September 19, 2025 | By Bill Wright

Garrett Alberson triumphs on opening night of Late Model Knoxville Nationals

KNOXVILLE, Ia.—Garrett Alberson survived a tough night at the Knoxville Raceway and recorded his first win there on Night #1 of the 21st Lucas Oil Late Model Knoxville Nationals. Mother Nature played a big part in a night that saw four new track records set on the lightning fast half-mile. Alberson earned $10,000 for his win, and the Las Cruces, New Mexico native also came out on top of the points battle with 488. Drivers will use the best of their two nights of point accumulation to line up for Saturday’s $75,000 to win finale (point totals below).

Alberson shot out from outside row one early in the scheduled 25-lap main event early to lead Brandon Sheppard, Tyler Bruening, Daulton Wilson and Ryan Gustin. Eight laps in, a sixth running Brian Shirley got into the turn three wall, bringing the first caution of the event.

Gustin shot under Wilson on the restart to reclaim fourth, on a track that was narrow and hard to pass on, thanks to persistent rains during the day. Bruening suffered the same fate as Shirley on lap 13. While running third, he slammed the turn three wall hard. He was able to walk away.

Now Alberson’s lead came ahead of Sheppard, Gustin, Wilson and Joseph Joiner. Tyler Erb, who started tenth, restarted sixth and shot to fourth with a great restart. Chad Simpso would slow on lap 15, bringing another caution.

On that restart, contact from another car sent seventh running Hudson O’Neal flipping hard into the turn two wall. He exited the car on his own. The restart saw Alberson lead the group back to green, ahead of Sheppard, ,Gustin, Erb and Wilson. Erb’s restart was a good one again, as he shot by both Gustin and Sheppard into second.

Sheppard suffered a flat tire at that point with nine laps to go. On lap 19, Gustin, who was running third would slow, bringing another caution. Now Alberson led Erb, Wilson, Ricky Thornton Jr. and Jonathan Davenport, who started 18th.

Carson Ferguson flipped on that restart. He too, emerged from his crash. Persistent rains then returned to the racetrack, and the race was declared complete.

In the end, Alberson’s win came over Erb, Wilson, Thornton Jr. and hard-charger Davenport. Aaron Marrant, Joiner, Devin Moran, Donald McIntosh and Dan Ebert completed the top ten. Thornton Jr. set a new one-lap record in time trials at 16.566 seconds, breaking a 19-year-old mark set by Earl Pearson Jr. The tacky conditions also allowed the 12-lap record to be broken by first heat winner Daniel Hilsabeck at 3:30.7 (breaking Max Blair’s mark from 2024), the 8-lap record by B man one winner Chad Simpson at 2:19.3 (breaking Eddie Carrier Jr.’s mark from 2004) and the 6-lap record by Dan Ebert at 1:47.2 (breaking Jimmy Mars’s mark from 2008). Shirley also set quick time in his group, and other heat winners included Donald McIntosh, Davenport and Jake Neal.

“This is huge,” said a happy Alberson in Victory Lane. “The restarts were really hard to judge. I didn’t feel like I could accelerate really good. My gearing was a little bit weird there. It’s so hard to judge if you’re doing the right thing with your speed here. You can be in the right lane, but if you don’t do it just right, you lose a lot of speed. It was tough to keep my speed up. This is always a tricky place, and it’s special because of it. I’m super proud of this.”

“(We were able to move up) by having a lot of laps here,” said Erb. “You’re not going to pass on the outside unless you’re a ‘bad mamma jamma’ and I wasn’t going to try. I had a couple restarts that kind of worked out, once I got by Joiner there. I was biding my time, not trying to hurt myself. The one where I got by (Gustin) and (Sheppard) in the same lap…that was pretty good. We made 19 of 25 and Garrett did a good job. It was a really good night for us.”

“To run third, it was good,” said Wilson. “We definitely got to work on the racecar tonight, but with the racetrack we had, we’ll definitely take it. The biggest thing was staying out of the ‘air’. My car wouldn’t take off on the restarts, so I felt like I was holding the whole field up. We made the most of it, and we were lucky to end up here.”

Join us for Night #2 of the Lucas Oil Late Model Knoxville Nationals Friday, September 19! For tickers or more information on the Knoxville Raceway, visit us online at www.KnoxvilleRaceway.com!


21st Lucas Oil Late Model Knoxville Nationals Night #1 Results

Time Trials Group #1 (Qualifying Order), 2 laps: 1. 3S-Brian Shirley, Chatham, IL, 00:16.689 (20); 2. 93-Carson Ferguson, Lincolnton, NC, 00:16.768 (3); 3. 19R-Ryan Gustin, Marshalltown, IA, 00:16.784 (2); 4. 16-Tyler Bruening, Decorah, IA, 00:16.827 (19); 5. 99X-Dallon Murty, Chelsea, IA, 00:16.837 (1); 6. 1-Brandon Sheppard, New Berlin, IL, 00:16.869 (12); 7. 19M-Joseph Joiner, Milton, FL, 00:16.991 (7); 8. 99-Devin Moran, Dresden, OH, 00:17.000 (10); 9. 32S-Chris Simpson, Oxford, IA, 00:17.002 (8); 10. 71-Hudson O'Neal, Martinsville, IN, 00:17.020 (15); 11. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck, Earlham, IA, 00:17.091 (13); 12. 79-Donald McIntosh, Dawsonville, GA, 00:17.094 (18); 13. 25-Chad Simpson, Mt. Vernon, IA, 00:17.222 (5); 14. 99S-Jesse Sobbing, Malvern, IA, 00:17.241 (11); 15. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr, Frankfort, IL, 00:17.372 (16); 16. 51B-Brandon Carpenter, Coldwater, MS, 00:17.624 (9); 17. 38T-Dylan Thornton, Orcutt, CA, 00:17.667 (17); 18. 15-Clay Stuckey, Shreveport, LA, 00:17.795 (14); 19. 6H-Al Humphrey, Giltner, NE, 00:18.333 (4); 20. 10-Junior Coover,  Norfolk, NE, 00:18.972 (6)

Time Trials Group #2 (Qualifying Order), 2 laps: 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr, Chandler, AZ, 00:16.566 (NTR)  (14); 2. 1XM-Aaron Marrant, Richmond, MO, 00:16.676 (3); 3. 18D-Daulton Wilson, Fayetteville, NC, 00:16.695 (9); 4. 58-Garrett Alberson, Las Cruces, NM, 00:16.706 (7); 5. 01-Tyler Erb, New Waverly, TX, 00:16.839 (4); 6. 76-Brandon Overton, Evans, GA, 00:16.887 (2); 7. 32-Bobby Pierce, Oakwood, IL, 00:16.889 (10); 8. 75-Daniel Adam, Peru, IN, 00:17.021 (12); 9. 93L-Cory Lawler, Hanover, PA, 00:17.055 (5); 10. 76N-Blair Nothdurft, Renner, SD, 00:17.142 (15); 11. 49-Jonathan Davenport, Blairsville, GA, 00:17.202 (19); 12. 6J-Jake Neal, Omaha, NE, 00:17.402 (8); 13. 18C-Chase Junghans, Manhattan, KS, 00:17.407 (16); 14. 6-Clay Harris, Jupiter, FL, 00:17.493 (11); 15. 60-Dan Ebert, Lake Shore, MN, 00:17.555 (17); 16. 51-Matt Furman, Iowa city, IA, 00:17.837 (6); 17. 51C-Dean Carpenter, Coldwater, MS, 00:17.925 (13); 18. 21B-Rich Bell, Sheffield, IL, 00:18.230 (1); 19. 45D-Dan Battaglia, Gretna, NE, 00:19.897 (18)

Heat one (started), 12 Laps, 3:30.7 (NTR): 1. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck (1); 2. 19M-Joseph Joiner (3); 3. 32S-Chris Simpson (2); 4. 19R-Ryan Gustin (5); 5. 3S-Brian Shirley (6) / 6. 25-Chad Simpson (7); 7. 99X-Dallon Murty (4); 8. 38T-Dylan Thornton (8); 9. 6H-Al Humphrey (9); 10. DNS - 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr

Heat two (started), 12 Laps, NT: 1. 79-Donald McIntosh (1); 2. 99-Devin Moran (3); 3. 1-Brandon Sheppard (4); 4. 71-Hudson O'Neal (2); 5. 16-Tyler Bruening (5) / 6. 15-Clay Stuckey (9); 7. 93-Carson Ferguson (6); 8. 51B-Brandon Carpenter (8); 9. 10-Junior Coover (10); 10. 99S-Jesse Sobbing (7)

Heat three (started), 12 Laps, 3:32.8: 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport (1); 2. 32-Bobby Pierce (3); 3. 01-Tyler Erb (4); 4. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr (6); 5. 18D-Daulton Wilson (5) / 6. 60-Dan Ebert (8); 7. 93L-Cory Lawler (2); 8. 45D-Dan Battaglia (10); 9. 18C-Chase Junghans (7); 10. 51C-Dean Carpenter (9)

Heat four (started), 12 Laps, 3:34.0: 1. 6J-Jake Neal (1); 2. 76N-Blair Nothdurft (2); 3. 58-Garrett Alberson (5); 4. 76-Brandon Overton (4); 5. 1XM-Aaron Marrant (6); 6. 6-Clay Harris (7); 7. 51-Matt Furman (8); 8. 21B-Rich Bell (9); 9. 75-Daniel Adam (3)

B-Main 1 (started), 8 Laps, 2:19.3 (NTR): 1. 25-Chad Simpson (1); 2. 93-Carson Ferguson (3) / 3. 15-Clay Stuckey (2); 4. 99S-Jesse Sobbing (8); 5. 51B-Brandon Carpenter (5); 6. 38T-Dylan Thornton (4); 7. 10-Junior Coover (7); 8. 6H-Al Humphrey (6); 9. DNS - 99X-Dallon Murty; 10. DNS - 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr

B-Main 2 (started), 6 Laps, 1:47.2 (NTR): 1. 60-Dan Ebert (1); 2. 6-Clay Harris (2) / 3. 51-Matt Furman (4); 4. 21B-Rich Bell (6); 5. 93L-Cory Lawler (3); 6. 45D-Dan Battaglia (5); 7. DNS - 18C-Chase Junghans; 8. DNS - 75-Daniel Adam; 9. DNS - 51C-Dean Carpenter

A Main (started), 19 Laps, NT: 1. 58-Garrett Alberson (2); 2. 01-Tyler Erb (10); 3. 18D-Daulton Wilson (4); 4. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr (8); 5. 49-Jonathan Davenport (18); 6. 1XM-Aaron Marrant (6); 7. 19M-Joseph Joiner (9); 8. 99-Devin Moran (11); 9. 79-Donald McIntosh (19); 10. 60-Dan Ebert (22); 11. 76-Brandon Overton (12); 12. 32S-Chris Simpson (13); 13. 32-Bobby Pierce (14); 14. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck (17); 15. 76N-Blair Nothdurft (16); 16. 1-Brandon Sheppard (1); 17. 6-Clay Harris (24); 18. 93-Carson Ferguson (23); 19. 19R-Ryan Gustin (5); 20. 71-Hudson O'Neal (15); 21. 25-Chad Simpson (21); 22. 16-Tyler Bruening (3); 23. 3S-Brian Shirley (7); 24. 6J-Jake Neal (20). Lap Leader: Alberson 1-19. Hard-charger: Davenport.


Points After Thursday

1  58, Garrett Alberson, 488
2  20RT, Ricky Thornton Jr., 485
3  01, Tyler Erb, 484
4 18D, Daulton Wilson, 480
5  1xm, Aaron Marrant, 476
6  19M, Joseph Joiner, 473
7  49, Jonathan Davenport, 472
8  99, Devin Moran, 469
9  79, Donald McIntosh, 462
10  76, Brandon Overton, 461
11  32, Bobby Pierce, 461
12  32s, Chris Simpson, 456
13  22, Daniel Hilsabeck, 454
14  1, Brandon Sheppard, 454
15  76N, Blair Nothdurft, 451
16  19R, Ryan Gustin, 451
17  93, Carson Ferguson, 446
18  3s, Brian Shirley, 444
19  16, Tyler Bruening, 440
20  60, Dan Ebert, 439
21  71, Hudson O’Neal, 435
22  6J, Jake Neal, 432
23  6, Clay Harris, 427
24  25, Chad Simpson, 421
25  93L, Cory Lawler, 408
26  99x, Dallon Murty, 408
27  51, Matt Furman, 398
28 75, Daniel Adam, 398
29  15, Clay Stuckey, 397
30  99s, Jesse Sobbing, 391
31  51B, Brandon Carpenter, 391
32  18c, Chase Junghans, 399
33  21B, Rich Bell, 389
34  38T, Dylan Thornton, 387
35  45D, Dan Battaglia, 383
36  99JR, Frank Heckenast Jr., 377
37  10, Junior Coover, 376
38  6H, Al Humphrey, 376
39  51c, Dean Carpenter, 375