Eldora Speedway
Cousins Ferguson face off in DTWC prelims
By Kevin Kovac
DirtonDirt senior writer
Carson Ferguson (left) and Chris Ferguson (right) battle at Eldora. (heathlawsonphotos.com)
ROSSBURG, Ohio (Oct. 17) — Carson Ferguson was so close to securing the pole position for Saturday’s 100-lap Dirt Track World Championship finale at Eldora Speedway. It was right there for the taking as he rounded turn four with a victory in Friday’s first heat race just half a straightaway ahead. | RaceWire
If only it wasn’t for … his cousin Chris Ferguson, who suddenly rose up to steal the checkered flag — and the No. 1 starting spot in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series’s season-ending, $100,000-to-win race — exiting the last corner.
“He just couldn’t let me have my moment,” Carson Ferguson, 25, of Lincolnton, N.C., said with a grin after settling for a runner-up finish and the seventh starting spot in the DTWC.
Chris Ferguson understood his relative’s snark. The 35-year-old from Mount Holly, N.C., was sheepish about his dramatic triumph.
“Of all the people that I would like to do that to,” Chris said, “he’s definitely not on the list.”
The possibility of a Ferguson family showdown for the pole was clear from the start of the heat with the cousins sharing the front row after Carson set fast time in his qualifying group and Chris clocked in fourth fastest. But for most of the 10-lap distance it appeared that Carson would emerge on top as he piloted his Paylor Motorsports Longhorn Chassis to a short but comfortable lead over Chris.
Carson felt his speed diminishing though. At the same time, Chris began moving faster around the half-mile oval.
“I looked at the (video) board about halfway through and I saw I had a big lead, so I just focused on hitting my marks and staying out of the wall but getting as close to the wall as I could,” Carson said. “I blocked the slider (attempt from rivals) on the first lap into (turn) three when I went low and I thought I went under the holes, but then I biked up out of nowhere. So I was like, ‘OK, I need to either go lower or go above them,’ so I just focused on going above them after that and kind of running some qualifying laps.
“But the right-rear that everybody had on, I think I kind of burned it up. It was a softer compound (Hoosier’s 2) and I just kept getting slower and slower and spinning a little more. Then Chris was able to get down there in the moisture.”
Indeed, Chris came on in the closing laps.
“When you’re in second, I can feel the top going away, so I knew I could start searching,” Chris said. “I knew whoever was behind me, Bobby (Pierce) or whoever was behind me, they weren’t really close, so I just kind of found a line there (lower on the track). I went from I could barely see (Carson) on the straightaway, till when I hit the line right with about four laps ago I could see him, and I’m like, ‘OK, we’re pretty good now.’ ”
Chris went underneath Carson negotiating turns three and four on the final lap. He found grip and rocketed by his high-running cousin, beating Carson to the finish line by a surprisingly healthy 0.405 of a second.
“I didn’t really think on the last lap I was going to clear him by that much,” Chris said. “I think I timed it where I didn’t catch him too soon. I knew I had to follow him into three because it was so choppy in the middle and the bottom that I had to follow him and then cut down.”
There was little Carson could do to repel Chris.
“I saw him on the last lap bout halfway through three and four,” Carson said. “That was the only time I saw him. It’s hard to see your spotters here (in the infield) just because of the chain link fence. I tried to pin him down (off turn four) after I saw him, but I was already dead in the water there.”
Chris didn’t gloat over his victory, which marked the third time the cousins have finished 1-2 in a race. It’s been Chris with the upper hand on each occasion — previously he led Carson under the checkered flag at Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn., and Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, S.C. — although Carson noted that his Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series triumph on Oct. 10 at Cherokee came with Chris finishing third, the first time he’s won a feature and had Chris on the podium with him.
The cousins parked half the pit area away from each other for the DTWC weekend — Chris just inside turns three and four, Carson closer to turns one and two — but met up shortly after the heat race when Chris visited Carson’s trailer.
“He helped me load up,” Carson said with a smile. “Me and the team were like, ‘We’d rather you let us win and not be here to help us load up.’ But I guess if was anybody (to lose to), we’re gonna keep it in the family.”
Chris let Carson know that he did nothing wrong to let the heat slip through his fingers.
“I told him, ‘You know, you were kind of a sitting duck,’ ” Chris said. “We all had on 2s and I can feel the tire giving away, that top was getting thinner and thinner … sometimes it’s better to be the guy in second. That’s kind of how it worked out for me right there.”
But Chris’s car — the only Stinger Chassis built by Chase King in the DTWC field — was certainly stout. Carson acknowledged Chris’s strength at Eldora, and Chris remarked that he’ll take the green flag in Saturday’s headliner with plenty of confidence.
“We’re just kind of building on the Dream and the World (100),” said Chris, whose best finish in seven previous DTWC feature starts is a modest 13th, in 2018 at Portsmouth (Ohio) Raceway Park. “We had good runs in both races. We got to second there at the Dream, I ran second for a while (before fading to finish 12th), and then at the World, starting so far back and then getting up to sixth and finishing eighth …
“We’ve been really good here, so I’m excited about it. I think (the Stinger is) a great car that not a lot of people know about it. And it’s got a lot of tendencies that I really loved in the Team Zero (Bloomquist) cars, so I think it fits my driving style and I’m just excited for 100 laps.”
Chris also conceded that beating Carson did give him a little bit of bragging rights.
“He’s got a lot longer to go (in racing) than I do right now,” Chris said. “I got to get him while I can, right?”
