NEW LIBERTY, Iowa — After starting his season with one career highlight, Chris Zogg ended it with another.
The Friesen Performance IMCA Modified veteran from New Liberty, Iowa, ventured to Arizona’s Cocopah Speedway in January, outrunning Tim Ward and 68 other Modified entries on opening night of the IMCA.TV Winter Nationals.
He’d return to the Midwest and race to another 13 feature wins among 34 top five finishes in earning his career-first Razor Chassis North Central Region crown.
“I like going to different race tracks and racing against different people. I can learn more about the car and make myself faster,” said Zogg, also the Davenport Speedway track and Iowa State champion. “This year I decided we’d travel more, and when I say travel I mean we have like eight tracks within three hours of us. I consider myself spoiled with all the tracks we have.”
“I decided to race Davenport and 34 Raceway weekly and we started clicking off wins,” continued Zogg, who had looked at the regional standings mid-season and realized that crown was definitely within his reach. “You have to have luck and the luck was on our side. We got the starts in that we needed to, we got the bonus points we needed, and here we are.”
“Our region is tough. We got guys in this region who travel to big money shows and they’re competing for wins all the time. There are a lot of fast cars in this region.”
Zogg turned laps at seven Iowa speed plants in his 20th season behind the wheel, taking the checkers at five of them. His biggest payday came at Cedar County Raceway’s $1,500 to win Gary Reinhart Memorial.
“I think we start earlier than we probably should around here. I’m not a fan of character, or hammer-down race tracks,” said Zogg, who logged 46 starts in his home region. “That’s not how I grew up racing and I’m not a fan of them, so opening nights usually don’t treat me that well.”
That was not the case in 2024, as Zogg was the winner right out of the gate in Somerton. He’d had mixed success in Arizona, everything from not racing at all after hurting an engine on practice night one season to a trio of top five finishes the next.
“That was my biggest win to date and will probably end up being the biggest win of my career,” he said. “That night I drew the pole, which everybody wants to do, but then I saw that Tim drew two and I’m thinking ‘Gosh, this is not going to be easy. This is going to be a dogfight.’ You go to Arizona and to a track I’ve only been to a handful of times and now I have to start of the front row with a guy who could probably get around there blindfolded.”
“To get the jump on him and hold him back, obviously, there was no better way to start the season.”
Zogg then went another 17 consecutive starts, 10 of them in the Midwest, before win number two, on May 18 at Maquoketa Speedway.
“It was not for lack of effort. We did have some bad luck after the win at Cocopah and when we came back home to race it seemed like I kept finishing second or third or fourth for the longest time,” he said. “I’m always searching on the car and talking things over with my chassis builder. We made a minor tweak and it seemed like that was all the car needed. Through the summer months it felt like I was winning a race somewhere every weekend.”
Zogg’s crew chief and travel partner is his father Mike, a 25-year veteran himself.