Garrett Alberson Wires Wild West Shootout Prelim At Vado Speedway Park

Story By: JEREMY PETERS / ROBERTS MOTORSPORTS – DUBUQUE, IA – Stealing the spotlight from red-hot Bobby Pierce, Garrett Alberson rolled to his first win of the season in Friday’s Wild West Shootout preliminary at Vado Speedway Park aboard the Roberts Motorsports / Mesilla Valley Transportation / Low Voltage Solutions, Inc. No. 58 Longhorn Chassis Late Model.

Alberson, a native just 25 minutes from the 3/8-mile New Mexico oval, stormed fourth-to-first on the opening circuit and repelled Pierce’s late charge to claim the $10,000 payday.

“We’ve been working on our package for this kind of grippy track right here, really all year last year,” Alberson said. “The car just rotates, does what it needs to do and them restarts, I hate them restarts. I just had to think it through a little bit, make sure I had my speed going into turn one, so I didn’t leave myself vulnerable. It all worked out this time.”

Garrett Alberson and the Roberts Motorsports team returned to Vado (N.M.) Speedway Park on Friday afternoon after a brief snow shower cancelled the third round of the 19th annual Rio Grande Waste Services Wild West Shootout.

With 39 Super Late Models in attendance for the final three rounds of the January miniseries, Alberson wasted no time making his mark. He set the fastest time in qualifying and cruised to a dominant eight-lap victory in his heat race. Despite an unlucky draw, Alberson quickly surged from fourth-to-first on the opening lap of the feature and never looked back, claiming his first win of the season and his second career Wild West Shootout victory. He held off a late challenge from Bobby Pierce after a last-lap restart to secure the $10,000 payday.

After turning in a seventh-place outing in Saturday’s program, Garrett wrapped up the Wild West Shootout on Saturday night with a third-place finish in the $25,000-to-win finale. He joined race-winner Bobby Pierce and Chase Junghans on the podium.

Garrett’s strong finishes in the final three rounds propelled him to second in the miniseries point standings.

Alberson now turns his attention to the highly anticipated season opener of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series this weekend at Golden Isles Speedway in Brunswick, Georgia. The rain-shortened Super Bowl of Racing begins Friday, followed by Saturday’s main event, which boasts a $25,000 top prize. Sunday’s schedule will feature the rescheduled program originally set for Thursday.