“I saw people’s reactions when I crawled from the wreckage,” Garrett Alberson said. “It was then I realized how bad the crash looked. The safety crew said, ‘You shouldn’t be standing up, you shouldn’t be walking.’ I went to the ambulance just to be sure I was okay.”
Fortunately, Alberson suffered just a bruise on the side of his right leg, but his favorite car might not survive.
What Led to the Crash
The accident occurred during the third heat of The Tribute to Don and Billie Gibson, a Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series race at Lucas Oil Speedway.
“I was going for really strong laps — I picked up more gas and used not as much brake,” Alberson said. “The left side was picking up, but that car was built to be driven so aggressively.
However, his last lap before the flip didn’t feel normal.
“The left side got light, but it didn’t come back down like it usually does,” Alberson said. “The right side dug in. The next thing I saw was dirt. I told myself, ‘This is going to be bad.” My car started shaking violently. I took my hands off the wheel and closed my eyes — I heard from sprint car drivers that it was what to do when you flip.”
When he landed upside down, Alberson quickly assessed the situation.
“I told myself, ‘I’m fine,’” Alberson said. “Then I asked myself, ‘Will my car catch on fire?” I never climbed out of an upside-down car. I never practiced that, never thought of taking my safety belts off upside down. All wanted to do was get out without hitting my head. When I saw the safety crew surround the car with fire extinguishers, I knew I could relax and figure this out.”
After a brief medical evaluation, Alberson returned into action with a backup chassis. He was credited a 28th on Friday and then a fourth on Saturday.
“We have two backup Longhorns,” Alberson said. “We set one up the same, but it was not as special as the one that crashed. The car we raced the rest of the weekend in ran well, but each car has different character.”
The Aftermath
Garrett Alberson credits his safety gear for allowing him to continue racing throughout the weekend. He sat in a ButlerBuilt full-containment seat, with a Simpson five-point harness in his Longhorn chassis. Alberson wore a Simpson SD1 helmet and a HANS device. What particularly impressed him, though, was the fuel cell from Schultz Engineered Products.
“The fuel cell was crushed so badly, the bladder was showing,” Alberson said. “The cell was built for the Longhorn chassis. It got mangled so badly that the rear clip was tangled in the crushed cell, yet not a drip of fuel spilled.”
Alberson refused to watch any footage of the wreck until recently.
“There is a photo of the right-rear wheel’s bead lock making contact with the track surface and then the car pole-vaulting,” Alberson said. “I don’t know if that was the cause of the wreck or not.”
The crash did a number on the car that won him four major races last year, including the Lucas Oil Late Model Knoxville Nationals. The center section seems intact, but the tail broke off and the left-front frame rail is sheared lengthwise, Alberson said. He believes it may be able to salvaged with new front and rear clips. Maybe.
“The car was that good —it is hard to toss,” Alberson said. “Our team saw this car do some special things. We may have lost a very special car.”
However, thanks to that car and its safety equipment, we didn’t lose Garrett Alberson.
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
