No driver was on the razor’s edge over the last week on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series more than Garrett Alberson.

The Las Cruces, N.M., driver was in legitimate position to win all four series features over a five-day span — from last Tuesday at Harlan, Iowa’s Shelby County Speedway to Saturday’s Silver Dollar Nationals finale at Huset’s Speedway — until some kind of temperamental circumstance put him out of contention. | RaceWire

At Shelby County, he started from the pole but finished seventh. On Thursday at Huset’s, he was fastest in Group B qualifying but then lost out on the heat race win and couldn’t recover. On Friday, he started from the front row, but a harder tire selection didn’t do him favors in his sixth-place finish.

Then, in Saturday’s rain-shortened $75,000-to-win Silver Dollar Nationals, he started from the front row again only to record another sixth-place result.

“Yeah, it's just some little things, you know what I mean, like we talked about yesterday, just some little funny thing,” the 36-year-old Alberson said. “Our car is really fast, everyone's doing a good job. It's just, I think our time's coming. Just have to keep plugging away at it.”

Alberson can take some consolation in that he trimmed 30 points off his deficit to Devin Moran in the top-four playoff chase. Entering Saturday 180 points behind, Alberson now sits 150 markers back with nine points races remaining, so the Roberts Motorsports driver’s efforts weren't entirely futile in that sense.

But weeks like the one he had on the Lucas Oil tour are bittersweet for the four-year touring driver. He truly believes he’s on the verge of contending for the sport’s biggest wins and the only barrier from bringing that to fruition is being a right decision or two away.

“I mean, like everybody always says, it's so competitive,” Alberson said after Friday’s sixth-place from the second-starting spot. “You’re playing with such fine margins, you know what I mean? Like, just like right there (on Friday), if I time the start better and/or have that softer tire on the right-rear just to get to the lead, you could maybe win the race. Our car is good enough. It’s just so tight right there.”

Two of Alberson’s races —Tuesday at Shelby County and Friday at Huset’s — slipped by the wayside because he went the wrong way in the tire game, while the other two races Thursday and Saturday at Huset’s really came down to him not having good enough initial starts. At Shelby County, he elected for a softer right-rear, and Friday at Huset’s he went with the harder right-rear. Both turned out suboptimal against their contrasting tire compounds.

Bobby Pierce, winner las Tuesday at Shelby County, won from seventh that night largely because he could make moves with a harder right-rear tire. Alberson also added that another decision he made on the car that night didn’t help him either, but came to the conclusion afterward “we’re a decision or two away” from firing on all cylinders.

In Thursday's heat races at Huset’s ,where Alberson started from the pole, the outside lane yielded three of the four winners. Alberson had a capable car in the 40-lap feature, starting sixth and finishing fourth.

Friday was perhaps the most tantalizing of the four races for Alberson, whose harder right-rear tire didn’t stand much of a chance against the softer right-rear that eventual winner Jonathan Davenport had. Devin Moran’s harder right-rear tire from the pole didn’t help Alberson get going either, as Moran’s sluggish start made it especially difficult for Alberson to blend into the racing groove on the opening lap.

“That (softer) right-rear just to get the race started was everything. You know, once we got going, I felt like my (harder tire) was plenty fast,” Alberson said of his Friday night performance. “I felt a little quicker than Devin and Ricky (Thornton Jr.) right there, but it was so trained-up, you know, it was kind of hard to do anything without killing somebody.

“Yeah, car's got speed. I just misread the situation a little bit, you know, on the tire choice. Like, after a couple laps, the (harder tire) was fine, but, yeah, not losing that front row position on the first lap was key right there.”

On the initial start Friday, Alberson said he “didn't get out next to Devin far enough in one and two, just because we weren't, like, getting going yet.”

“Or like, you know, I guess with the (harder tire) or something, we just weren't going,” Alberson said. “And so when we go down the backstretch, he kind of changed lanes, trying to get to the outside, thinking that it might race on the bottom or race the top. And that had me throttle-push over the cushion on the first lap and that was that was everything right there.”

Hindsight, of course, is 20-20, but if Alberson went with the softer right-rear “and could have, like, stayed next to him down to back straightaway and got to the lead, who's to say, you know?”

Saturday’s extensive track-prep ahead of the eventually rain-shortened, 67-lap finale had Alberson uncertain of how the top groove would fire off. He figured the bottom lane would be the preferred groove, but he didn’t think his top-middle groove would be as greasy as it was.

Before Alberson could gain his bearings in the feature, he slid out of the racing groove and lost four spots on the opening lap, dropping from second to fifth.

“Man, I really probably should have just been more selfish on that initial wheel-packing deal because I thought my lane was OK, but I didn't realize it, like a half lane below where I'd been running under the initial hot laps was still greasy,” Alberson said. “And I blew through that grease and pushed, and then like four (cars) went by in one shot and that was pretty much the race right there. Like, once we go green, man, I felt good. Like I was, you know, pushing Bobby and (Davenport) around there a couple times, just, like, waiting for my time. I felt really strong.

“Yeah, just just the way that track fell out right there, it was a very strange condition and there just wasn't a lot of movement. And that start just kind of dictated everything for us. It was kind of like (Friday), I mean, like the start was so critical.”

Alberson also wondered if his chances would’ve been better qualifying in Group A rather than Group B because that would’ve ensured him starting from the inside row Saturday.

“But that’s racing,” Alberson said.

Should he have more nights like Saturday in terms of steady top-10 finishes, he could technically race his way into the Lucas Oil playoffs on points alone rather than needing to pile up a bunch of wins over these final nine points-paying races. Even still, more wins are going to be what Alberson needs.

His July 10 victory at West Burlington, Iowa’s 34 Raceway is his lone Lucas Oil victory of 2025.

“Yeah, I mean, for sure, you’d be lying if you said it wasn't on your mind, but really, the only way that we have a shot to get back in there is just try to go for wins and if it goes, it goes, and if not, it doesn’t,” Alberson said Friday when asked if he’s feeling the playoff pressure. “So yeah, you try not to focus on it because it makes racing kind of miserable when we focus on that stuff. So, we’re really, we're just trying to go for wins as best we can.

“I feel like we're putting ourselves in good places and we’re in a good place for it a lot of times. It's just, you know, be it experience or just decision-making, just capitalizing on it. It's kind of tough sometimes.”

He’ll carry high hopes and plenty of momentum into this week’s Prairie Dirt Classic at Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway. Last year he turned in a career-best eighth-place finish at the 100-lap event from the 23rd starting spot. Earlier this year, Alberson finished eighth in May 10’s Lucas Oil event at the track, a feature he started third but learned a lot about his race car on bullrings.

“I'm excited. I feel like in the past, I've been pretty apprehensive (about Fairbury), but I feel like our program's going in a good direction right now,” Alberson said. “And we even had a decent night (on the Lucas Oil tour in May at Fairbury), you know what I mean? So I'm looking forward to it. Fairbury, anything can happen, you know, so it's a little bit of the luck of the draw sometimes or something like that. But I'm feeling confident going into it.”