September 14, 2024 | By Billy Rock

Alberson outguns Erb Jr to win Lucas Oil MLRA prize at Davenport

DAVENPORT, Ia. — The opening night of the inaugural Corn State Nationals at the Davenport Speedway led up to the hype on Friday night, as Garrett Alberson erased a 2.892 second deficit without the help of a caution to score his third career Lucas Oil MLRA victory in a last lap thriller over Dennis Erb Jr.

After finishing in the runner-up position one night ago, Alberson came out strong by topping the 34 car field in My Race Pass Qualifying. The driver of the Roberts Motorsports entry would go on to score his respective heat race win, lining him up alongside of Dennis Erb Jr. on the front row for the feature event. 

Alberson jumped to the lead on the opening lap, only to see it erased as Kayden Clatt spun in turn two and brought out the nights only caution, forcing a complete restart. This time around Erb was ready, and was able to get the jump on Alberson and took the first lead of the race. Alberson mounted a couple of early race charges, but by mid race Erb had managed to build up a near three second advantage as he entered lapped traffic on the exciting ¼ mile.

As Erb began making his way through the back side of the field, Alberson slowly started to close ground on the race leader. Erb continued to weave his way through traffic, in an effort to keep multiple cars between himself and a charging Alberson. With just five laps to go Alberson found the back bumper of Erb’s XR-1 Rocket Chassis and used a couple of different lines to find a way around Erb for the lead on lap 27.

Erb would continue to apply pressure in the closing laps, setting up a dramatic finish. As Alberson exited the low line of turn four on the final lap he found himself caught behind lap traffic, while Erb had a clear shot to the front by virtue of a high side run to the finish line. Alberson would make contact with the back end of the lapped car of Steve Stultz, pushing him across the finish line and scoring the dramatic win by .250 seconds over Erb.

For the second night in a row, Frank Heckenast Jr. capped off the podium in third, while Chad Simpson extended his MLRA championship point lead with a strong 4th place run. Dustin Sorensen would round out the top five, as the Rochester, MN driver came from seventh to a career best 5th place finish under the MLRA banner.

“It was kind of a different race then I would have expected,” Alberson explained in victory lane. “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 real easy to over do your tires. When I felt like I had a really 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.”

After letting a win slip away the night before he continued, “I just didn’t work that lapped traffic well enough last night. Dennis was so good there on the 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. 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.”

Racing at the Davenport Speedway will continue on Saturday night with the conclusion of the inaugural “Corn State Nationals”.  Another complete show is on tap, with $10,000 going home with the winner.


Davenport Speedway Contingencies 9/13/24

Lap Leaders – Dennis Erb Jr. (1 - 26), Garrett Alberson (27 - 30)

Cautions – 1

MyRacePass “Overall Fast Time Award" – Garrett Alberson (13.780 sec.)
Outerwears Crew Chief of the Race – R.C. Whitwell
MD3 "Most Laps Led" – Dennis Erb Jr. (26)
Swift Springs “Move of the Race” – Garrett Alberson
Sunoco Race Fuel “Rookie of the Race” – Aaron Marrant
PEM Racing "4th Place Finisher" – Chad Simpson
Fluidyne: "5th Place Finisher: – Dustin Sorensen
Sunoco "Engine Builders Challenge" – Clements
Midwest Sheet Metal "Points Leader Spoiler Challenge" – Chad Simpson
MSD Performance Holley: “1st B-Main NON-Qualifier” – Justin Reed
MD3 Final Finisher: – Paul Parker

RESULTS

Corn State Nationals30 Laps | 00:13:38.373
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]

B Feature 1| 00:05:44.238
1. 32-Chris Simpson[2]; 2. 29D-Spencer Diercks[3]; 3. 33F-Rickey Frankel[5]; 4. 11-Jeff Herzog[1]; 5. 1ST-Justin Reed[8]; 6. 4X-Dalon Helm[6]; 7. 15C-Curt Schroeder[9]; 8. 42-Johnathan Huston[4]; 9. (DNS) 1XM-Aaron Marrant

B Feature 2| 00:03:44.225
1. 78S-Steve Stultz[2]; 2. 17-Tim Simpson[6]; 3. 50C-Kayden Clatt[1]; 4. 89-Mike Spatola[8]; 5. 25K-Bryan Klein[7]; 6. M27-Mike Provenzano[3]; 7. 67-Jimmy Vanzandt[5]; 8. 26G-Glen Powell[4]; 9. (DNS) 41-Matt Menzie

H1-Flo Sports8 Laps | 00:03:08.000
1. 58-Garrett Alberson[1]; 2. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[2]; 3. 17SS-Brenden Smith[3]; 4. 55C-Chad Mahder[6]; 5. 11-Jeff Herzog[5]; 6. 29D-Spencer Diercks[4]; 7. 33F-Rickey Frankel[7]; 8. 1XM-Aaron Marrant[8]; 9. 15C-Curt Schroeder[9]

H2-Simpson Race Products8 Laps | 00:08:42.000
1. 8-Dillon McCowan[2]; 2. 19-Dustin Sorensen[1]; 3. 1-Tyler Erb[4]; 4. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[7]; 5. 32-Chris Simpson[3]; 6. 42-Johnathan Huston[6]; 7. 4X-Dalon Helm[8]; 8. 1ST-Justin Reed[5]

H3-Earnhardt Technologies8 Laps | 00:01:57.000
1. 28JR-Dennis Erb Jr[1]; 2. 25-Chad Simpson[3]; 3. 22H-Dustin Hodges[2]; 4. 10P-Paul Parker[4]; 5. 50C-Kayden Clatt[6]; 6. M27-Mike Provenzano[5]; 7. 67-Jimmy Vanzandt[9]; 8. 25K-Bryan Klein[8]; 9. 41-Matt Menzie[7]

H4- Lucas Oil8 Laps | 00:06:08.553
1. 99F-Frank Heckenast Jr[1]; 2. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[3]; 3. 51F-Matt Furman[4]; 4. 99-Sawyer Specht[7]; 5. 78S-Steve Stultz[6]; 6. 26G-Glen Powell[8]; 7. (DNF) 17-Tim Simpson[5]; 8. (DNF) 89-Mike Spatola[2]


For all of the latest news and information, including the full 2024 schedule, fans are encouraged to visit the series website at www.MLRARacing.com.