursday’s heats straight up.
Which put Ferguson alongside Marlar on the outside of the front row for the first heat.
“Just having fun right now,” Ferguson said, aware that he could end up enjoying his Thursday even more if his run of good luck could lead to a million-dollar victory.
