Top Sportsman racer Dan Ferguson has faced more challenges than he can tally in his drag racing career. He's battled against the best drivers in the sport; he's won some and lost some. 

Friday he faced another opponent who was already in his head, and the PDRA Texas Nationals hadn't even begun.

The 19 other drivers entered into the third stop on the PDRA tour, he knew what it took to beat them. Get a better reaction, and play the stripe better and you win.

If only beating grief was this simple.

Ferguson wasn't alone in his sorrow five weeks after fellow competitor Ronnie Davis crashed in Rockingham, NC, and succumbed to his critical injuries a day later. The PDRA dedicated the naming rights to the class in Davis' honor for the balance of the season. 

"I basically had five weeks to think about it and everything," Ferguson said. "I think about him quite a bit. Usually, if I’m driving somewhere by myself my mind seems to always drift to thinking about him and that race.”

One of Ferguson's fondest memories is last October when he crashed his race car and was faced with the option of surrendering his chances of competing for the 2015 PDRA Top Sportsman champion.

Davis stepped up and offered his spare car for Ferguson to race.

“He’s a good kid - a hard worker. And I respect that,” Davis said of Ferguson in an October 2015 interview. “If I win this thing, I want to win it. I don’t want it given to me. The car is here. It’s a good car. He’s like me- he’s going to want to run his own car that he’s more comfortable in, but the offer will stand. Dan and I are friends. He’s a young boy, and I tried to help him some when he first got into racing. So we built a friendship.”

The generosity and mentoring is what Ferguson chooses to remember more than Davis' airborne car on that windy Saturday afternoon in April. 
However, the first pass on Friday in Ennis led to a slight bit of apprehension. 

“I was concerned, but I kind of understood what happened and why stuff happens," Ferguson admitted. "I know Ronnie would probably be mad if I was staying out of my race car because of him having an accident. He was a hardcore racer for a lot of years. I just did what I figured he’d do and what he’d want me to do. I really just wanted to try and do good for him. At that point in time, as far as we knew, he still had a shot, and that helped too. It was hard getting that news after the race.”

Ferguson won the fateful Rockingham event, beating Stacy Hall in the final round. He also added a runner-up last Saturday evening in Dallas.

Ferguson is quick to point out he learned a lot from Davis in racing and running a race car, but the most profound lesson had nothing to do with either. 

“The biggest thing I learned from him is to speak your mind," Ferguson revealed. "Everybody knew he wasn’t shy about that. Stand for what you believe in and speak your mind, be upfront about stuff. He was always real strict with himself, work and money, which I try to be, but for me to race, I can’t be quite as strict as he was. At some point, I’m probably going to start taking a lot of advice he gave me about finances and stuff like that.”

Ferguson admits his toughest opponent wasn't in the other lane Saturday, but inside of his heart and mind. And for the first time, he had to race all three at once. 

"I’ve only been racing for a few years, but I’ve never really run a PDRA race without [Davis] except for one race. He didn’t come to this race last year because they were counting 8 of the 10 races towards the championship and the forecast looked bad, so he didn’t come to this one last year. 

"I remember even before I had a race car, I always watched races, and I looked at a lot of results, and I’d been seeing his name ever since the first time I started following any of that stuff. It’s like missing a piece of a puzzle pretty much.”