After laying down a new track record lap of 16.027 around the half-mile Five Flags Speedway on Friday night 21-year-old Christopher Bell thought he had locked himself into the pole position for Sunday's Snowball Derby in Pensacola. However when it was determined that that his Kyle Busch Motorsports car #51 had more than the allowed seven inches of space between the center of the wheel and the right rear quarter panel, the time was disallowed sending Bell to the back of the lineup for Saturday's 50-lap Last Chance race.
Ironically John Hunter Nemechek was disqualified for the same rule infraction after qualifying, but as the defending Derby champion the 18-year-old would use his provisional for Sunday's start.
Bell would start 22nd in the Last Chance race and move into the fourth and final transfer spot on lap 26. Not yet satisfied Bell would sweep past leader Christian Eckes with eight laps remaining and then walked away with the win that would put him 31st on the starting grid for today's 48th Annual Snowball Derby.
Wisconsin's Ty Majeski would assume the pole position for the 300-lap grind and he would take the early lead with fellow front row starter Chase Elliott in hot pursuit. Elliott would drive under Majeski with ease to take the lead on lap four, but three laps later Majeski sailed around the outside of Elliott going down the Back Stretch to reclaim the point. Majeski would then build a comfortable lead as the race stayed green until lap 64 when Brett Holmes, Augie Grill and Kyle Grissom piled into the turn three wall together. As the leaders pitted to change tires Preston Peltier, Dalton Sargeant, Donnie Wilson, Christopher Bell and Bubba Pollard chose to stay on the track and move to the front for the lap 79 restart.
Peltier would hold the lead with Bell moving to second as the cars with new tires made their way to the front with Californian Zane Smith being the first to get there as he blew by Peltier on lap 90. While the other drivers on their original set of tires faded, Bell held tough chasing Smith in second before the second caution of the race waved on lap 120 for a Garrett Jones spin down the back stretch.
Another California native, Derek Thorn would take the lead on the restart with Bell and Smith settling into second and third respectively. John Hunter Nemechek had also found his way to the front after starting 36th and he would move to fourth before the caution flew for a third time when Kyle Plott spun into the turn two wall on lap 170.
This time Bubba Pollard and Peltier chose not to pit and Nemecheck immediately moved in to challenge Pollard for the lead before the caution waved again a lap later when Johanna Long, Scotty Ellis and Casey Roderick tangled in turn four. This time nobody on the lead lap pitted, including Pollard and when the race stayed green for the next 75 laps he would fade through the field eventually losing several positions when he could not get around the lapped car of Walcott, Iowa's Caleb Adrian.
Nemechek would lead the first ten laps of that segment before Bell stormed by once again to hold the lead at the 200 lap mark. By rule the caution waved after 75 straight green flag laps with all of the leaders, Bell, Nemechek, Thorn, Casey Smith and Elliott going to the pits to prepare for one final sprint to the checkers. With NASCAR experienced crews working on the two leaders, Smith had active military personnel from the Pensacola Naval Air Station working his pits and they actually gained a position for him as he would line up third for the restart.
Bell would choose the low line as the field came back to green but on that first lap back to racing Oklahoma's Donnie Wilson was sent for a spin in turn four and he was then drilled by the 13-year-old from Wisconsin Derek Kraus. Neither driver was injured, but the red flag was displayed in order to give the track crew time to clean up the track without having laps click away under caution.
This would now make the Derby a 25-lap shootout and surprisingly Bell chose to use the outside line for the restart, possibly due to the oil dry that was in the low groove at the exit of turn four. Nemechek seized the opportunity to take the lead from Bell, but once he cleared him there was a trail of smoke down the front stretch from the car of the new leader. The announcers speculated that he had a tire rub, but that was not the case as flames started to become visible from the right side of the car, Bell would drive under Nemechek to regain the lead on lap 283 and John Hunter would fade all the way to fourth as both Chase Elliott and Zane Smith also drove by.
With Bell pulling away over the closing laps the drama was now whether or not Nemechek would make it to the finish, but when the flames increased with five laps to go he slowed and drove to his pit stall that was just past the apex of turns three and four. Smoke from the fire started to drift across the track in turn four and it suddenly looked like the staged scene from Days of Thunder as Bell emerged from the smoke to take the white flag. While the leader drove down the back stretch one last time Logan Boyett tagged the inside wall on the front stretch hard, but since he drove away from the scene the green stayed on and the checkers soon waved for Christopher Bell.
After making all of the right moves on the track for 300 laps, Bell perhaps made a big mistake as he carried the checker flag into turn two before driving up the track and turning back to salute the crowd with a reverse victory lap. With his left side tires now above the groove and collecting debris, once Bell made it to the scales his left side weight ratio was now 58.3% violating the limit of 58%. This would then hand the win over to Chase Elliott who himself had been disqualified from an apparent victory in the Derby two years ago for using tungsten giving the then driver of the Kyle Busch Motorsports ride, Erik Jones the win.
Zane Smith would be the official runner-up while the pole-sitter Majeski was paid for third. Dalton Sargeant and Bubba Pollard would wrap up the top five while sixth through tenth were Casey Smith, Preston Peltier, William Byron, Derek Thorn and Daniel Hemric. Iowa's Caleb Adrian finished 18th in his first Snowball Derby start.
While Bell will go down in the history books finishing in the 36th and final position, he definitely made a name for himself this weekend following such a commanding performance and in 2016 he will run a full season with the Camping World Truck Series driving for, who else, Kyle Busch Motorsports.
After many years of considering it, I was glad that I finally made the trip south for my first Snowball Derby and other than the issues with the reserved seating that I referred to in my previous entry, it was a very enjoyable trip. For my readers from the Midwest this is every bit the equivalent of the IMCA Super Nationals for the pavement crowd and one that you should include on your wish list. I know that I will plan on coming back sometime, but only if I can have seat number one on the row!
The final standings for the All Missouri Points will appear here on the Back Stretch later this week, so stay tuned.
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