Chris Madden committed a rare misstep battling for the second position with Devin Moran on Friday at All-Tech Raceway.

The Gray Court, S.C., veteran sailed into turn three a little too hot with 16 laps to go, misjudging his corner entry and sideswiping Devin Moran, who pointed his car straight and kept moving. Madden, however, spun out and lost all his valuable track position.

“We both met at the same real estate. It was nobody’s fault,” Madden said. “I feel bad about it. I love Devin to death. I come out on the bad end of the stick. But it’s nobody’s fault, at all. One-hundred percent. I seen him coming and I was already running 50 mph faster than him, and I tried to stop and started sliding. And I tried to turn off of him.”

Madden, who salvaged a 13th-place finish on Friday, added “I was spinning out before I ever hit him.”

“My quarter panel got hooked, I guess, in his door and that spun me around,” Madden said. “Just hard racing and wanting the same real estate. We had a good race car tonight.”

The half-mile specialist Madden was back in action on Friday after forgoing the 3/8-mile Ocala Speedway on Tuesday and Wednesday. Three races into his new season, and he’s been in the hunt for two victories. Last Saturday, Madden placed runner-up to Ricky Thornton Jr. at Golden Isles Speedway in Brunswick, Ga. The night before, a parts failure knocked him out of the running and he finished 27th.

But on Friday he’d been back to business.

“I feel like I had a car to win the race here tonight,” Madden said. “Been to two Lucas races and I had a chance to win both them. Just hadn’t done it, you know? It ain’t our time.”

Madden said he’s “absolutely” looking forward to Saturday’s 50-lap, $15,000-to-win show at the half-mile that’s up his wheelhouse. His Longhorn Chassis is dialed in this 2024, the first fruits of where he left off last fall with eight straight podium finishes heading into he winter.

“We have a good race car,” Madden said. “If we didn’t win, we would’ve been on the podium there. Just happens.”

Madden would also be remiss to not applaud the All-Tech workers for giving the track new life prior to the feature when the racing surface struggled to say serviceable because of its nature to take rubber.

“They did a great job,” Madden said. “They gave us something to race with. We could run all over it. Just like that deal there, Devin was right there in front of me and he slipped off of two and, literally, you can look at the video, I was running 30 mph faster than him down the back straightaway.

“He was laid out against the wall, and I was running the middle to the bottom right there. I could get it to turn in and here he came off the wall, and we just met in the same spot. Hard racing.”