The Rio Grande Waste Services Wild West Shootout presented by O’Reilly Auto Parts at Vado Speedway Park is basically an extended holiday for Garrett Alberson.

Not only is the Las Cruces, N.M., native racing approximately 20 minutes from his hometown, the miniseries that spans six races in nine days is the one and only week of the year he has unadulterated quality time with his family. And that’s not exclusive to his wife, Dani, and mom and dad, Kathi and Craig.

All told, there are about 20 relatives that have flocked from all over the United States to the Alberson family headquarters this week to support the 35-year-old relishing his last few weeks at home before embarking on an all-important third year with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series.

From the simple charity of cheering Alberson on — and even some of his relatives lending a crewing hand — to deeper fellowship around family meals, the Wild West Shootout is more characteristic of a prototypical Thanksgiving or Christmas than anything else.

“Yeah, pretty much. There’s a lot of reasons for me to like this race,” Alberson said. “All kinds of things like that. It works out really good.”

Whatever the overarching definition of the week is — a self-proclaimed holiday, family reunion or extravagant homecoming — Alberson can’t imagine a better way to start the new racing season.

“Our family is really close and they like to get together to have reunions and stuff like that,” Alberson said. “They just take the opportunity to have a big get-together.”

The majority of Alberson’s extended family arrived on Wednesday, the night he captured quick-time honors and finished runner-up to Bobby Pierce in the 30-lap main event. Some of those relatives don’t live terribly far, like the majority of his wife’s side family in Phoenix, Ariz. Others, meanwhile, have traveled into Vado from Grand Rapids, Mich., and Austin, Texas, with his brothers Dylan and Brady trekking from Idaho and Colorado, respectively.

It’s good to brush up on the Alberson family tree because for the next month, specifically through Georgia-Florida Speedweeks, his brother Dylan is serving as the interim car chief on the No. 58 Roberts Motorsports team.

“That’s the plan. That’s the plan right now,” Alberson said. “We’re working on crew help.”

Alberson’s crew chief last year, Justin Tharp, departed the team for Ricky Thornton Jr.’s SSI Motorsports in the days before the Wild West Shootout. It was an amicable departure, but certainly one that leaves a void among Alberson’s operation.

“He helped me get ready and prep for the Wild West Shootout, which is good,” Alberson said. “We need a tire guy and a crew chief. That’s our biggest deal right now, trying to get that situated before we hit it hard for (the) Lucas (Oil Late Model Dirt Series).”

Though Alberson is “more or less” dragging Dylan along for the ride because he’s in that dire need of crew help, his brother is the adventurous type and has enough experience to adjust to the road life. In 2018, when Alberson crewed for Earl Pearson Jr., Dylan tagged along for a month — from mid-May to mid-June — and experienced the Show-Me 100 and Eldora Speedway’s Dream.

Upon his brother’s arrival on Wednesday afternoon, the Albersons went right to work making preparations ahead of the third-round event. Whether the extra assistance played that much of a factor or not, Alberson enjoyed his finest night in two years at the 3/8-mile oval.

Because Alberson went with the harder National Late Model Tire No. 4 compound as opposed to Pierce’s softer NLMT-3, however, his car couldn’t keep up in certain areas of the racetrack.

“I was lacking a little leaving the corner balance-wise compared to him, like, to be really perfect,” Alberson said. “Whenever I was close to (Pierce), even running the bottom with the lower speed, the aero still upsets the car. When I had a gap, I could run back to him because I had better air. Yeah, just needed to find a way to the lead. Every inch counts.”

The bright side for Alberson is he’s confident about what’s ahead. And for as reserved and humble as he is, it says something for him to declare that he feels a win coming rather imminently — perhaps this week.

“For sure. I think the car has the speed,” Alberson said. “I think everything is clicking really good. It’s definitely a learning process for the group that we have. Just not a lot of experience. But everyone is in really good spirits and everyone is working hard.”

Entering the Wild West Shootout, Alberson had been more “nervous” than normal because it’s the first time he’s unloaded at Vado with a Longhorn Chassis. Alberson’s had undeniable comfort, a “natural balance” and reasonable amount of success in a Black Diamond Race Car, a partnership that came to a bittersweet end last June.

“I was a little worried, but the Longhorn’s felt really good,” Alberson said. “This field is super stacked. Probably one of the best Wild West Shootouts I’ve seen in a while. If we can be up front in the top five multiple times … of course, getting a win would be excellent. There’s no doubt there’s some seriously heavy hitters here with Marlar and Pierce and guys like that. I feel like we can be there with them if we play the game right.”

Alberson’s shorthanded crew was especially felt on Sunday when driveshaft issues forced him to shelve his primary car for the week and summon the backup car, which really isn’t a backup car by traditional standards. For Sunday’s feature, Alberson rolled out his brand-new car for 2024, the very car he had planned to start Georgia-Florida Speedweeks with.

It wasn’t supposed to log any laps this week at the Wild West Shootout, but because changing a driveshaft and rear-end on the fly, in between preliminary events, are no small feats, it was more efficient to call upon the so-called backup car.

“I think there’s more potential on this car theoretically,” said Alberson, who was back in his primary car for the week on Wednesday. “It has our best motor in it. We were saving this car for Speedweeks. So we’re putting laps on it that we weren’t really planning to. But it has probably our sharpest motor and our sharpest parts. It’s definitely a good car. Ultimately it’s probably not a bad thing we’ve found that out because we found some things that we’d otherwise would’ve found in Georgia. Like driveshaft issues and stuff like that.”

Back to the dynamic of family, Alberson’s support system really is a firm foundation that he’s grown accustomed to leaning on. With the tour tougher than ever for new drivers and teams to establish themselves, the 2022 Lucas Oil Series Rookie of the Year said that “naturally, I ride the waves pretty heavy.” He added, though, that “as long as you have the right people around you to have the right mindset to pick you back up on the bad days.”

“That’s what it takes,” continued Alberson, who went into more answering a question pertaining to how he doesn’t grow discouraged throughout a season. “Overall, just having a really good group of people around me. My wife is just a blessing straight from heaven as far as her to encourage me on bad days and keep me humble on the good days. And to keep me riding a straighter line and not riding the wave so heavy.

“Naturally, I ride the waves pretty heavy. I’m pretty passionate about it. I take it seriously, between my wife, my car owner Ken, who’s always been really realistic. But it’s a group thing. … It will for sure knock you down in a heartbeat. Yeah, just having the right people is everything. And a family that’s diehard, too. My family is probably too big of fans. I almost wish I had a family that could be more critical of me. They’re just diehard Garrett fans. Sometimes you need that though on your bad days.”

Atop 2024’s wish list, of course, is Alberson’s first Lucas Oil Series victory. He and Daulton Wilson are in that same position, and because of it, they often face questions surrounding the topic that they’re ready to move on from. But until then, it’s a responsibility Alberson owns.

“I know exactly how Daulton feels. We’ve been in the same position — him more than me — but it’s 100 percent possible,” Alberson said. “And if the way the car feels, if that’s any indication, I think we’re on the right track to putting it together. I’m really excited with our cars so far, things that we’ve worked on in the offseason. I think we’re definitely capable. That’s definitely the goal this year, is to put ourselves in position more often for wins and try to make it happen. And try to do a better job overall with our consistency and get our points finish back up.”

Last year, Alberson finished 11th in the Lucas Oil standings, four spots worse than his seventh-place points finish in 2022. Granted, Brandon Overton, Jonathan Davenport and Max Blair weren’t with the tour his rookie year. Entering his third year on tour, however, Alberson feels it’s time to close the gap between where he lacks and where his potential lies in the sport.

Of all the racetracks that could bring his career-first Lucas Oil Series win, Florence Speedway in Union, Ky., is perhaps the most suitable for Alberson to find victory lane. Two years ago in June he recorded his best Lucas Oil Series finish at the time — a third-place run behind Josh Rice and Ricky Thornton Jr. — and last May he finished fourth in a series event there.

Though the North-South 100 hasn’t had that same kind of favor (his best finish is 12th last year), Alberson is more optimistic about Florence than any other track on the circuit.

“I love the way it races. For some reason, I’ve hit it right a couple times and it’s been some of my best races that I’ve had,” Alberson said. “That one would be maybe one I’d put first. The weird thing is, running some of my best races at tracks I would’ve never put myself up front … Tyler County and Georgetown. I thought those were going to be some of my worst tracks ever. It’s either going to be one that I love like Florence or one I would’ve never thought.”

Before Florence gets the slightest bit of his attention, he’ll of course have to get through Georgia-Florida Speedweeks. Last year, Alberson needed six straight provisionals to start the Lucas Oil Series season and, by the end of Speedweeks, he found himself outside the top 10 in points, already swimming upstream for the remainder of the year.

Now going back to Golden Ilses Speedway near Brunswick, Ga., Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, Fla., and All-Tech Raceway in Lake City, Fla., for the third year in a row, he likes to think those same mistakes that have buried him from the outset won’t be regurgitated this time around.

“There’s a ton, especially for me, that I feel like I pick up being on the racetrack,” Alberson said. “That’s the biggest thing. I feel like I just need laps at speed to get where I needed to be mentally as a race car driver. That’s been huge for me. There’s no doubt, getting to go to a lot of these tracks for the third time and stuff like that, to see how they race.

“We’ll still be going to some tracks in the first part of the year for the first time in a Longhorn. That can be a little different. But for the most part is we have a lot to people to lean on. We have the whole Longhorn crew; they do a good job with keeping us informed and not letting us get way outside the box, making sure where they need to be. I’m pretty excited about it really.”