Garrett Alberson tracked down Dennis Erb Jr., who had a lead of almost 3 seconds, to win the opening of the Corn State Nationals with the Lucas Oil MLRA Series at Davenport Speedway in Iowa.

Alberson charged out of the gate to the early lead, but it was quickly erased as Kayden Clatt spun on the first lap in the exit of turn 2. The field was reracked and it was Dennis Erb Jr. who would take command of the field from the outside lane despite some early challenges from Alberson on the bottom.

Erb would eventually extend his lead to 2.892 seconds, but Alberson would being closing the gap just after the halfway point of the 30-lap feature.

With 10 laps to go Erb found himself struggling to work his way through the lap cars of Spencer Diercks and Matt Furman. By the time he was able to work his way around them Alberson, who remained committed to the bottom of the track, was at his back bumper with 8 laps to go.

Less than two laps later and Alberson was showing his nose on the bottom and even running side by side with Erb Jr. down the front stretch.

With 5 laps to go, both Erb Jr. and Alberson changed up their strategies going into turn 1. Erb took the bottom line while Alberson went high. The two repeated this in turns 3 and 4 as well as into turn 1 and 2 on the ensuing lap.

However, going into turn 3 with 3 laps to go, Alberson switched it up and crossed over Erb diving to his inside and then sliding up in front of Erb, who took the high lane.

In the final three laps, Erb attempted to mount a comeback charge on the high side while Alberson had to work his way around the lap car of Dustin Hodges. While Alberson was able to make quick work of Hodges, the lap car of Steve Stultz slowed in front of him on the last lap as they raced down the front stretch.

Alberson was able to push Stultz across the line and beat Erb by just .250 seconds.

Frank Heceknast Jr. rounded out the podium in third place while current Lucas Oil MLRA points leader Chad Simpson extended his points lead with a solid fourth place finish. Dustin Sorensen finished fifth, his best ever finish in the Lucas Oil MLRA series.

In victory lane, Alberson discussed the win, “It was kind of a different race then I would have expected. Usually, you would think it would be the other way around, and I would be the one up there burning the top down and Dennis on the bottom.”

“This car was really good and I knew I needed to pace myself and take care of my tires, its really easy to over do your tires,” he continued. “When I felt like I had a good car I paced myself and kind of let it come to me and I was glad I did as it gave me a lot of options there at the end. It was a close race and got a little wild with the lapped cars there at the end, but everybody did their job and it was awesome.”

When asked about how he tracked down Erb, Alberson said, “That’s what I did wrong last night, I just didn’t work that lapped traffic well enough. And I was a little afraid of it when we got going there because Dennis was so good on that top at first, but I didn’t know if he was going to use his tires up or if he was just really that good. So, once I started to get close to him that’s when I knew it was time to make some stuff happen and I really wanted to win this race. This place has been tough for me, but it’s a great track and they did a great job with it tonight. It had multiple grooves, and hats off to them, it was a fun race right there.”

The Corn State Nationals continue tonight with a $10,000 to win feature.

Official Finishing Order

1. 58-Garrett Alberson[1]; 2. 28JR-Dennis Erb Jr[2]; 3. 99F-Frank Heckenast Jr[4]; 4. 25-Chad Simpson[6]; 5. 19-Dustin Sorensen[7]; 6. 1-Tyler Erb[11]; 7. 8-Dillon McCowan[3]; 8. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[5]; 9. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[8]; 10. 55C-Chad Mahder[13]; 11. 17SS-Brenden Smith[9]; 12. 32-Chris Simpson[17]; 13. 22H-Dustin Hodges[10]; 14. 29D-Spencer Diercks[19]; 15. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[15]; 16. 51F-Matt Furman[12]; 17. 11-Jeff Herzog[24]; 18. 99-Sawyer Specht[16]; 19. 78S-Steve Stultz[18]; 20. 33F-Rickey Frankel[21]; 21. 17-Tim Simpson[20]; 22. 50C-Kayden Clatt[22]; 23. 1XM-Aaron Marrant[23]; 24. 10P-Paul Parker[14]

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