The Dirt Track at Charlotte
Notes: Alberson’s Charlotte return brings scare
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Garrett Alberson on the fuel. (joshjamesartwork.com)
CONCORD, N.C. (Nov. 4) — Garrett Alberson’s first World Finals appearance in 11 years began with a mechanical scare on Wednesday’s qualifying night at The Dirt Track at Charlotte, another interruption as he works to regain the rhythm lost during a six-week injury layoff.
Alberson aborted his second-round qualifying effort after losing oil pressure, parking the Roberts Motorsports No. 58 entry before the damage became more extensive.
“We were just losing oil pressure and didn’t want to risk it,” Alberson said.
Alberson suspects insufficient oil temperature during his initial qualifying run contributed to the trouble. His oil was about 150 degrees when he entered the track, below the minimum 180 degrees he would prefer before putting the engine under a heavy load.
“I get that they’re trying to speed the show up, but we had to pull our warmup board off really early compared to actually being on the racetrack. I know when I pulled onto the racetrack for the Group A qualifying, I was only about 150 degrees. … So, we think that did a little damage (to the engine) in that first run. I think that’s what happened to (Brandon) Sheppard when he blew up in that A group.”
Alberson was still able to qualify 12th in Group A, which lines him up fourth in Thursday's third heat, but he'll have to start 13th in Friday's fourth heat.
The setback comes as Alberson rebuilds momentum following an Aug. 8 incident during the North-South 100 at Florence Speedway in Union, Ky. An unidentified object struck his helmet shield, driving it into his face and leaving him with a severely injured right eye, a broken nose and multiple facial fractures. He spent nearly a week hospitalized as doctors monitored bleeding that threatened his eyesight, then remained sidelined until returning in late September at Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway.
Despite Wednesday’s trouble, an Oct. 23 preliminary victory in the Fall Classic at Whynot Motorsports Park and his increasing comfort behind the wheel have provided encouragement.
“I think, in general, my aggressiveness is kind of coming back, getting close to where it needs to be,” Alberson said. “I’m able to be fairly precise, I feel like, with our positioning and stuff, so I think my vision and stuff is doing pretty good.”
The larger challenge has been restoring his weekly routine. His absence extended beyond missing races: He couldn’t work on the cars, either.
“It sounds silly to say you forgot what you were doing, but you’re in such a rhythm, and you’re thinking the same things every week, and you’re going down a path,” Alberson said.
That interruption also explains his first Charlotte appearance since 2015, when he drove for Raymond Childress’s Haughton, La.-based team alongside Chris Simpson. In recent seasons, the recently completed Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series schedule made skipping the World Finals a practical decision, preserving equipment and money for the following year.
This fall, the missed races changed that calculation.
“Since I got hurt and we missed a bunch of races, it’s like we might as well try to race and get caught back up,” Alberson said. “That’s the game plan. That’s why we’re here.”
Charlotte comfort
Whatever frustrations Chris Madden carries into the World Finals, The Dirt Track at Charlotte usually gives him reason to leave them behind.
The familiar red clay, a crowd filled with supporters and a notebook that’s served him well make the 4/10-mile oval a welcome sight for the Gray Court, S.C., veteran. This week, he hopes that comfort can help end a winless streak stretching back to April 17 at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn.
Wednesday’s qualifying provided an encouraging start. Madden timed fifth in his group in the first session, earning the outside pole for Thursday’s second heat, then set overall quick time in the second session to secure a pole position for Friday’s heats.
Madden’s 7.22 average finish in 37 World Finals features ranks among the best in event history. He has three victories, 14 podium finishes and 27 top-10s, with a fourth-place average finish over his last 10 event starts.
“We have a good package and a good program for places like this,” Madden said. “We put in a lot of effort to make sure that we run good here.”
His most recent World Finals victory came in the 2024 finale with G.R. Smith’s Team 22 Inc. Another this week would end a drought of 30 feature starts.
Madden won three times in his first 15 feature starts this season, but a difficult summer stalled that early momentum. His Wells Motorsports team debuted a new Infinity Chassis last Saturday at Modoc (S.C.) Speedway, where electrical issues hampered its first outing. A runner-up finish to Jonathan Davenport in Sunday’s Blue-Gray 100 at Cherokee Speedway offered a better indication of its potential.
“We’re very close to having a real good consistent race car, week in and week out,” Madden said. “Just hate that it’s at the end of the year. We definitely struggled in the midseason there and couldn’t get our hands wrapped around it. So we had to make some changes. Eric (Wells) built us a new car. We’ve been really good the last two weeks.”
Now he gets to bring it to a place he calls home.
“The atmosphere — we have a lot of fans that come and support us,” Madden said. “I guess we try to make sure that we do everything we can to run really good.”
Unexpected speed
Kale Green figured he’d already have something worth celebrating Wednesday night.
The Pelion, S.C., racer who works in his family’s utility construction business set Group A fast time in the first World Finals qualifying session at The Dirt Track at Charlotte, then went third quickest in the second session to earn the pole for Friday’s sixth heat.
Wednesday marked only his 12th Super Late Model outing this year. His best finish was 12th in March 21’s Grassy Smith Memorial at Cherokee Speedway.
For Green, whose crew consists of unpaid family and friends, starting alongside the sport’s full-time professionals means plenty.
“Just getting to start on the front row with these guys that do this stuff for a living is a real accomplishment,” Green said. “To me, in my mind, when I lay my head down tonight, I pretty much won the race just starting beside these guys in the heat races.”
Wednesday’s speed followed several worthwhile visits to Charlotte. Green spent two nights testing two weeks ago, then competed in last weekend’s 11th annual World Short Track Championship. He finished 19th in Saturday’s inaugural CT 525 Late Model feature and third in the 604 Crate Late Model portion.
The track time gave him a baseline to worth with heading into the World Finals.
“We’ve put in a lot of time over here these past couple weeks getting speed here, and it just really paid off,” Green said.
With help from Hardison Suspension Technologies and a 460-cubic-inch Vic Hill engine under the hood, Green felt comfortable keeping his foot planted around the high-speed oval.
“HST’s got me so good, it’s really like driving a street car around a good corner here,” he said. “It’s just good. Really good.”
And horsepower?
“There’s no lack of horsepower here, I’ll tell you that,” Green said. “We got all it takes to win this thing, I can tell you.”
Rocket intrigue
Brandon Overton’s appearance in a Billy Franklin-owned No. 17 Rocket Chassis XR2 this weekend sparked plenty of speculation in the Charlotte pit area Wednesday about his chassis plans.
His regular Riggs Motorsports crew of Ryder Cantillo and Nick Hardy is tending the car, with assistance from Mark Richards and the Rocket1 Racing team. Overton, who last raced a Rocket in 2019, has not indicated a commitment to the XR2 or a departure from Longhorn Chassis, which has supported him since 2020.
He politely declined an interview request from DirtonDirt.
The 35-year-old Evans, Ga., driver showed speed in Wednesday’s first qualifying session, clocking a 14.735-second lap to rank third in Group A behind Kale Green’s 14.659 and Ryan Gustin’s 14.697. That puts him third in Thursday’s third heat.
His second session proved more troublesome: Overton jumped the cushion on both laps, leaving him 36th among 37 cars in his group at 16.229 seconds. He’ll start 12th in Friday’s eight-lap third heat, which transfers only the top three finishers.
Odds and ends
Following Garrett Alberson’s speculation that low oil temperature contributed to Brandon Sheppard’s engine failure during Wednesday’s first World Finals qualifying session, Rocket Chassis co-owner Mark Richards said Sheppard reported an oil temperature of just 140 degrees when he took the track. Richards said he had no doubt the low temperature caused the failure. Despite the trouble, Sheppard timed fourth fastest in both sessions. … Nine drivers earned front-row starting spots for their heat races both Thursday and Friday: Chris Madden, Ryan Gustin, Brandon Sheppard, Jordan Koehler, Kale Green, Nick Hoffman, Trey Mills, Chris Ferguson and Jadon Frame. All nine timed among the top six in their respective groups in both of Wednesday’s World Finals qualifying sessions. … Nine previous World Finals winners are in this year’s field: eight-time winner Jonathan Davenport (2010, ’11, ’15, ’21, ’22, ’25); three-time winners Brandon Sheppard (2015, ’17, ’18), Chris Madden (2016, ’19, ’24) and Ricky Thornton Jr. (2023, ’24); and one-time winners Brandon Overton (2020), Tim McCreadie (2020), Dennis Erb Jr. (2017), Bobby Pierce (2024) and Hudson O’Neal (2025). Among entrants still seeking their first World Finals victory, Dale McDowell owns the best average finish at 10.42 across 33 feature starts, followed by Devin Moran (10.75 in four), Kyle Bronson (10.86 in seven), Daulton Wilson (11.25 in 12) and Drake Troutman (12.50 in eight).
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