SARVER, Pa. — Garrett Alberson took the lead at the start of Friday night’s 40-lap, $10,000-to-win main event and never looked back.
He first held off Ricky Thornton Jr. for the first four laps, then Jonathan Davenport for several laps, and finally Devin Moran for the last 13 circuits to earn his first win at Lernerville Speedway on the opening night of the 57th Annual Hillbilly 100 Presented by Summit Racing Equipment.
Alberson led all 40 laps to earn his fourth career Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series presented by FloRacing victory.
Moran moved from fifth to second on a lap 27 restart and finished just 0.852 seconds behind.
Hudson O’Neal moved from seventh to secure a spot on the Big River Steel Podium by claiming third place. Tim McCreadie finished fourth, followed by Thornton, Jr., who made a late race charge to reach fifth after dropping as low as eighth in the running order at the checkers, maintaining his series points lead heading into Saturday’s $30,000-to-win Hillbilly Hundred.
“My guys did such a good job. Big thanks to Vinny (Guiliani); he came in with us and helped us get our program back together,” Alberson said. “I just tried to be a driver tonight. I tried not to overthink it and let my instincts take over. Man, the car worked really well; the track was intense. I kinda wanted to straighten the car out a little here and there, but every time I tried to ease up on it, there was somebody right beside us,” said the driver from Las Cruces, New Mexico native.
“I kind of took a lane over there, and when you do that, you kind of try to break a guy’s momentum. I hope I didn’t crowd anybody too much. I just had to change the momentum a little bit and then get back to what I was doing, being a little more disciplined with what I was doing in three and four so I wouldn’t lose my speed across the center. Man, this is awesome.”
Moran, who suddenly became a contender for the win after starting eighth, climbed to second following a lap-27 restart.
“For the Firecracker, we had some bad luck, and I felt like our results didn’t reflect our speed. Coming here, starting eighth and finishing second was awesome,” Moran said. “Kudos to Garrett for running a great race. I thought I had a chance in one and two, and I stuck my nose out, but I probably shouldn’t have. Once I did, he (Alberson) moved down for three or four laps, which messed up my momentum. They did a great job, and so did my team. We’ve been working really hard and had to fight through a lot of challenges this year. We’ve had a really great race car here the last couple of weeks.”
O’Neal, who started alongside Moran in row four, finished in third.
“Yeah, the car was really good. We struggled for the last couple of weeks, but we were able to test yesterday, and I think it really helped us. We’ve been working to improve our balance on these bigger race tracks because we struggled a little when we came here for the Firecracker. However, we opened up the notebook, and it turned out to be a really good night for us.”
The finish:
Garrett Alberson, Devin Moran, Hudson O’Neal, Tim McCreadie, Ricky Thornton Jr., Max Blair, Jonathan Davenport, Brandon Sheppard, Mike Marlar, Brandon Overton, Daniel Hilsabeck, Carson Ferguson, Drake Troutman, John Garvin Jr., Clay Harris, Cory Lawler, Donald McIntosh, Kyle Bronson, Boom Briggs, Tyler Erb, Colton Flinner, Chub Frank, Michael Norris, Dan Ebert.
