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Thorn Has Snowball Pole Again; Full Story with the 30 who made the race on time.

Thorn snatches Snowball Derby pole for second year in a row; Elliott, Gragson head for last-chance race to keep Derby dreams alive 

 

By Chuck Corder 

As always, qualifying for the 53rd annual Snowball Derby was a sweat. 

The most anxious 90 minutes of Derby week isn’t always the 300-lap race, but qualifying night at Five Flags Speedway when more than 50 drivers vie for the 30-plus spots. 

It once again lived up to the hype with Californian driver Derek Thorn clocking a time of 16.258 seconds to snatch pole honors for the second consecutive Derby. Pensacola’s Eddie Mercer was the last driver to accomplish that feat in 1996-97. 

Just as big of a story was who didn’t make the race on time and will have to attempt to make the field during the last-chance races on Saturday at Pensacola’s high banks. 

While past NASCAR Cup Series champion and two-time Derby champ Kyle Busch made the show, reigning Cup champion Chase Elliott and NASCAR Xfinity driver Noah Gragson both failed to do so. Both drivers are past winners with Elliott a two-time Derby winner (2011, 2015) and Gragson hoisting the Tom Dawson Trophy for his first an only time two years ago. 

Late Model legends Bubba Pollard and Augie Grill were outside the bubble, but only Grill – a former two-time Derby king – will race in Saturday’s last-chance races. Pollard will use his provisional option as the reigning Deep South Cranes Blizzard Series champion as the winner of more than 100 career Late Model races will look for that elusive first Derby triumph. 

The night grew tenser when there was a scoring issue with young hotshoe Sammy Smith, a Kyle Busch Motorsports driver. When Smith originally came out, race officials incorrectly recorded just one lap on time before showing him the checkered. 

Race director Nicholas Rogers gave Smith the option for a complete restart because of the error. The KBM team – with Busch pacing around the car offering crew members a helping hand – took nearly 30 minutes getting the No. 51 back as close to its original form, going as far as putting on fresh qualifying sticker tires. 

But, Smith’s chance at redemption proved futile. He failed to knock Jesse Dutilly off the bubble, and Smith will also compete in Saturday afternoon’s last-chance races. 

Here are the 30 drivers who made the Snowball on time:

1	43T	Derek Thorn	16.258
2	2	Kaden Honeycutt	16.277
3	91	Ty Majeski	16.346
4	53B	Cole Butcher	16.354
5	51N	Stephen Nasse	16.377
6	43D	Daniel Dye	16.380
7	75	Jeremy Doss	16.392
8	54C	Matt Craig	16.393
9	51B	Kyle Busch	16.395
10	11	Logan Boyett	16.397
11	4P	Kyle Plott	16.407
12	54P	Preston Peltier	16.410
13	25	Casey Roderick	16.415
14	9K	Derek Kraus	16.416
15	18	Hunter Robbins	16.423
16	78	Corey Heim	16.428
17	32	Grant Enfinger	16.432
18	7D	John DeAngelis	16.434
19	7S	Paul Shafer, Jr.	16.443
20	39	Kyle Sieg	16.453
21	14D	Chris Davidson	16.454
22	3	Ross Kenseth	16.459
23	53J	Boris Jurkovic	16.460
24	16	Cayden Lapcevich	16.461
25	36	Dan Fredrickson	16.461
26	35	Jake Garcia	16.472
27	24	Mason Diaz	16.473
28	51A	Michael Atwell	16.473
29	14B	Travis Braden	16.499
30	30	Jesse Dutilly	16.509

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