By Victoria Beaver 

Earlier this month, the World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway ended in victory for few and heartache for many. On night one, North Carolina native Chris Ferguson’s race ended before it even began. 

While Ferguson turned laps in practice, disaster struck when a sequence of events ended with a cracked engine block on the team's only motor.

“It was definitely a tough deal to have that happen in the first day during practice," Ferguson said. “What happened was the motor mounts were bent on the motor and we didn't know it. The motor was sitting lower than normal and the fan blade actually got into the fan shroud and the fan blade broke causing a chain reaction. 

"It threw the motor out of balance and when the motor got out of balance it broke the water pump off the block. So it cracked the block in practice there and it’s an easy fix if you can get the motor out of the car.”

However, circumstances played against Ferguson.

“If I could of gotten it out, [I could have] taken it to Clements (Racing Engines)," Ferguson said. "The problem was that qualifying was right after that. We didn't have our spare motor because it was actually at Clements Racing Engines getting rebuilt.”

With no time to fix the situation and no motor to swap out, Ferguson and the team had to make the hard decision to sit out the rest of the weekend.

“Even If they would’ve fixed it right then making it back to practice in time would've been impossible," he said. "Starting at the tail end of a heat race at Charlotte is not where you want to be when you still have a big race two weekends later.”

While the World of Outlaws finale weekend was disappointing for Ferguson, he put in the work to not make the entire weekend a wash. Being near his home base meant the track was filled with fans, supporters, and members of his sponsorship team.

“Since I work for Butlerbuilt Seats, I worked at the booth which was right beside my hauler,” Ferguson said. “I just left my hauler there and ended up working at the Butlerbuilt booth all weekend. My mom sat out under the lift gate and had our shirts and stuff on display. I ended up hanging out with our sponsors who were in town for the race and getting to watch the race. We made the best out of it.”

After taking an off weekend, Ferguson is getting back behind the wheel of his Super Late in the Ultimate season finale during the Georgia State Outlaw Championships at Screven Motor Complex in Sylvania, GA, this weekend. 

Watch the 2017 Georgia Outlaws Championships LIVE on FloRacing

While Ferguson hasn't run the track with the Ultimate series, he’s familiar with it through six or seven races, including during a spring visit last year with the World of Outlaws.

“At the beginning of 2016, I led 40 laps out of the 50 lap World of Outlaws race and then popped a tire with ten to go,” Ferguson recalled.

Ferguson followed his first 2016 visit with a better ending in that summer in a $5,300-to-win race at Screven. This time the track was just right to facilitate hard racing and three-wide passes. Ferguson was not able to claim the lead from Dennis Franklin and Brett Dixon until 15 laps remained in a thrilling race for fans.

“I’d been there earlier in the year in February for the Outlaws race and it was rubbered up,” Ferguson said while explaining the difference between the two races. “You never know what you’re going to get, but in general I’ve been involved in some really good races there. We're excited because it’s one of the tracks in the Southeast that you can actually get some three-wide racing and you can get all over the track to really race somebody and not have to worry about slipping out of the grove.”

Ferguson looks to repeat his Screven victory this Saturday to close out the Ultimate series on a high note.

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