Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Lucas Oil racer making truck debut at Bristol
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Carson Ferguson (heathlawsonphotos.com)
Part of why Carson Ferguson could move past the disappointment of falling just short of a full-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series ride with Kaulig Racing — finishing second to Mini Tyrrell in Ram’s Race for the Seat competition — is that he thought his NASCAR dreams vanished years ago. | Sidebar
The 26-year-old of Lincolnton, N.C., can recall too many instances where he excelled in the legends car ranks, believing he had proven his worth to pavement Late Model team owners searching for the next wave of stock car talent, only to be overlooked.
“I’d outrun people, and then the guys who finished second through fifth would have Late Model owners coming up to them offering rides,” said Ferguson, who this Friday makes his Truck Series debut with Kaulig Racing at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. “They were rent-a-rides. It really put a bad taste in my mouth, seeing that and experiencing that — them walking right past me to go talk to people I just outran.”
Nearly every year before making his Dirt Late Model debut in 2014, Ferguson accomplished something significant in the bandolero or legends car class. In 2010, he won the North Carolina state championship. In 2011, he captured the bandolero national title and a Summer Shootout championship at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
In 2012, he became the youngest winner of the legends car Asphalt Nationals at Atlanta Motor Speedway. In 2014, he became the only driver to win the legends car Triple Crown — sweeping the Dirt Nationals, Asphalt Nationals and Road Course World Finals in a legends car in a single season.
Ferguson thought his ever-growing résumé would speak for itself as he tried to land a pavement Late Model opportunity, but nothing ever materialized.
“I had one or two guys say, ‘Hey, we like how you race. I’ll contact you next week. I want to put you in a car because we believe in you,’ ” Ferguson recalled. “But then you never hear from them. So that kind of became a repetitive cycle, and you quit getting your hopes up.
“I mean, I was 13 or 14 at the time, and when you’re that young, I feel like it took a toll on me mentally. It kind of got me down in the dumps a little bit, but I was able to keep performing on the track and keep it separate.
“I’m pretty proud I didn’t come from money,” he added. “It was just people believing in me and giving me opportunities to get me to where I’m at today.”
In 2014, Ferguson shifted his focus from NASCAR to Dirt Late Model racing, piecing together a grassroots operation alongside his father, Tony, with an open trailer and hand-me-down equipment from cousin Chris Ferguson.
For the next several years, they raced only sparingly, constrained by time and money. Then came a leap of faith in 2018 — a brand-new Rocket Chassis. The gamble paid off as Ferguson won two of his five Crate starts that season, both at Friendship Motor Speedway in Elkin, N.C., securing his first Dirt Late Model victories and validating the investment.
“It was like, ‘Wow, we can do this,’ ” Ferguson recalled of the breakthrough that also helped him secure what was then his biggest sponsorship of $5,000 for the 2019 season.
He parlayed that support into the Fastrak Racing Series championship that following year.
“We won that championship, had some money to carry onto the next year, and it just escalated,” Ferguson said.
That is, until, a grueling 2020 season that pushed him to his limits.
“It was just a rough year. I drained my personal bank account twice,” Ferguson said. “We got down to the end of the year, and I told dad, I’m not gonna be this stupid my whole life.”
By October, Ferguson gave himself an ultimatum heading into his final two races of the season at Cherokee Speedway and Smoky Mountain Speedway.
“I said, ‘If we do good, we’ll keep going,’ ” Ferguson said. “ ‘If not, we’re done.’ ”
At Cherokee, he crossed the finish line second, only to be disqualified for coming across the scales too light. At Smoky Mountain, he blew an engine.
“So, I was like, ‘I’m done,’ ” Ferguson said.
He reached out to friend and fellow Dirt Late Model racer Wesley Page of Rock Hill, S.C., hoping to find work as a mechanic.
“I thought maybe it’s just meant for me to be on the other side of the steering wheel, you know?” Ferguson said. “I said, ‘If you have a car I can drive, I’ll do that, too.’ ”
Donald and Gina Bradsher, whose Paylor Motorsports operation fielded Page’s Crate program, caught wind of Ferguson’s inquiry. Page got back to him as the messenger of unexpected news. He’d been hired not only as a mechanic, but as a driver, too.
“We just kept watching him, and every time he went out there, he wasn’t tearing up equipment, he wasn’t running over people,” Donald Bradsher said, recalling his earliest impressions of Ferguson. “If the car ran fifth, he’d finish fifth. If the car ran second, he’d finish second.”
Ferguson didn’t realize it at the time, but the steady, respectful way he carried himself — toward both his equipment and his competitors — is what ultimately kept his career alive.
“They had watched me, you know, through the years, and liked the way I carried myself,” Ferguson said. “You never know who’s watching at all times.”
Add Dale Earnhardt Jr. to that list.
When the NASCAR Hall of Famer was asked on his podcast The Dale Jr. Download in February which drivers he’d consider for a hypothetical four-truck operation — excluding current Cup and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series drivers — Ferguson’s name quickly surfaced.
“Who was the dirt kid on the Dodge deal?” Earnhardt asked his co-hosts.
“Carson Ferguson,” replied T.J. Majors, current spotter for Brad Keselowski in the Cup Series.
“There it is,” Earnhardt said. “I hear good things about him.”
“Yeah, I heard he did really well in that deal,” Majors added. “Yeah, I would take Carson Ferguson.”
It was a pinch-me moment Ferguson finds himself replaying from time to time.
“Hopefully he knows my name now and hopefully we can just bring more attention to dirt racing,” Ferguson said.
Although the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series has grown in popularity in recent years — including with FloSports acquisition of the national tour in December with plans to expand its reach and multimedia coverage — a gap still exists between the pavement and dirt racing worlds, Ferguson believes.
He felt that firsthand as the lone dirt-track representative on Ram’s Race for the Seat.
“I feel like a lot of asphalt people don't realize the national side of it,” Ferguson said. “The money that's involved and the lifestyle that it is. Whether it's behind the scenes with a camera crew or production crew, or the race teams and everything back at the shop. There’s so much involved in this lifestyle. I hope I bring more attention to that.”
That even carried into conversations Ferguson had with his Race for the Seat competitors, something that piqued team owner Donald Bradsher’s curiosity, particularly when it came to the merchandising dynamic between the two disciplines.
“Them Late Model stock guys are nowhere in the same realm of selling T-shirts,” Bradsher said. “We go to 26 states, maybe even 30 or close to 40 states. Most of those asphalt guys run within eight to 10 hours of the house. That gives us an advantage there, too.”
Ferguson’s two scheduled Truck starts with Kaulig Racing — Friday at Bristol and Oct. 30 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway — could open the door for additional NASCAR opportunities. Or they could not.
Either way, Ferguson’s stock car venture doesn’t change anything for Donald and Gina Bradsher.
“If the Truck ride would’ve continued, or would continue, we had a plan in place,” Bradsher said.
Even if a NASCAR path were to materialize, the Bradshers believe they could still field Ferguson in 30 to 50 Dirt Late Model events a year. And before anyone asks, they wouldn’t be scrambling to replace him — or looking for a new driver at all — even if Ferguson went that direction.
“If he would’ve went there and won it, we would’ve backed him 100 percent,” Donald said. “We’re not looking for no new driver, I just wanna make that clear. We have what we want.”
Ferguson’s greatest strength — his mindfulness and respect for those around him — has at times doubled as a weakness, especially in a discipline where aggressiveness often decides races.
“I feel like when he got started, he might’ve been a little timid to race,” Donald Bradsher said. “Not that he was scared of those guys, but he wanted to make sure he showed them respect and wasn’t running over ’em. That doesn’t happen a lot in this sport. That’s kind of gone out the door.
“Sometimes he maybe didn’t put the car in a situation that could’ve gotten him a victory,” Bradsher added. “I think he’s finally realizing he has the equipment, and we’re not going to scold him for tearing it up. We tell him: ‘Go get it.’ ”
In other words, Ferguson is still paying his dues in Dirt Late Model racing — albeit on a fast track after being thrust into Paylor Motorsports’ premier national seat when Tim McCreadie departed in March 2024.
“He’s grown up,” Donald Bradsher said. “I think when we threw him to the wolves, most people don’t realize, he had less than 40 starts in a Super. Even though he had won the (Schaeffer's) Spring Nationals twice, it was still a very limited time.
“I feel like, that year, we probably should’ve pulled off and let him run for Rookie of the Year last year. But I just, her and mine feeling was, the quicker he can go out and mature, the better he is.
“We loved every moment when Timmy was with us, and we didn’t want him to go,” Donald added. “But our goal was — when Timmy ever said, ‘Hey, I’m done’ — Carson was ready to fill that spot. He just got thrown in there a lot sooner.”
Ferguson has shown flashes of excellence this season, opening the Lucas Oil campaign with two top-five finishes and four top-10 runs in his first five races. But he’s since gone seven straight starts without finishing better than 12th.
“It’s just the rookie stripes, you know, and I feel like it takes a rookie a few years to get going. Hopefully this will be our breakout year,” Ferguson said. “We’ve had a lot of speed.”
Make no mistake, Ferguson isn’t looking for an escape from Dirt Late Model racing. But if a NASCAR opportunity presents itself, he certainly won’t turn it down.
“We’ll see. If anything, finishing second (in the Race for the Seat) allows me to focus on the dirt stuff,” Ferguson said when asked about the possibility of more NASCAR starts. “Like I said, I’m at peace with everything.”
