Highlights & Interviews | Freddy Smith Memorial at Cherokee Speedway

He's right here to turn number four, green flag in the air. We are underway here at Cherokee Speedway for the Freddie Smith Memorial here tonight. Watkins with a really good start. Oh, slaps the wall off of turn number four, loses it, holds it together. Ferguson with the lead, rolling down the back straightaway. Off of turn three, he'll approach the exit of turn four. Coming toward the stripe here, lap number one goes two. It's Fergie time right here inside the Cherokee Speedway. Not real sure what happened to Ben Watkins, but he slipped up the racetrack. Coming off of turn two on lap one, slaps it. And we've got a melee caution on the speedway right here at the exit of turn number two. Looks like right there in that mix, the 93 of Donovan Jackson caught up in that. Looking for turn four, the 22. On the loud pedal, green flag back in the air. We're underway here at Cherokee. And there is a side-by-side battle brewing right now. Rolling off of turn number two. Ethan Dotson gets past Trent Ivey, trying to reel in Ross Bells in the 16. Christian Thomas floating around the outside. Remember, he started 10th. Now Christian Thomas has made his way up to 7th. That 06 is ripping the lip around Cherokee Speedway, but he'll have his hands full trying to run down the 22 of Chris Ferguson. Joyner has now gone to the top of the racetrack, trying to make up some ground. He is moving around off of turn three and four in that number 10. He has to finish 13th or better to capture a $10,000 payday for the points championship with the Cherokee Chiefs. They're rolling off of turns three and four. Ferguson's on the loud pedal. Green flag back in the air. We're underway right here at Cherokee. Now, let's get some green laps under our belt, and there's about to be some battles for positions right here. You'll start one right here with Ross Bells and Trent Ivey. Then you'll see Ethan Dotson moving his way around the racetrack there, coming into turn three. Now he'll go into the third spot, the fourth spot. And Beckham Malone, look at it, four wide coming off of turn two here at Cherokee. The Fresh Prince, that's Beckham Malone. Throw him over your shoulder. Let's go. And we have the Cayman Spartans. Caution is back out here at Cherokee. Spinning by himself right there. Rolling this field through turn three and four. He's back on the gas. Green flag back in the air. We are underway. 34 to go right here at Cherokee. Trent Ivey up on the high side. Oh, look out, that is Dalton Peavy. See Gray Parton right here in the middle right there with Jeff Smith there. And, oh, it just collects Dalton Peavy. Peavy, wrong place at the wrong time. Took a ride down without a shopping cart at Walmart off of turn two here at Cherokee. Three and four. Back on the loud pedal is Chris Ferguson. We're back underway here at Cherokee with the Counterclass Superlake models. Now, Jeremy Steele tries to take a look on the high side. Also, Beckham Malone trying to rip the lip as well. He'll bring Christian Thomas with him as Thomas is coming from the back of the field. As we roll by the flag stand right here, Ferguson Steele, your race leader, followed by Bales, Ivey, Dotson, and Jeremy Steele. You kind of just wonder if Trent Ivey is just kind of riding right there with Ross Bales or does he have anything up his sleeve? Does he have a special card in his pocket he's about to throw on the table because sand is about to start running out of the hourglass? Oh, they make contact on the bottom of turn number two, but we're still green. No harm, no foul here at Cherokee. Here we go. They're working off of turn three and four. That cost some real estate to Trent Ivey going down the bottom there and making contact there with Ross Bales. But Ferguson Steele way out front in that 22 machine. 22, he has led all 45 laps thus far. Can he close the deal here? Green flag back in the air. We're underway. Ferguson out front as he has been from the drop of the green flag. Man, look at Ethan Dotson with Toten that left front all the way down the back straightaway in that 74. Now, Trent Ivey trying to put the heat on the backside of the 16 of Ross Bales here tonight as we continue to roll through the inaugural running of the Freddie Smith Memorial here at Cherokee. Ferguson will bring them off of turn number four, approaching the flag stand right here. And now, three laps to go. Three more trips around for Chris Ferguson. Ferguson works it down through turn three and four. The white flag, the voice of victory lane, final lap of the race here inside the Cherokee Speedway for Chris Ferguson. Ferguson down the back straightaway. You'll see him right there on your screen working it through three and four. As he comes off of turn number four, the checker flag will fly. The inaugural Freddie Smith Memorial winner. First time for this race, it goes to Chris Ferguson. Ladies and gentlemen, climbing out of the car, your Freddie Smith Memorial winner, Fergie Todd Chris Ferguson. I know this is one that you really, really wanted. How does it feel to have your name on the first annual Freddie Smith Memorial? It's amazing. God is great. Gave me the win today. A lot of people remember Freddie for winning a lot of races, but I remember him for the man he is. And if people can remember me like that, that'd be awesome. He's a hero to a lot of people and been trying to win Grassy's race forever. And I just could never get it done. So this kind of makes it a lot better for me. All the ones that kind of got away from us. So just happy to be in victory lane here with all of Freddie's family and my family. I'm just super grateful to be in this opportunity. That was a lot of fun. The car was phenomenal tonight, a stinger race car. And good Lord kind of kept us safe there in lap traffic. And it was just a lot of fun, man. Last two nights racing at Sonora last night got into a little bit of trouble. It was pretty quick rebound. How was the stress level on you and your team leaving Sonora coming into tonight? Well, I just I have so many great people behind me. From everybody that helps out during the week, to the people that come to the racetrack, everyone that's here tonight. First off, I gotta give them all the credit. My dad for everything he does, man. He works his butt off while I've been working really hard on victory seats. My wife, she does amazing for me. She supports me in everything I do. My mom, DJ's worked his butt off this weekend. Beth and Oliver, Olivia, Dr. Tim, even Terry. Just everybody, I mean, I'm just so thankful for all my crew guys. We had a couple extra ones this weekend, and I'm just super thankful to be here. And I just, I gotta thank all my sponsors too, and my fans for going over there and buying t-shirts. My sponsors, Live Oak Family Dentistry, Spartan Transportation, Splits, Animal Care Clinic, Spray Foam Technologies of Kentucky, Schaefer's Oil, Vincent Sims Construction, New Point Lighting and Design, Carolina Roofing and Gutters, Heckle's Plumbing, just there's so many on here. I'm just super thankful. Rosewood Assisted Living, just Helms Irrigation, Donald Black, just all the great people that allow us to be able to come out here. And like I said, if it wasn't for the people behind me, I wouldn't be standing here right now. Ladies and gentlemen, once again, your feature winner here this evening. Give it up for Fergie Chris Ferguson. Now here with your 2025 Cherokee Chiefs Series Champion, Joseph Joyner. Joseph, two wins on the deal. Obviously, tonight, really not the night you were looking forward to cap out this deal, but at the end of the day, you are a champion. Yeah, no doubt. I mean, it was only six races, and we come up here. We're the outsider here, and it come together for us. We won two of these deals and run second once, two fifth places, and a 16th there on the Friday at the Bluegrave last month there. But yeah, all in all, I've never really won a championship, hardly at all. Maybe a track championship's been about it. So I'll take whatever we can get here. I appreciate the whole bunch making this Cherokee Chief thing, put it in motion and made it happen and give us something to race for over the course of the year. It was really fun and really cool doing it. I never really would have figured we'd be the guy here winning this thing. And I knew tonight, we kind of started off rough. I think I told you down there, our car, we're just not good. We're just slow, and we worked on it quite a bit, changed quite a bit there before the feature. Knew we had to get us a top ten. And I never really ran the car more than about 60%, just to keep myself out of any position there, any bad spot. Just to make sure I had an out to finish the race and try to get a top ten at least, and we wound up fifth. So race car got pretty good there for the feature, though. We tuned on it quite a bit and got it dialed in there a lot better. So we'll take a fifth place, congrats to Fergie on the win and all these guys for racing us clean and putting on a good show for all the fans here. All these guys are hard racers and we're glad to be able to get this thing. Like I said, I've never really worn, wow, here we go. All right. I'm wearing this to bed. Look out, Kayla. But, well, we gotta thank everybody that makes this thing go around. Like the Kubota Genuine Parts, their support over the last couple years has been great. Really glad for them to get their foot in the door here in our sport. And we're glad to give them the chance to do that on our race car too. Base racing fuel, never has a problem with that. The fuel burns great every time. And trading paints, if you're on iRacing and you don't use trading paints, you're missing out. All our product sponsors, Schoenfeld Headers, Weir's Machine, Longacre. I'd really need a dirt track bank, a dirt car lift. Everybody that kind of gets us up and down the road, there's a whole bunch of guys. Excess batteries, all these guys, they support us, everything we need. They give us what we gotta have, and we're more than thankful for that. Everybody that gives us what we gotta have to compete when we leave the shop. And the whole Hunt the Front, everybody that watches us on YouTube, man, it's great. My wife for all her support. Just everybody that follows along and gives us what we gotta have to make this thing happen. All our crew, everybody works really hard. And I'm glad to be able to get a championship. This is awesome. Finishing third in the Hunt the Front Point standings championship. Got to race some on the big stage with the Lucas Oil Series. What direction do you think yourself as a driver in this team is going? We're trending up. This year's been a turnaround year for us quite a bit. Looking back to 2024 than this year, our results have stepped up quite a bit. And I think we got a lot of things in motion that's going to keep that on that path there. I mean, I know we're going to Hunt the Front next year on the tour and give it all we got there for sure. That's our main goal. And we're trying to get ourselves set up to where we got it. When we unload and leave the shop and unload at the racetrack, we got a good piece to compete for wins. So that's our main goal. That's what we're looking to do. You know, we want to go and race for wins everywhere we go. Ross, a podium finish here at Cherokee. Obviously, you know, this is a race that you really wanted to win. But you cannot be disappointed at all ending up P2 here. Yeah, we had a good car. But, you know, Chris, he had a really good car. He got out front, and that meant a lot. Just came up one spot. But, you know, I want to thank Jeff and them for putting this race on for his dad. Like Chris said, everybody, you know, I mean, we all looked up to Freddy when we were growing up and stuff. So it was pretty cool to run this race for him. Hey, who all do you want to thank before we're done here? I got to thank Benji Hicks and Brian with Double Nickel Race Cars. Brian Nuttall, he owns the car. Just everybody, all my crew that helps us, my wife and kids watching back home. And Randy Cleary, that's his carburetor. He does really good on those. So, and all the fans for coming out. Trent Ivey, a podium finish here in the Freddy Smith Memorial. You know, you've been tough in the points all year long in the Cherokee Chief Deal, finishing second. How are you feeling after a good solid 2025 and a good solid night? Yeah, it's a good weekend for us. I mean, I would love to be standing where Berkey is right now. But we brought a brand new car here that's never seen this place. And I mean, we're right where we would have been in our other cars. So that's all I'm going to ask for. You know, top two or three in the points. Top two or three on the last show. So just thanks to Rocket. Thanks to Fox. And my family, my wife, mom and dad, just all our sponsors. That's the only reason we're able to do this. So I'm very thankful.