On this episode of the Racing Insiders Podcast, Kate welcomed Chris "Fergy" Ferguson. Throughout his career, Fergy has racked up an impressive list of accomplishments, with over 80 Career Late Model Feature Wins and victories in prestigious races across various series. His dedication to the sport and passion for racing are truly inspirational. 

You began racing Go Karts, regionally in 2003 and became a two time national champion by 2005. What got you into racing in the first place? How were you so successful in those early days?

Well, my family actually raced. I was very, very fortunate to grow up around racing and with my dad. He raced four cylinders at Cherokee Speedway, Carolina, Thunder Valley, just so many tracks around here. He raced a long time and was able to have a lot of success. He won the four cylinder nationals, which paid I think $12,000 to win at Gaffney in 1999, or 2001 or something like that. And before that, my grandpa raced, he raced that Concord and Hickory, back when it was dirt. He ran like the six cylinder stuff. And then also, my dad's sister, married Gene Sanders, which is Doug Sanders brother, which Gene raced and Doug and so did Big A, and then on the other side of the family, my uncle Tony, which is Carson Ferguson's dad, he drag raced. So my entire family raced, I was able to kind of grow up around it. It was part of my life, every weekend, even when I was playing sports growing up, we always still went racing. We enjoyed it, and it was just in our blood and started out in go karts, 2002- 2003 and was able to get in with the right people. Jamie Knopf,  which is a very successful name in go kart racing. Jamie Knopf Dennis Lambert really took us under their wing and we got really good really fast was able to start out racing some locally and a year after that, win state championships and then the year after that win Daytona and win national championships and traveled and raced a lot of big names that you would know nowadays they were racing go karts with me back in the day and super, super cool to really see the different disciplines of racing people successful whether it's in NASCAR, asphalt, late models, dirt late models, or whatever out they went, I probably raced against them when I was 12-13 years old.

You know, a lot of times I've heard that would go kart racers transition over to late models. It's actually the some of the best training that you get in go karts to move on over into late models. You know, what would you suggest, you know, if somebody was wanting to get started racing?

Well, I definitely, I don't know from experience about driving a lot of a lot of other cars. Because my dad, my dad raced all the other cars. And so to some other family members, He always told me that the habits that you would pick up from driving a four cylinder street stock or something like that didn't really apply to late models. So the choice was for me to go from late models. When I was 14-15. I got out of go kart into a late model. And I think the biggest thing is in go kart racing, you have to be really smooth. I know it sounds kind of crazy. But there's two sides of late models that everyone knows the side that where you throw it in as hard as you can hit the cushion, run the wall, drive super sideways. And then there's that side of the racing where you have to drive really straight and smooth. And I think the go kart racing really got me prepared for the straight and smooth. And it's been a long time ago, but I vaguely remember it. My second race in crate late models was March Madness at Cherokee speedway. And I actually ran second in my second ever race in a crate late model to John Persly, and outran some really good drivers. But it was a day race because it was March Madness. You had drive the car super straight, super smooth. And I wasn't used to tossing the car into the corner. So that's all I knew how to do was drive straight and where we are we qualified, ran good and almost won the feature.

You really stay in touch with fans. Do you think that's helped you a lot with gaining sponsorship and selling merch and all of that? I'd love to hear your comments about that.

Yeah, I mean, it all it all kind of started when I got into crates in like 2006-2007. And I had a lot of success kind of right off the bat. But crate racing is expensive. But it's I mean, it just the reality of it is it's not a drop in the bucket compared to super racing. And at that time, we just didn't have the money financially to do super racing. And, you know, I never got that phone call that said, Hey, come grab my super late model. I did get a couple offers, but none of them were really super great. So I kind of knew, you know, right around that time 2008 that I needed to get help I needed to get sponsors. I love my dad to death and he wasn't very good at asking people for any kind of help. And he still to this day, hates the camera and he doesn't have Facebook doesn't have none of that. So I always knew I had to be the person to kind of learn, if I wanted to take that next step in racing and if I wanted to be a super late model driver and win races. I knew I had to have the money to go race so our first couple sponsors was Carver and Sons Roofing and Hal's Plumbing. And I remember riding together the time Um, I was just typing it up on the computer and printing it out a proposal for them, basically that said, just generic. This is me, this is who I am. This is my team, you know, this is how we conduct ourselves, would you be interested in advertising on the side of our car, and it kind of led, you know, one thing led to another and we started getting a little more help and over the years has just grown so much like, I remember when I had Twitter, and I didn't have like a big following on Twitter. And I would just tweet random stuff. And then all of a sudden, it was like, wow, people are using Twitter for racing. So let's use this. And then the same thing with Facebook. I remember, I had a Facebook group a long time ago, man, it was a long time ago. And this is before now groups are back at a thing again, you know, they kind of went away for a long time, because pages come around. And then they came back. So I had a Facebook group. And then we started a page and then the page took off and the group, we kind of shut down and then 10 years later, the groups are back. So you know, we just kind of utilized all of it to get our name out there. Get our name out there for sponsors get our name out there for fans and I'll be realistic with it. I didn't do it all on my own. I had a lot of people help over the years. Whether it was myself. My mom helped out with the Facebook stuff. My girlfriend Jenna helps out now a ton. Cole Perkins helped me do social media for a while. Howard Weaver who a lot of people don't know who he is, but he owns the most successful I racing dirt sim team. And trying to think of all the people that helped me out over the years, the dirt racing page, which was the first page on Facebook that had over 100,000 likes for dirt racing, the owner of that his name was Brandon Williams, he helped me out. Just a lot of people kind of really helped me over the years. And, and I asked, you know, I asked, I said, Hey, can you guys help me grow my page and, and Cole offers it as a service now. And, you know, he does up base for people and, and the entire time it was it was, you know, I had to go in and put the work in. But I had help. And I asked for help. And I just knew that if I was ever going to build a fan base and attract sponsors, I had to do it one way or the other, whether it was by winning always helps, but it's not everything. It's not enough nowadays nowadays, you've got to get a really, you know, push stuff and think of ways outside the box to really help promote someone that's going to give you money.

Are you finding that there's any particular platform that you're reaching the most fans with or getting the most traction, I should say?

I would say typically speaking, Facebook. My Facebook stuff kind of gets the most engagements in general. The one thing I have noticed, though, that fans from YouTube will actually come up at the racetrack and make it a point to say I watch your YouTube you know, Instagram is really similar to Twitter. But primarily right now, the YouTube and the Facebook page is what's kind of really the most active and also when I do like a promotion with a sponsor, or a giveaway I typically tend to have the most success with those two. You know, YouTube's kind of limited because it is video platform, where Facebook, you can do a post and share. And then do the like, you know, like this comment and tag to friends for free, whatever, always seems to work and gain a lot of traction, people love free stuff. So. But yeah, that's that's the two main things in my opinion, you know, if you have a active Facebook page, and you have people reacting to it, and people can see, hey, there's 75 comments on this, there's, you know, 100 likes 1000 likes or whatever, I think a company looks at that and realizes, wow, this guy's actually influencing people, which will, in turn, hopefully, influence him to try whatever business they are.

Tell us a little bit about your experiences at El Dora, and especially, you know, doing so well.

Yeah, a lot of it has to, you know, attribute to being in Bloomquist racecars. I think everyone knows that, that Scott Bloomquist and Delma Dallas had a ton of success there. And, and when I switched to their cars in 2018, as the first year that we went there, we ran really good at the world. And then we went back for the dream in June, and came from 19th to 4th, ran 2nd and a couple prelims. And over the years, I've been able to run, I think, maybe Flow Racing put out a stat, I can't recall what it was. But we've always seems like we had 15 to 18, top 5' at El Dora since 2018. And then, like 26, top 10s or something, I can't remember exactly what it was. But it was a really cool stat that I didn't know. But I've been able to really be good there in the prelims. I've only got one win there, which is kind of a downer. I think I've got three or four 2nd places now because I ran second in Friday night's prelim to Bobby, but just been able to run really good and have I ran 3rd in the dream and 2021, 5th in the world. Man, I've ran top five in both races in 2020 The dream and the world, you know, COVID makeups or whatever. And then and then this year at the world I was able to run this past weekend or this past month we were able to run in top five the first night and we broke a transmission we had a freak accident happen never broke one in my entire life like that. And the second night we come back rebound finish2nd to Bobby, actually raced for the lead maybe a couple of laps and and then the finale we're able to win our heat race from fourth which was pretty wicked. I was a heck of a heat race and put on a show and then start third. But then get the lead on the start and lead the World 100 which is the Daytona 500. And, but it's not like Daytona anyone who went anyone can lead the Daytona 500 is a drafting track but the World 100 is the biggest race of the year and to lead, I think we let around 20 laps and ended up finishing seventh was it was a pretty good accomplishment. You know, I would have had a top five if it hadn't been for caution with two to go but just look to turn the corner and when the big one there just but we just keep knocking at the door. Hopefully it'll happen.

I always love to see, when people's careers and their dreams just grow and are successful at it. Do you know, is there anything that you would attribute that success to?

Well, the people around me for sure, you know? Well, I mean, for my dad, you know, he's been the biggest part, he's been able to keep this thing going. And when we've had less help, or more help, and, you know, every once in a while, just like business in general, you may lose a sponsor, because not typically anything that you've done wrong, it's just they can't afford to help you the next year. And, you know, we've had a handful of big sponsors and smaller sponsors, but it took all of them to make it work. But at the end of the day, my dad was kind of the glue to all of it. You know, he's took the biggest financial risk out of everybody and not only him, but my brother, all my crew guys over the years. You know, my crew guys have busted their butts for I don't know forever and I can name them all because a lot of them that helped me from day one, even if they're not coming all the time, now they'll still show up. And my mom, my stepmom, some of my best friends have helped just the people that basically got us ready to go to the track you know, every year like, the bigger we've got the more healthy gotten like my girlfriend's been a blessing the last two years, and her family's really helped us out too. And, just so many people, man, I just, I can't really tell I don't even you know, I try my best every year when we have a race party or every other year and to to acknowledge them, but they know who they are. And there's two of them out there right now, pressure washing. So just so many people and there's a couple big ones that I can really think of Jack Starett was one of them. Back in 2010. I drove for him before he passed away. And he did a lot for me, kind of got me my start and Supers, Mike Golf, Jim Carver. They were kind of two of my sponsors right off the bat. That really got us pretty far. I had a sponsor who helped me that was my biggest sponsor for a couple years, he passed away 2021, his name was Phil Nye. And he kind of helped me take the next step right around 2016-17 to kind of get to the next level, but Joe and John Galloway, we can Cane Coon Trucking and it's just so many I mean so many sponsors. Brad Sellars and Cody Summer, at one point was a sponsor of mine, which is really cool. It's just honestly the people that's been around me have have been then the reason why I'm here and, you know, God led all those people to me and blessed me with a I mean, I feel like I've got a lot more races to win, but I've had a good career and a lot of success. And like I said, I can't thank them all enough, because those are the people I don't know what I did to deserve it. But those are the people that's got me to this point. And like I said, heck all the people I mean sit here looking I'm looking in the shop and looking at all the checks and I can just think of all the crew guys and and all the people that spent money on me and then if I could walk around the pit area at a racetrack and tell you hey, you know, that guy helped me out Stanley McCarter. I've seen him this weekend David Smith. Just so many people over the years have done a lot for me and and I do my best to not forget about them and if I do is unintentional, so much on my mind.

Well, in seeing all those checks behind you, is there a favorite? Do you have a favorite win of all time?

Yeah, definitely. The Show Me 100 last year was probably my favorite one because a couple of reasons. It's been an event that's been around for 38 years, I believe almost 40 years now and we're able to win it in a pretty cool fashion. We were able to pass a you know I consider him a competitor of our day. You know, I give give credit where credit's due Jonathan Davenport's probably the best driver of my generation successful We'll probably will be even with Ricky Thornton and Bobby Pierce and Hudson O'Neal all doing what they're doing. You know, Jonathan Davenport right there has won more worlds than anybody else and and we were able to pass him at the Show Me 100 last year with like 10 laps to go or so, and come from 10th or 12th to win that race that was one of my favorites. It's hard to pick between that one and El Dora, the pre limit the million and also the Bristol. The first night at Bristol when I won the first year come back after 20 years when we outrun Kyle Larson ran second Davenport was third. Scott Bloomquist was fourth. You know, it wasn't really a high paying event like it was the second year when we won it. The prestige of winning the first night back at Bristol after 20 years was was pretty. Those, those are the ones that stick out the most.

So now you have, of course raced with multiple series, anything from the Ultimate, to World of Outlaws, to Lucas, you know, do you see a lot of difference when you're running those different series? And, you know, what about the competition? Or, you know, what's it like to compete in those different series?

Um, for sure, you know, when you race kind of like with a Lucas Oil guys are World of Outlaws, there's a little bit of more of a tight knit ran show where, you know, it's broadcasted, so cut and dry everything you had to be on the track. If you're not here, they're gonna run without you. If you have a track that's got a Support Division running late, or, you know, there's a lot of cautions, they'll cut it short, because the broadcasts don't, you know, it doesn't play around. So we were raised for those guys. It's definitely a little more, we're we got to be more prepared, we have to be ready. You there's a lot more, in my opinion, I'm not taking a knock at anybody else. But when you race with those guys, they're the best in the country. So you don't get as you might run 50 or 100 laps without a caution. There's some of the best drivers in the world. So they typically don't make a lot of mistakes. But I do enjoy racing with the regional series. And even when I come back and run crate races, been able to win some big credit races over the years with driving for different owners not even driving my own stuff, but driving other cars. That's always fun, too. It's a little more relaxed. always enjoyed running the 50,000 at at Virginia Motor Speedway. I think I ran second twice and never won it. But we did win, at the time it was called SECA. We won their 10,000 to  win show at Gaffney from pretty much I started about dead last that time. It was 2018 or so. It was really really cool. Passed Trent Avi, Trent got me this weekend at Gaffney I passed him. I hate to be one of those guys. 2018 I was able to pass him for the for the win in a crate race. And but yeah, I enjoyed racing all of them. I've haven't really you know, I haven't raced them all. But I've ran a lot of them around here. And you know, it's when you show up. It doesn't matter if it's a World of Outlaw or Lucas race, or a Southern All Star race like this weekend or a crate race. You can get your butt kicked it no matter who it is. So I enjoy the competition regardless. 

Not every season is a good season. I'm guessing in 20 years, there's probably a couple that just aren't as good would be my guess.

Yeah, it definitely takes us toll on you. And, there are years where you have bad luck. Like, if you blow up a couple motors or wreck a race car, those are the ones that really, that really make it harder financially, but then also the strain of, of having bad luck and, and I'm not gonna say bad luck, but just having bad moments in racing and having to deal with it. But you know, just like, the last couple of weeks at Port Royal, and at Knoxville, both races were big races and we run good about tracks, got in a wreck and basically wrecked the car. And you know, it's easy to get down, but I have Tadpole come here and literally welded the frame back up both times. And, and I'm able to have that kind of support and help. That really, not only eases it, you know, the team kind of comes together and works together and, and they make it all happen, you know, and even when it's rough, you know, you'll have a couple days where maybe a lot of people don't want to be at the shop and I don't blame them either. You know, it's it's definitely a grind but at the end of the day, it's my passion. And even if I don't do it for a living or if even if I don't you know, get to race Lucas Oil World of Outlaw I've still enjoyed dirt track racing and, and there's nothing else I'd rather do. Sometimes I think I'd rather golf, but then I go, I go have a bad match. And I then I want to quit for about two months. So when I have a bad night at the racetrack, I want to get back and prove that you know, we belong up front. 

Do you find that you kind of end up having trends in a season? You know, is it is it up and it's down? Or is it like oh, it's kind of bad luck, after bad luck, after bad? And then you think about it and maybe it turns around?

It's definitely a definitely a roller coaster. Regardless, you have to ride it, whether it's going up or going down. So a lot of times it seems like when it's going down, no matter what you do, it's it's always something happens that's out of your control. Or even if it is in your control, when you do something wrong on the racetrack. It just seems to happen. And it comes and it comes in and it literally doesn't stop and you know, you've went a month and a half having terrible runs. But just like everything else, you know, it doesn't stay that way forever. So you bounce back and then you enjoy it. And but it seems like when you stumble on something and find some speed, you typically can take it about everywhere you go. That's the good thing about dirt track racing. And even even though there's a lot of variables, a lot of times when you find something that works, it typically works about everywhere, it doesn't always, but when you have speed, you typically can unload, whether it's you know, a bull ring or a half mile or bigger track, you're typically going to be fast about everywhere, when you unload with it, so you you have to ride it. But when it's down, you just gotta keep working and, and regardless, you can't give up because by the time that you give up and you stop working, not only do people you know pass you and you get farther behind and then it's makes it even harder to come back and be faster or win and I haven't won since June but I have every intention of going this weekend to Swainsboro and winning both both nights.

Well, that's actually a really, really good follow up to that is obviously equipment is a very important aspect of this. I mean that is absolutely important. But with everyone being so competitive, how do you mentally prepare for this because this has got to be a a mental endurance you know, yes, there's the physical component but how much of this is mental and how do you prepare?

A lot of it is being confident you know, when you do have confidence in your race car do you feel a lot better pulling onto the track when you don't have confidence? It definitely makes it harder. But you know, I'm able to you know, when we race and that last weekend and we let's just say we have like a second or third place finish like we did this weekend. Yeah, we didn't win. But there was times where I felt like I was the fastest car on the track. So you go about that you feel like you feel like you have a shot when you go back and the experience I've been to Swainsboro, won Swainsboro so I just you know going into the race that I have a you know have a shot at winning them races and and I don't know I just I'm able to go a couple times you know year I'm able to get on iRacing and, and make laps at El Dora before actually there. But I do like to watch the video clips from YouTube, from Dirt On Dirt, from Flo, and Dirt Vision, all the XR, all of them. If they got video from the last race, I definitely do a little bit of research, go back and watch and see where the lines are. A lot of times you can pay attention to what drivers run good. And see what their qualities are, how they drive, their driving style, because everyone knows Bobby Pierce drives different than Chris Madden. They're both successful, but you know, you might go somewhere that one of them's been a little bit better than the other. So, you know, you kind of know what you need. When you pay attention to that stuff. And, and then preparation, you know, when you when you feel like you got everything done a day early, and you've been able to focus on other stuff besides just cleaning and maintenance. You're able to feel a little better going into the weekend that way too.

You mentioned iRacing now, do you have one of those whole rig and everything where it moves and all of that? How much do you think that has helped your racing? Because I've heard like iRacing they've got this, like equipment that will catch like every bump, every rock, like all of that. Tell me how helpful you think that is?

Well, I definitely think for someone that's actually never raced, I think it would be really, really good. Someone that's a little more experienced, or has been around for a while it might not be quite as helping you out, you know, just to get faster. One thing it does do though, is a closing great, you know, when you get in a wreck on iRacing or when you're catching someone in the corner, it's realistic, it feels just like it does in real life. The way that you kind of attempt passing people or getting familiar with the racetrack before you're actually going. I think there's a big advantage in that. So a lot of people miss out on it. A lot of people don't, but a lot of people do and I think that someone that maybe doesn't get to race like I do. I don't get to race a ton. It does help me stay fresh when I go out to the racetrack. But I do have a SIM rig. Chad Wheeler from WR1 Sim Works built me one and myself Hudson O'Neal, Devin Moran. There's a lot of us that have one- Jonathan Davenport has, he's had one or two of them too. So you can't tell me that it doesn't help. But realistically, at the end of the day, I can tell everybody nothing's ever going to take the place of a real race car- laps and a real race cars is the most important thing. But it definitely is another tool that you can use to potentially get better. And if you had the opportunity to do it, I would do it and don't miss out on it.

Scott McPhillips from Hooker Harness said "Best Original Sponsor Request ever, for me". 

That's a funny story! Oh, man. So I think it was my first ever PRI show I didn't even know anything about it. I was just back when it was in Orlando and I knew some people that maybe knew Scott with Hooker Harness and here we are. Like I said, Here we are. This is that's been 2008 I believe. So he's been a part of my team since then. A personal friend. And but I walked up in the booth and I said, Hey, I'm Chris Ferguson. I know you never heard of me, but I'm going to be good one day. I'm not good right now. But I am going to be good one day and I'll promise you that I'll that you know I'll sell some seat belts for you guys and and hindsight is crazy. I've we've sold a lot of the belts for them, but Um, you know, back then I didn't, no one knew who I was. And, and then I think that I know, he wants me to tell this part more than anything, but kind of embarrassed of it. Now, I didn't have a tie that was long enough, it was a little short. So they ride me to this day about how I was wearing a nice shirt with a tie. PRI and the first ever time there, and the tie wasn't long enough. So you know, I was just a kid, basically asking for help. And they took a chance on me, and here we are. And that's, like, 2008 is how long ago? 15 years? Yeah, 15 years later, and we've still got a friendship with him and his brother. And there are still Hooker Harnesses in all my race cars, if I go drive somebody else's car, I have Hooker Harness and like I said, you never know where to lead. Like, I walked up in this booth. And like I said, told him I wasn't really a big name. But I told him one day I was gonna be and I believed in myself, and he believed in me, and here we are, like, 15 years later, he's still on the car.

I feel like you've really engaged your your viewership like a friend. And people can feel like they know you.

Yeah, there was a part of me that always kind of I had friends that race NASCAR, and had friends that could always have PR companies hate to say like that, but you know, and there's nothing wrong with it. They had people that would promote them. And but you would only see the outside perspective, you wouldn't really. And I knew my buddies, like I knew him. And I'm like, man, they're cool people, like if they actually showed their self on Facebook, or whatever, instead of, you know, and there's nothing wrong with a corporate label. It just there is, there is some truth to Yes, that's what corporations want. And that's what some of the big spenders that spend money on racing and they want a certain look, but in reality, the world doesn't want that, you know, the world wants someone they can relate to end and talk to and I still think there's a happy medium, where fans can see a side of you that they can relate to. But also sponsors can have that side of you that they can they feel that you can represent them in a professional way. So I just think there's a happy medium. And when I was a kid growing up, you know, I seen so many of the ones that wasn't that way, you know, that I had a buddy who was 14 years old that was racing, or 16 years old racing, ARCA and everything they were putting out online, and I was like, that's not him, you know, or, you know, it's like, and it was cool. But to me, I think that's what made what helped us grow so much was people felt like they knew me and I put so much out there that that's why they related to me, and they become fans of me and friends. And when I look at these comments that are coming through, I know a lot of these people personally and I feel like I've never been the type to, to, you know, shun people or tell them that, you know, I don't know how other drivers handle it all the time. But you know, I always try to make time and even when I'm in a upset mood or bad mood or something doesn't go my way I try my best to hide it or cover it up and try to still treat people with respect and fans especially and because at the end of the day we wouldn't be here without them. So it's just been a long time figuring it out and just kind of been very fortunate to have all the fans we do.

I know I've what I've always said about you is you are one of the nicest people I've actually ever met. That's just my impression of you know, being around him like he's just like seriously such a nice guy. I've never heard you say anything mean or sideways and I think that's genuinely who you are.

I tell everybody you know I have my moments I'm I'm a sinner just like everybody else and I'm not perfect by no means. I do my best to do my best to you know, fight the battles that are worth fighting. then a lot of the stuff that happens either on the racetrack or in the pits, you know, stay out of if I can and, and I don't I'm not like I said, I'm not by no means am I perfect. I have a, you know, like I said a good group of people around me. But they've probably seen the worst side of me more than anybody So, but, you know, hopefully the good outweighs the bad. And, and I think for the most part, hopefully, people see that I try my best to try my best to do right as much as I can.

Now, aspiring racers often really look up to those guys, you know, the racers that have a lot more experience, what advice would you give to a young or, you know, an up and coming racer today?

There's a couple things. For someone that's never been on the road, to see how like a big name or a big team, how they operate, I would, I would highly suggest maybe trying to get a job as a crew member. Go on the road, like, I mean, right now, you probably couldn't. But if you get hired by Ricky Thornton, or Jonathan Davenport, or anybody that races at national level, it teaches you a lot about how to be prepared. That's a lot. I mean, that's that's so much of the battle being prepared for these races. But also maybe having a having a mentor, an older guy that you can call on or talk to, like, nowadays, when I'm at the track, I can talk to Dale McDowell, you know, whenever Scott's here I could ask Scott advice about driving. But I would say having someone like that would definitely help. Doesn't matter if it's national or regional. When I was coming up, honestly, I got my butt kicked by Ricky Weeks a lot. So it would have been nice if I could ask them, Hey, how are you kicking my butt this week? Or, like, what's your driving style or being able to ask questions and learn. And then also, you know, another kind of really important thing is, working with you're finding a good shock guy shock manufacturer. That's big, you know, having one guy you can call on and work with. And even if you think there's another great one that's out there, if you found one that's committed to helping you doesn't matter who they are. You know, that's a big, big relationship too. For me, like I've been with, Fox Shocks since 2019. And, but more particular with Jeff and with Ronnie Crooks, and these guys that work with me and my dad, my brother, and then everybody, we've really built a relationship with them. So this kind of, I don't know, like I said, there's there's three or four different routes you can take. But being able to learn from somebody or whether it's a driver, or a team or a manufacturer would definitely, if you could get that in some shape or form, it would help out a ton.

I think a big message I'm hearing from you is just don't be too afraid or too proud to ask for help. And if you if you see somebody that you feel like you could learn something from, it's probably a compliment to them, if you ask for their opinion, or ask for their for their help. And maybe that's not the easiest thing for a lot of people to do.

Yeah, I remember when I was kind of starting to really travel and stuff, I think I may have texted Jimmy Owens and said, Hey, do you have any advice on shocks for this weekend or whoever? And it took a lot just to ask them, ask them that. And the same thing, whenever I got the Bloomquist cars, like we were able to ask Scott, but it took, you know, getting to know him a little bit before we're able to really, you know, learn but you know, these guys a lot of them as long as it's reciprocated and you're willing to help them in ways that you can help them- it can be a two way street, you know, and there's a lot of people who talk to my dad that my dad helps out and they're sometimes trying stuff that I might not get the chance to go out there and try and it's a two way street because we're helping them but also same time you know, if we learned something I hate to say it like this we learned something from them and then we can apply it in our program. So you know, it's just don't be afraid, everybody's got pride, but if you want to get better and learn then sometimes you just got to ask.

I think your faith is a big part of your story and, and of your team as well.

Yeah, definitely. I mean, I'm, like I said, I'm first to admit it, I'm a, I'm not perfect.  I'm human, and I'm I was born into sin. You know, if I didn't have Jesus Christ in my life, I wouldn't have no eternal value. So, very, very proud to say that  and say that, you know, I am, I know where I'm going when I get there. And, and it's easy for anybody to, you know, ask about or talk about, I've been very, very fortunate because I feel like, God has gave me a pretty good platform, to spread the message that I believe in and, you know, give it to anybody that accepts it. And, there's been moments where I've been at racetracks where I've had a bad night and someone to come over me like, man, how are you? How are you able to be happy with getting wrecked or having a flat tire leaving the race with 2 to go? And I'm like, well, at the end of the day, you know, it happened because it happened, and there's no, there's no eternal value in winning a race. I mean, there's, yeah, it's cool. It's great for now, but that don't matter when we get to heaven, you know. So, but like I said, I, I am not afraid to talk about it. And, you know, it's a big, big part of big part of my life. It's the biggest part of my life and,  even though like I said, I'm not perfect or anything - that's part of being a Christian and believing in Jesus is knowing that we're never gonna be perfect, but we luckily have Jesus Christ to fix that for us.

When you're at the racetrack and you're focusing on racing. Even if you're surrounded by your sponsors. You're just not in the same frame of mind to be able to to talk about their kids, or their grandkids, or what they're doing on the boat - like you're focusing on Do I have the right gear in. You know, race Chris is probably a lot different than just kick back Chris. 

It's definitely hard to do it at the racetrack. I'm very fortunate that I have some of my biggest sponsors like Dr. Tim, Jason Heckle, and Scooter King. They will like to come work on the racecar so it's really funny. It's really funny to see Dr. Tim because Dr. Tim is one of the clean cut people that you would never think to see in a racetrack. He is up under the car taking shocks off changing the rear in, changing the gear - you know those guys are are in it but it has sponsors who like to come sit up in the stands. But when you're the track you know you don't always have the time to please everybody and they understand that for the most part. Everyone understands that so, but when you do have time during the offseason, or during the week, or like I have a group message I can show you right now my phone, I have a group message with all my sponsors that basically I try to keep them all updated, where we're racing or how we ran. And, you know, there's probably 20-25 people in there. But they don't, they might not know each other, but they know that it's a group. That's, that's part of the support of my race team. And so I send it to them out of respect to kind of let everyone know where we're racing or how we did and, and that's the stuff that I think people look for when they're when they're willing to help somebody. 

That is actually a tip that I have not heard anyone talk about. And it seems so obvious after the fact. So if there's one thing that racers can pull away from this, is that group message with all of your sponsors is just such a absolutely awesome idea.

It's so crazy, like, I'm sitting here, and I look at it now. And there's, you know, there's, there's 20 people in it, and there's pictures, and updates and stuff. And then when I click on them, because you know,  I've had over the years, I guess, because the way iPhones are now you can see your text messages from five years ago, I've had a couple of different groups. And then every once in a while, it's so funny. I love my older sponsors the death, but sometimes I will text the old group and say, Hey, we're racing this weekend. And you know, and there's some people in there who may not be a part of it no more that took some time off, they still get the updates. So it's, it's kind of funny, or, you know, like the new groups is when we add, we add people, so we'll add more people. So it's really cool to have stuff like that. And I think you know, just that, everyone knows this a lot to keep everyone updated. Everyone knows. So anytime you can make it a little easier. I think people understand and my sponsors understand that. And I know some of them that may not ever respond in the group. But when I see them, they're like, well, we knew you're racing here this weekend, because we've seen it in the group. And I'm like, you know, everybody's different. So it definitely helps out.

Tell us a little bit about you know, any kind of upcoming races and I'd love to hear you know, what's future Chris want for your career? I'd love to hear that.

Man. Well, I want to Crown Jewel win at El Dora That's the big one I would prefer the World 100 But I would take the Dirt Track World Championship which is in about three weeks. I'd love to take that one. But I would also like to Dream 100 any of the big races that we can win it would just solidify my racing career. I would love to race for maybe a point championship one year, but also that's not the most important thing to me. You know winning the big ones or kind of winning a World Finals would be one like I've ran second and third at Charlotte. I've never won a World Finals. So getting a World Finals win would be important. Those are the big ones. I'd love to win the North South I ran fourth and sixth and fifth in North South and had a lot of good runs and a lot of big races just need to win a couple more of them and you know there's a couple of them that are local that I want to win I want to win the Blue Gray I ran second and like 4100 times so the Blue Gray have led probably more laughs than anybody that's never won it so love to win it you know just love to keep racing at the highest level and and running good at it because I never thought I'd be here in the first place. So if I can stick around for a little bit longer, I would really you know, there's guys that are winning right now that are in their 40s You know, Madden and Davenport's a little bit older than us and there's a lot of guys that are. You know, even Scott Bloomquist and Billy Moore you're all in and up until you know this last year. So their still winning, but there's a lot that I still want to do still want to win and, and the mark that I leave and in the sport would would be really cool. And I don't know, just one of those things I got a lot to do. And there's a little bit of racing left this year, there's the dirt track World Championship, there's the World Finals, there's 100,000 win at Alltech the Blue Grey 100. And then this weekend Swainsboro. Next weekend, World Outlaw races at Sonoma and Rome and just want to win every one of them. That's, that's the goal. And that's the mindset. So if we could do something like that, it would be, it would be really cool. And, at some point, you know, I'd love to- so we're in a little shop here, I think we're eventually going to get out of this little shop and have a little bigger shop at some point. So get out of this and maybe have a little bigger shop to maybe race and, help other people too. My little cousin Carson's better than me. He's, he's gonna win a lot more races than me. And I love to be able to help him win the crown jewels. And you know, at some point, I want to win some more races first, but at some point, you know, help him and help others out. And that would be pretty cool. And I got a lot lot left to give, I hope, Lord willing.

Are you looking to get a new Team Zero car for next year?

That's a little bit of a complex question, because I've had a lot of success in the Team Zero cars. Love, love, love them have more success than anything else. I did have a lot of success in Longhorns too. That's the reason why I own one or both. So when Scott's involved and wanting to build race cars again, 100% I will support them. But at the same time, I do have a LongHorn. And I feel like I can go win with Longhorn, I just don't have quite the notebook that we used to, like we do with a Bloomquist car. So if they build race cars, I'd probably say we'd be inclined to get a new one. And if they don't, we'll race this one as much as we can. And then also focus on getting the Longhorn a little better too and, and getting a little more of a notebook build up with it because I feel like both cars are equally good. And I feel like both of them if you put the right attention and work into them, they'll win anywhere you go. You just you just got to you know, put your put your best foot forward and and work on where you think you need to get better with them.