In a discipline suddenly besieged by teenagers, it was a surprised to see so many veterans atop the leaderboard in qualifying for the 50th Annual Snowball Derby.
Preston Peltier and Bubba Pollard will lead the field to green on Sunday for the 300-lap Super Late Model Classic. Two-time Snowball Derby winner Augie Grill posted the third fastest lap. The average age between them is 37.
Peltier was the ninth of 53 drivers to turn a lap around Five Flags Speedway and did so in 13.319 seconds. Because lap speeds tend to go up as the temperature drops, few expected the time to hold. That was especially true when heavy hitters like Kyle Busch, Ty Majeski and Bubba Pollard were set to try after him.
But the time stood, withstanding its closest call when Pollard just missed the top spot by 0.025 of a second.
“This is my new sidewinder that Hamke built for me, five weeks ago, brand new car,” Peltier said. “Best car I’ve ever sat in. So, I don’t know, maybe it’s got something for Sunday too.”
“I honestly didn’t think we would be here,” Peltier said. “I thought Bubba would knock us off the pole. But let me tell you something, this is my new sidewinder that Hamke built for me, five weeks ago, brand new car.
“Best car I’ve ever sat in. So I don’t know. Maybe, it’s got something for Sunday too.”
Pollard had dominated the week thus far, pacing Thursday practice and leading the final practice before time trials on Friday too. But the southern Late Model ace said he had too much oversteer to knock Peltier from the top spot.
“We were free everywhere, but it was a good lap,” Pollard said. “We’ve had a good car all week. But so has Preston. We tested at the same time he did. So we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”
But most of the surprise drama actually came from those who were expected to easily qualify into the field but were well down the charts. Reigning Southern Super Series champion Stephen Nasse finished the session in 30th and was the final driver to make the field on his qualifying time.
Donnie Wilson and defending race winner Christian Eckes matched his time but failed to qualify in due to posting their laps after Nasse. However, both drivers will make the race due to provisionals. Wilson will start 36th on Sunday due to his Southern Super Series championship points and Eckes will start 37th due to his past champions provisional.
Still, that’s not how Eckes expected to make the show.
“I made a mistake through the corners,” Eckes said while biting his nails after the session. “I messed us up for the second lap. The first lap was pretty good. We had good turn and drive. I just messed it up for the team, but at least we can start rear of the field.
“I’m still happy about where our car is at entering tomorrow.”
Wilson’s bad lap was due to a parts failure just before time trials.
“We had a rack-and-pinion go bad,” he said. “So we changed that and it was just a completely different car.”
And then there is Nasse, whom one year after contending for the win despite making the Derby through a Last Chance Race, once again finds himself having to race from deep in the field.
“I told myself all weekend that we were going to be prepared to not have that happem again, and here we are,” Nasse said. “We’ve got a good car. We’ve got good guys. We can overcome this. We just have our work cut out for us tomorrow.”
Saturday will bring a last chance race for those who did not make the field in qualifying or with a provisional. Before that will be final practice for those who have already qualified into the field.
The complete results of time trials can be viewed below.
- Preston Peltier 16.319
- Bubba Pollard 16.344
- Augie Grill 16.419
- Mason Mingus 16.437
- Jeremy Doss 16.441
- Chase Purdy 16.460
- Chris Davidson 16.461
- Ty Majeski 16.475
- Cole Butcher 16.480
- Spencer Davis 16.514
- Jeff Choquette 16.514
- Casey Roderick 16.520
- Connor Okrzesik 16.521
- Dan Fredrickson 16.521
- Kyle Busch 16.530
- Kyle Plott 16.530
- Chandler Smith 16.544
- Raphael Lessard 16.552
- Logan Boyett 16.553
- Noah Gragson 16.571
- Brandon McReynolds 16.573
- Harrison Burton 16.576
- Cole Rouse 16.582
- Anthony Cataldi 16.609
- Boris Jurkovic 16.621
- Corey LaJoie 16.624
- Kason Plott 16.649
- Jake Crum 16.653
- Cassius Clark 16.658
- Stephen Nasse 16.660
- Donnie Wilson 16.660
- Christian Eckes 16.660
- Derek Kraus 16.664
- Brandon Oakley 16.705
- Tyler Dippel 16.705
- Tate Fogleman 16.734
- Garrett Jones 16.743
- Dustin Smith 16.744
- John DeAngelis Jr. 16.749
- David Rogers 16.769
- Kyle Bryant 16.778
- Jeremy Pate 16.782
- Donald Crocker 16.786
- Joe Aramendia 16.815
- Steven Davis 16.843
- Rich Bickle Jr. 16.847
- Jerry Artuso 16.855
- John Coffman 16.882
- Dennis Schoenfield 16.897
- Ben Rowe 16.947
- Garrett Evans 16.967
- Stuart Dutton 17.137
- Jeff Firestine 18.159
Read more Short Track Scene:
- Ty Majeski, Roush pit crew prepared for Snowball Derby
- Casey Roderick racing for Ronnie Sanders’ legacy
- Why a misplaced transponder didn’t cost Matt McCall the win at SNMP
If you like what you read here, become a Short Track Scene Patreon and support short track journalism!
Matt Weaver is the owner and founder of Short Track Scene. Weaver grew up in the sport, having raced himself before becoming a reporter in college at the University of South Alabama. He also has extensive experience covering NASCAR, IndyCar and Dirt Sprint Cars.