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While the numbers might be a bit deceiving, the reality is John Hunter Nemechek is a driver to be reckoned with in the Snowball Derby.

In his four previous Derby starts, Nemechek has led 132 laps and earned three top-10 finishes. But he has just one win. Last year, Nemechek was in a position to make it two straight when his No. 8 suddenly starting smoking and then caught on fire inside the final 10 laps.

“It didn’t really linger,” Nemechek said of the 21st-place finish. “It’s definitely a disappointing day when you start at the back, you drive to the front, and you’re leading with 12 laps to go, and then a fire starts burning spark plug wires off the motor, and you start losing power. That’s the only reason we pulled in. I was going to continue to drive, but we lost all power.

“It definitely was frustrating and disappointing knowing you had the fastest car there at the end. We were pulling away from those guys. I don’t think we’ll think about it going back down there; we’re just going to make sure that we double check everything. We found out what caused it, so we’re going to try and not let that happen again.”

With how well he’s run at Five Flags Speedway, Nemechek and his NEMCO Motorsports team head to Pensacola both confident and motivated that they will again be up front. In addition to his 2014 Snowball Derby win, Nemechek has finished no worse than second in his three Snowflake 100 appearances. That includes a 2015 victory.

“It’s a fun racetrack,” Nemechek said. “It’s definitely a driver’s racetrack and making your car drive the best that it can, but it’s all up to the driver and his right foot to make sure he’s there at the end of the race to be in a position to win. There’s a lot of history there from all the previous Snowball Derby winners – it’s just an awesome, unique racetrack that has a lot of character to it and most short-tracks you go to aren’t like that.”

Alex Smith will serve as Nemechek crew chief, having been paired with him since Nemechek ran Allison Legacy cars. While Smith has a primary focus on the NEMCO Late Model program, Nemechek credits everyone who plays a part and says the last three to four weeks have been a complete “team effort” in making sure everything is ready to go.

Of course, Nemechek wishes he had more than one Snowball Derby victory to show for it all, but when he arrives for the 49th addition this weekend, it will be with eyes focused forward.

“To tell you the truth, I haven’t looked at the entry list yet, I haven’t really looked at anything for going down there,” Nemechek said of stacking himself up against the competition. “Normally we don’t really look at that. We don’t worry about who’s going (to be entered). I’m sure the competition is going to be tough, but we’re going to go down there and give it our best effort.

“Hopefully we’ll go down there, and we’ll have a winning car. We’re not racing for points; it’s an all-out race. We’re going down there to win.”

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