ROSSBURG, Ohio (Sept. 6) — Running sixth approaching Saturday's halfway mark at Eldora Speedway, 26th-starting Chris Ferguson surely thought he’d have his first World 100 top-five since 2021. Lap 44, those pursuits weren’t so straightforward.

“My crank trigger went bad down the frontstretch. So when the crank trigger goes bad, I reached over to switch to the distributor with my left hand. And I completely missed the bottom,” Ferguson said. “I lost four spots right there. … The motor started completely shutting off. When I did that, got it switched, but by the time I grabbed the steering wheel, I drove in too deep behind (Brandon) Sheppard, and I slid.

“When I slid, that let (Cory) Hedgecock, Dennis Erb, and I can’t remember who else … it was four cars back by me.”

The Mount Holly, N.C., driver tumbled down the leaderboard to 10th, a setback that gnawed at him postrace because he could only regain two of those lost positions. Despite that being “one of the times my car was better than I finished,” Ferguson found consolation in his eighth-place result.

“We’ll take it. I got to sixth, just hurt the edges of my tires not trying to get lapped at the beginning, starting on the second-to-last row there,” Ferguson said. “I really went hard trying to get by a lot of cars because I knew that dirty air was going to hurt a lot.

“I knew, probably when I passed (19th-starting) Dale (McDowell) early in the race, I’m probably going a little too hard, but I’ll be honest with you, it’s hard to back down because I was running the top.”

Ferguson ended up tying Bobby Pierce, who started 27th and finished ninth, for World 100 hard-charger honors. If anything, that’s extra motivation for Ferguson to squeeze in more races in 2026.

“Oh, 100 percent. My business, it’s my No. 1 priority. I have people that depend on me,” said Ferguson, whose business Victory Seats celebrated its first anniversary debuting at last year’s World 100. “I say we’re in a lot better shape now than where we were a year ago. I have great employees that allow me to go race. When you get the right people in the right place, it allows me to go race. I haven’t been able to race like I wanted to … people think I don’t wanna race or I choose not to.

“I have to take care (of the business). But now we have the right people in the right places. I want to race more. I feel like I have a great car.”

Ferguson’s like McDowell in a way: No matter how often or how well he’s raced, Eldora puts him in the right frame of mind. With five top-fives and nine top-10s in 16 Eldora major event feature starts, Ferguson still believes he’s an Eldora contender that, if all goes right, can win a major event.

“I still feel that, yeah. I feel, in June, I started sixth, got to second by lap 30 or 40. That was our third race on the (Stinger Race Car). We were struggling by the end of it. We’re opposite this time,” Ferguson said. “I do feel like I can get back into rhythm myself and we can make a few more changes, get this thing right, I feel like I can contend at these big ones again. I enjoy that part of racing the most.”