January 11, 2025 | By Ben Sheton

Garrett Alberson shows the way at Wild West Shootout

VADO, N.M. — The 19th annual Rio Grande Waste Services Wild West Shootout presented by O’Reilly Auto Parts at FK Rod Ends Vado (N.M.) Speedway Park presented by Low Voltage Solutions resumed action on Friday evening, and fans were rewarded with 130 competitors in the pit area, and three great features.

Garrett Alberson, Christy Barnett, and Kyle Strickler all enjoyed the spoils of Hoker Trucking Victory Lane.

Alberson, who is a Las Cruces native, turned back late-race challenges from Bobby Pierce to emerge victorious in the Dirt Track Bank Super Late Model feature presented by Black Diamond Race Cars.

“We’ve been working on our package for this kind of grippy track right here, really all year last year,” Alberson said in Victory Lane. “The car just rotates, does what it needs to do and them restarts, I hate them restarts. I just had to think it through a little bit, make sure I had my speed going into turn one, so I didn’t leave myself vulnerable. It all worked out this time.”

Alberson used a fourth-to-first move on the opening lap and fended off Bobby Pierce on a late-race restart to win Friday's $10,000 fourth round. Alberson led all 30 laps for his first victory of the 2025 season and his second-career miniseries triumph (his second at Vado Speedway Park) after winning $5,000 there on Jan. 12, 2022.

The eighth-starting Pierce finished 0.662 seconds behind Alberson in the second position with seventh-starting Tyler Erb finishing third, Dustin Sorensen fourth, and 21st-starting Brandon Sheppard in fifth.

In the Shocker Hitch X-Mod division presented by Border Tire, Christy Barnett raced away from the field to snare the victory. Greg Gorham, sixth-starting Scott Bintz, 18th-starting Shayne Bailey, and 11th-starting Josh Cain completed the Top-5 finishers in the 20-lap feature.

The Mesilla Valley Transportation / Border Tire Modified feature presented by Rancho Milagro rounded out the night’s action. Kyle Strickler wired the field from the pole position to record his first-career Wild West Shootout triumph. Rodney Sanders, Gary Christian, 16th-starting Dustin Sorensen, and Paden Phillips rounded out the Top-5 finishers.

The miniseries continues on Saturday, Jan. 11. Ontrack action begins on Saturdayy at 3:30pm with hot laps and qualifying with racing action to follow.

General grandstand admission on Saturday, January 11 is $25 for adults, $10 for children (ages 6-12) and free for kids (ages 5-and-under). Reserved grandstand seating is $30.  Pit passes are $45.

The evening’s action on Friday, Jan. 10 is headlined by Super Late Models ($10,000-to-win), Modifieds ($1,000-to-win), and X-Mods ($500-to-win).

A pit party will follow in the white tent in the midway with free food and drinks.

On Saturday, Jan. 11 the Wild Bunch Wild West Shootout Cornhole Tournament will be held in the grandstand midway at 10:30 a.m. MT. Entry is free and teams must check in by 10:15am. The winning team gets a custom set of Wild West Shootout Cornhole boards.

Full event details and reserved tickets can be found at www.WildWestShootout.net.

For anyone not able to attend, all six rounds will be streamed live via the Official Streaming Partner, FloRacing. For more information visit https://flosports.link/3WWQQYN .

The Rio Grande Waste Services Wild West Shootout presented by O’Reilly Auto Parts is made possible by Rio Grande Waste Services, O’Reilly Auto Parts, FK Rod Ends, Low Voltage Solutions, Dirt Track Bank, Black Diamond Race Cars, Sisbarro Buick GMC, Hoker Trucking, ShockerHitch.com, Penske Racing Shocks, Merry’s Home Furnishings, Shaw Trucking, Schaeffer Oil, AM-1 Roofing, Rancho Milagro Racing, Eagle Moon Hemp, Top of the World Ranch, Mesilla Valley Transportation, Border Tire, Wehrs Machine & Racing Products, Swift Springs, Dirt Pro Grading & Padwork, Contractors & Developers (C&D) Bonding, Whisler Construction, Shocks by Hammer, Midwest Sheet Metal, Speedway Motors, Day Motor Sports, Hoosier Racing Tires, Sunoco Race Fuels, Pro Power Engines, Beaver Stripes, Arizona Differential, Gorsuch Performance Solutions, Don Frank Floors, Toste Construction, Winning Edge Carburetion, The Joie of Seating, Screven Motor Speedway, DirtDraft.com, Victory Fuel, and FloRacing.


19th annual Rio Grande Waste Services Wild West Shootout presented by O’Reilly Auto Parts Round #4
FK Rod Ends Vado Speedway Park presented by Low Voltage Solutions
Jan. 10, 2025

Dirt Track Super Late Models presented by Black Diamond Racecars

A Feature 1 (30 Laps): 1. 58-Garrett Alberson[4]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[8]; 3. 1-Tyler Erb[7]; 4. 19-Dustin Sorensen[6]; 5. B5-Brandon Sheppard[21]; 6. 86-Kyle Beard[1]; 7. 22*-Drake Troutman[3]; 8. 74-Mitch McGrath[9]; 9. 13-Bricen James[22]; 10. 28B-Carson Brown[19]; 11. 18-Chase Junghans[17]; 12. 28-Jimmy Whisler[23]; 13. S21-Seth Daniels[20]; 14. 78S-Steve Stultz[15]; 15. 69-Ross Bailes[2]; 16. 74X-Ethan Dotson[5]; 17. 42S-Don Shaw[13]; 18. 11-Jon Kirby[10]; 19. 157-Mike Marlar[16]; 20. 28M-Sam Mars[12]; 21. 97-Cade Dillard[11]; 22. 6-Jake Neal[18]; 23. 56-Tony Jackson Jr[14]; 24. 3K-Keko Perez[24]

B Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 18-Chase Junghans[2]; 2. 28B-Carson Brown[1]; 3. B5-Brandon Sheppard[3]; 4. 28-Jimmy Whisler[5]; 5. 82-Ian Whisler[6]; 6. 14S-Collen Winebarger[4]; 7. 77-Preston Luckman[7]; 8. 8-Dillon McCowan[9]; 9. 02-Kent Rosevear[10]; 10. 15S-Clayton Stuckey[12]; 11. 4P-Richard Papenhausen[11]; 12. K7-Keaton Smith[8]

B Feature 2 (10 Laps): 1. 6-Jake Neal[2]; 2. S21-Seth Daniels[1]; 3. 13-Bricen James[3]; 4. 3K-Keko Perez[4]; 5. 10N-Rob Sanders[6]; 6. 53M-Jason Miles[11]; 7. 38-Thomas Hunziker[5]; 8. 6T-Terry Carter[9]; 9. 99-Luke Solis[8]; 10. 3-Brennon Willard[7]; 11. 49-Jake Timm[10]


Mesilla Valley Transportation / Border Tire Modifieds presented by Rancho Milagro

Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 8-Kyle Strickler[1]; 2. 420-Rodney Sanders[3]; 3. 58X-Gary Christian[5]; 4. 19-Dustin Sorensen[16]; 5. 127-Paden Phillips[6]; 6. 77-CJ Hulsey[10]; 7. 111-Bumper Jones[7]; 8. 12-Jay Rosales[11]; 9. 131-Royal Jones[18]; 10. 16JR-Dustin Henigan[19]; 11. 65-Tyler Davis[17]; 12. 16-Chris Henigan[24]; 13. J17-Jake Gallardo[13]; 14. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[23]; 15. 18JR-Ricardo Olague Jr[12]; 16. 20Q-Cole Queensland[15]; 17. 54-Carlos Ahumada Sr[4]; 18. 97-Cade Dillard[9]; 19. 88-Nathan Smith[8]; 20. 24-Rick Ortega[2]; 21. 37-John Neal Reid[22]; 22. 75-Terry Phillips[21]; 23. 80XX-Jason Langford[14]; 24. G17-Fito Gallardo[20]

B Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 65-Tyler Davis[1]; 2. 16JR-Dustin Henigan[3]; 3. 75-Terry Phillips[6]; 4. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[4]; 5. 5-Reece Solander[5]; 6. 44-Christy Barnett[7]; 7. 721-Troy Gemmill[9]; 8. 17-Peyton Gallardo[15]; 9. 5X-Ryder McCutcheon[11]; 10. D25-David Tanner[12]; 11. 32-Max Sadler[10]; 12. 37T-Coty Tanquary[13]; 13. 39-David Gonzales Jr[16]; 14. 96C-Carson Ditsch[8]; 15. 51T-Joseph Thomas[2]; 16. J7-Jake Boles[14]

B Feature 2 (10 Laps): 1. 131-Royal Jones[4]; 2. G17-Fito Gallardo[7]; 3. 37-John Neal Reid[6]; 4. 16-Chris Henigan[3]; 5. 16B-Kaylin Lopez[2]; 6. 9R-Jimmy Ray[5]; 7. 15L-Chris Lewis[12]; 8. 11-Lucas Ward[14]; 9. 157-Joel King[13]; 10. 2G-Troy Girolamo[10]; 11. 22B-Rick Beebe[15]; 12. 3J-Josh Cain[1]; 13. 64-Casey Fowler[8]; 14. 2SS-Mark Smith[9]; 15. 77X-Austin Kuehl[11]


Shocker Hitch X-Mods presented by Border Tire

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 44-Christy Barnett[1]; 2. 93-Greg Gorham[2]; 3. 1S-Scott Bintz[6]; 4. 7-Shayne Bailey[18]; 5. 3J-Josh Cain[11]; 6. 25K-Kale Murphrey[5]; 7. M17-Rob Moseley[21]; 8. 75J-Jeremy LaCoe[4]; 9. 33-Justin Allen[10]; 10. 07-Donavon Flores[20]; 11. 12M-Mike Rosales[7]; 12. 40D-Blake Adams[17]; 13. 5-Steve Holzkamper[9]; 14. 02-Deuce Teague[3]; 15. 28-Aiden Frazier[22]; 16. G3-Brian Craighead[12]; 17. 23B-Israel Ortega[19]; 18. 10-Bryan Bennett[23]; 19. 57-Duke Erickson[16]; 20. 510-Cody King[15]; 21. 71-Nate Reinke[13]; 22. 3-Dickie Gorham[14]; 23. 7S-Hunter Sandy[8]; 24. 23T-Coty Tupper[24]

B Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 40D-Blake Adams[1]; 2. 23B-Israel Ortega[2]; 3. M17-Rob Moseley[3]; 4. 10-Bryan Bennett[4]; 5. 81-Devon Jobin[7]; 6. 21C-CLINT ARTHUR[5]; 7. 23H-Hector Barraza[12]; 8. 00-Joseph Swearingen[6]; 9. M77-Cameron Martin[11]; 10. 25C-Cory Polen[10]; 11. 161-Remington Budd[8]; 12. 96-Cale Riggs[13]; 13. 345-Jimmy Downs[9]; 14. CP3-Nathaniel Cruz[14]

B Feature 2 (10 Laps): 1. 7-Shayne Bailey[1]; 2. 07-Donavon Flores[2]; 3. 28-Aiden Frazier[3]; 4. 23T-Coty Tupper[6]; 5. 562-Craig Walker[5]; 6. 22-Keenan Glasser[14]; 7. 12-Isiah Mendoza[7]; 8. 27-Andy Davis[4]; 9. 21R-Riella LaRae Fanning[12]; 10. 14-Dawson Manicki[9]; 11. 25-Josh Baucom[8]; 12. 37-Robert Trujillo[11]; 13. 23-Kyle Nanco[10]; 14. 102-Leonidas Tanner[13]