Garrett Alberson, who took home his first Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win at Port Royal earlier this year, shared his thoughts about the season and claimed that the “dirty air is more of an issue than it’s ever been.”
Garrett Alberson leads the field to the green during the Corn State Nationals
Alberson did a Q&A on the Dirty Sliders YouTube channel and he was asked about the current deck height rule in the division.
As part of his answer, Alberson pointed to the changes in the chain limited being a bigger factor than the deck height. He explained, “Sometimes we way overthink the actual aero advantage of the deck height. At least personally I feel like that. I think the more critical component of the whole system they have there is the chain limiter, the way that it’s set up in this Droop rule. That chain limiter only having a one inch tall bushing or bump stop type of thing for compliance in the left rear suspension is really what’s changed the handling of the cars more than anything.”
Alberson continued, “Up until that point that they pretty much made that nationwide thing for late models, we were really experimenting pretty hard with springs and different types of bump stops, stack springs. Like our chain limiters were getting pretty exotic and it had a ton of travel from when the chain got tight to when you picked up the gas to—. They pretty much could travel as much as the car wanted to, you know a couple of inches. It made a lot of grip like a ton of grip.”
“And really I’m not so sure in that time period where we all had pretty good chain limiters our racing wasn’t a little bit better because the body works about the same as its been for the last five years size-wise. I mean we’ve played moving the decks around here and there. So general size of the car is pretty much the same. So there was a period there in ’21 and 2020 that we could race a little closer together and I think a lot of that had to do with the chain limiter having so much natural grip in the car that even if you got in some dirty air and split out, you still had mechanical grip to get you back in the track and you can make some closer moves and pick different lanes than you could.”
He then asserted, “The dirty, I think, is more of an issue than it’s ever been because there’s so little mechanical grip left in the car. It’s kind of more air grip.”
Garrett Alberson closes in on Dennis Erb Jr. during the Corn State Nationals
Alberson was then asked if he was seeing the aero issues even on the bullrings and smaller tracks. He answered, “Yeah. I don’t know if I’m overthinking it or maybe I’m sensitive to it or something, but that’s where I can feel it all the way down to the 1/4 mile at Fairbury. These cars, the bodywork is big enough and we’ve all fine-tuned our suspension to this Droop rule and our cars have so little travel once we get our cars in position that race good that even at a quarter mile.”
He explained, “If you drive in to the bottom at Fairbury going all of 25 mph or something like that, but like too close to somebody you’re going to fly out from behind them. It’s just the thing.”
Garrett Alberson celebrates in victory lane after winning at the Corn State Nationals
Towards the end of the Q&A Alberson also confirmed he would run the Lucas Oil series again in 2025. He said, “I guess we haven’t made an official announcement. Our goal definitely is to run the Lucas Oil Series again. I feel like we’re in a good position with our cars, our motors, everything we go to make a shot, make a run for that top four. So that’s the goal. Try to get in there with them guys and give ourselves a chance at a Championship if possible.”
“I personally feel our series is about as tough as it gets. And so you’re going to find out what you got when you go up against it. So that’s what we’re looking forward to,” he concluded.
Garrett Alberson celebrates a win at Port Royal. Photo Credit: Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
What do you make of Alberson’s comments about the dirty air?
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