NEW RICHMOND, Wis. — When Garrett Alberson makes his second USA Nationals Feature start on Saturday night, he’ll do so from the front of the field.
It was a strong night from start to finish for the Roberts Motorsports camp, as Alberson qualified second in his group and won his heat race from the pole to make the Heat Race Winners Dash.
He pulled the four in the redraw, putting him on the outside of Row 2 for the six-lap sprint behind Tyler Bruening, Jake Timm and Chris Madden.
The front row stayed side-by-side through Turns 1 and 2 on the opening lap, but Timm got enough of a run up high to pull ahead down the backstretch. While the No. 49 led the way, Bruening stayed on the bottom and left the top open for Alberson to squeak by and into second a lap later.
Alberson wasn’t done making hay on the cushion, as he quickly caught the back of Timm’s car and went to his outside in Turn 3. Exiting the corner, Timm came too far up the track off Turn 4, and with Alberson beside him, the two made contact and Timm pounded the frontstretch wall to end his race.
That gave the second spot to Bruening for the restart with three to go, but Alberson went straight back to the cushion and left the field in his dust to earn the Bilstein Pole Award for Saturday night.
“This stuff’s really hard, and it means a lot to start up front there,” Alberson said regarding the incident with Timm. “We’re trying hard and I want it really bad. I’m sorry to Jake and all his fans. I pushed too hard right there, I really did. I had a run, I was just trying to make it exciting, I hoped I could make it through there and we just didn’t. Sorry to them guys.”
Gustin, Madden, Jonathan Davenport, Bruening and Timm completed the finishing order to set the first three rows for Saturday.
The night ended with the FANS Fund Dash, which saw 11 drivers voted in by the fans battle it out for a guaranteed spot in the USA Nationals main event. Devin Moran made his way from sixth to second in the first half of the 12-lap contest, got to the outside of Gordy Gundaker and never looked back to punch his ticket to the Saturday Feature.
“We just threw a couple things at it right there,” Moran said. “That’s the cleanest the track’s been all weekend. I tried running the very bottom and it wasn’t quite as good, I moved up a little bit and I could roll right through the middle really, really good. Huge thank you and shoutout to the FANS Fund for doing this. We’re locked into the race tomorrow, so that’s a little bit relieving.”
