GEORGETOWN, Del. (Aug. 24) — Garrett Alberson executed Thursday’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series feature at Georgetown Speedway to perfection until the restart on lap 18.

The Las Cruces, N.M., driver blasted around the pole-starting Brandon Overton at the drop of the green and looked like he headed toward an overdue first series victory. But that wasn’t the case when Overton powered to the lead on the race’s third restart, which apparently had been enough attempts to find the edge around Alberson.

 “I think I just didn’t play the pace correctly coming to the green,” Alberson said. “I think it allowed those guys to kind of gang up on me and build their speed up in other ways, you know what I mean? Yeah, I just didn’t do a good job there. I guess I haven’t led enough of these things. I don’t know all the little games.”

After leading the opening 17 laps, Alberson eventually faded to finish fifth. Though Alberson trended in the wrong direction at the checkers, it was still his first top-five finish in Lucas Oil Series action since May 6 at Florence Speedway in Union, Ky., when he finished fourth. Alberson’s believing for more nights like Thursday, where he set fast time in his group and harnessed the speed capable to contend for wins.

“I feel like we have speed, anyways,” Alberson said. “The car is fast. It was grippy. I’m definitely pretty good at that. Even when the car started slowing down, it had good grip. Yeah, I let myself get out of rhythm a little bit. Yeah, so much different when you get in dirty air. It’s just a totally different ballgame after that.”

Alberson looked at his best from the outset of the feature, especially when he outmuscled Overton the initial start. Alberson thought he “kind of hooked (Overton’s) door a little bit” on the move for the lead.

Overton beat Alberson to the first corner, but Alberson stayed in the throttle and quickly drew alongside Overton’s door. By corner exit, Alberson completed the pass the surged into clean air.

“I didn’t know how choppy (the track would) be when they rolled it in. And (Overton) walked out a little quicker than I thought, so I just barely cleared him,” Alberson said. “Kind of hooked him … got into his quarterpanel. Luckily I didn’t hurt him too bad. Early, when I had the track to myself, I could turn on the gas and do whatever I want. Those restarts, yeah, I got out of the rhythm that I had.”

Another encouraging factor regarding Alberson’s Thursday is that the fine result came on a sandy, Florida-like racing surface he considers as his greatest weakness. There’s still plenty of the Lucas Oil Series remaining — 13 nights of racing to be exact — but Thursday could be a glimpse of the speed Alberson needs to get off on the right foot when he returns for another Georgia-Florida Speedweeks go-round next January at Golden Isles Speedway near Brunswick, Ga., and perhaps Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, Fla., among others.

“It definitely has a Speedweeks feel to it. Like a Brunswick or an Ocala, almost. It has that. It’s super sandy,” Alberson said. “The weird thing right there is as wet as the brown was, where it got hard and black, it started to grip up and almost rubber a bit. That’s hard for me to catch because I didn’t grow up on stuff like that. No, these guys are just really good. And when they hit it right, they beat you.

“I’m definitely very proud of (Thursday). To go fast time in our group there and win the heat. I mean, these guys are so good. It’s hard for people to understand. For our team to be there with them on a different track like that, especially a sandy, flat track … it’s the worst-case scenario for me. I’m proud of them. I’m bummed at myself right now, but overall, it’s a good night for us.” — Kyle McFadden

Troutman’s whirlwind week

Drake Troutman should be excused for arriving at Georgetown Speedway shortly after the completion of Thursday’s drivers’ meeting. Just making it to the track at all was an accomplishment for the 18-year-old driver from Hyndman, Pa.

After getting swept up in a final-lap crash during last Saturday night’s Living Legends Dream Race at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway, Troutman found himself with more work than he expected in advance of a big Lucas Oil Series weekend at Georgetown and Port Royal.

“We got back to the shop and washed (the car) on Sunday, and when I looked closer I could see there were some bars bent in the rear clip,” Troutman said. “I knew we had to take it to Longhorn (Chassis in China Grove, N.C.), so we started stripping down the frame and we left for North Carolina (late) Sunday night.”

Troutman and his lone full-time crewman, 19-year-old Hunter Cornell, were at Longhorn headquarters by 8 a.m. Monday. The company’s staff had the frame on the jig shortly thereafter and by late afternoon the chassis was repaired and Troutman and Cornell were back on the road headed north to the Keystone State.

“They’re really good about getting the frame fixed fast,” Troutman said of Longhorn. “Their customer service is remarkable. We left there by 5 p.m. and were home by 2 a.m. We slept a few hours and then we were back in the shop (Tuesday morning) to put (the car) back together.”

Troutman said he always builds his own bodies, so he spent most of Wednesday constructing new panels. He had some final preparations to make on Thursday that delayed his departure for Georgetown — a healthy 250 miles and four-plus hours from his shop — until the afternoon. With traffic lengthening his haul, he pulled his hauler into the pit area shortly before 6 p.m. — the last of the 30 Late Model entries to arrive.

While Troutman’s car trailed some smoke during hot laps and qualifying, it appeared to be a minor oil issue with his engine. He transferred with a third-place finish in his heat and then flashed speed in the 49-lap feature, becoming the first driver to make headway using the outside of the half-mile oval as he advanced from the 12th starting spot to seventh by lap 15.

Alas, two laps later Troutman blew a right-rear tire and slowed to bring out a caution flag. He didn’t return to the race and was credited with a 22nd-place finish.

“I felt really good,” Troutman said while closing the rear door of his trailer to begin the 4-and-a-half-hour overnight drive to Port Royal. “We put the car together in a little bit of a rush so I was worried it wouldn’t be right, so I’m happy it was so good. We just have to figure out our tire problem. I want to say that’s close to 20 (flat tires) we’ve had this year.” — Kevin Kovac

Cody Overton’s charge

Cody Overton exerted himself to the max Thursday. At one point, the 26th-place starter charged to seventh in the running order, a scorching pace that had to be cooled because water temperatures aboard the Bruce Kane-owned No. 15K grew uncomfortably hot.

“Motor started running hot, so I got in a spot to slow down and get it cooled back down,” the 25-year-old Overton said after a respectable 12th-place run.

Then, with his long, black hair slicked back by sweat, the red-faced Overton explained another reason why his pace tailed off.

“Honestly, I was beat,” Overton said through a laugh. “I was so tired. It started to get tighter at the end. I was pushing the right-front or something. I don’t know. We’ll have to regroup. We swamped ourselves early, just trying a bunch of stuff. We got our basics back on so I think we’ll be alright now. We’ll work on that.”

Keep in mind, the Evans, Ga., racer and younger brother of standout Brandon Overton is still acquainting himself at the Super Late Model level, particularly at big half-miles in the Northeast.

“I’m not used to these big places. I tell them all the time, I hate these places,” Overton said. “Like, I want to be somewhere small. I think it makes you a lot better once you can drive on one of these things. You drive them really different, I feel like, compared to being at home and driving them.

“They get a lot more slicker up here and you have to through the corner. Like slick at home, you slow down and putt around the bottom. You have to carry a lot of speed around these places. It makes it kind of challenging, but we’ll work on it.”

Last weekend, Overton turned his first laps at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway, the site of Friday and Saturday’s $50,000-to-win Lucas Oil Series Rumble by the River. He started 15th in Aug. 19’s $5,000-to-win Living Legends Dream Race but failed to finish the 25-lap feature in 24th.

Kane’s No. 15K is a quality ride in the Northeast, so that works in Overton’s favor. Dale Hollidge of Mechanicsville, Md., actually started from the pole of last year’s Rumble by the River at Port Royal in Kane’s No. 15K. Overton has a lot of room to grow in not only Super Late Model racing, but on half-mile racing in general.

He isn’t putting pressure on himself to achieve great things, but his expectations aren’t too low either.

“Really, just top-10s right now, be able to compete with them,” Overton said. “I’d be happy with that. We’ll take what we can get.” — Kyle McFadden

Odds and ends

While Ricky Thornton Jr. was certainly overjoyed with his $18,049 victory in Thursday’s feature, his crewman, D.J. Williams, might have been even more excited with the outcome. Williams is from Charlotte Hall, Md., just across the Chesapeake Bay from Delaware, so racing at Georgetown meant he was visited by an army of family and friends, including his father David, a veteran Dirt Late Model racer who has raced at Georgetown several times in his career. … Devin Moran of Dresden, Ohio, failed to duplicate his 2017 World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series victory at Georgetown, finishing sixth after briefly running as high as third on laps 27-28. … Thursday’s program was delayed three separate times by short bursts of rain: before the start of hot laps; three qualifiers into time trials; and finally as track packing and another set of hot laps were about to begin. The precipitation then cleared out and the show rolled along with time trials beginning at 9:17 p.m. and the checkered flag falling on the 49-lap feature at 11:26 p.m. — Kevin Kovac