Garrett Alberson and his wife shared a new update on his status after he was injured in the middle of the North/South 100 when an object struck his helmet and shield and caused significant damage to his head and face.

With 40 laps to go in the the 100-lap feature, Alberson, who was running in 7th slowed in the top of turn 1 and eventually came to a stop in turn 2. He quickly unbuckled and exited the car. After he got out of the car, he dropped to his knees as he worked to get his helmet off. 

FloRacing’s Dustin Jarrett would report that “Garrett was hit with something out there on the race track: a rock, a mud clot, not real sure. It actually made a laceration above his eye, above one of his eyes. The rock, mud clot, whatever it was. And so they are going to transport him to a local hospital for further evaluation.”

In a post to Facebook, Alberson’s team shared more details about what exactly happened, “We just wanted to clear up some misunderstandings rolling around, Garrett’s been hit by mud and rocks before plenty of times, that’s… par for the course. Given the extent of damage to his face, we have to guess whatever came through the bars was much heavier. His shield did not shatter, it indented and smashed the whole helmet into his head.”

“We are blessed that Simpson Race Products made such a durable helmet, the doctors told us it likely saved his eyes, and his life,” the team added. “The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series officials did a great job getting him taken care of on track, and have reviewed the helmet since.”

Alberson also informed StockCarReport, “What it was didn’t quite make it through the shield but impacted hard enough to essentially smash the shell/shield into my face/eye. So it was heavy whatever it was.”

His wife Dani had also previously reported that he was discharged from the hospital on Sunday morning and that Alberson had suffered “a broken nose, a couple facial fractures and a laceration above his eyes.” 

“The docs did a good [job] taking care of him,” she added. “He’s home and recovering, but he’s sensitive to light and won’t be responding to texts anytime soon, although I’ve read them to him as they’ve come in. Thank you all for reaching out,” she continued. “We’d like to send a special thank you to Rick Schwallie for waiting with us all night and Jeff & Paden for making sure we were taken care of. Carson and Makenna Ferguson took care of Weston and got the merch trailer moved and safe. Thank you so much to each of you, it means more than you know.”

In a new update posted on the night of Thursday, August 13th, Dani shared that Alberson will miss the Topless 100 weekend and in fact he has not been cleared by medical professionals to leave the state of Ohio where he has been receiving treatment.

She wrote on Facebook, “We’ve been back to the hospital in Cincinnati every day since Sunday for follow ups with the specialists. We were told these first five days were critical to ensure Garrett wouldn’t lose his eyesight long term, and his facial bones would heal correctly.”

“That being said, we will not be at Batesville this weekend. Garrett has not been released by doctors.. we haven’t even been released to leave Ohio yet, let alone go home.”

“We’ll be back when we can and it’s safe,” she concluded. “It was a heartbreaking kind of sad to watch the Lucas trucks get on the road without us.”

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