To watch Ty Majeski and Toby Nuttleman work on their No. 91 over the past week, you would think the two-time Snowball Derby winners were in a little bit of trouble but this kind of thrashing is just part of their process.
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But it works, and the back-and-forth produced their second pole together in the Super Bowl of Short Track Racing on Friday night at Five Flags Speedway.
Majeski claimed the spot with a 16.175 fast lap that actually kind of surprised him a little bit.
“Yeah, it did,” Majeski said. “I didn’t really feel like we’ve had raw speed all weekend. Sometimes, when the sun goes down, in sort of favors different race cars and their packages and tonight it was ours. Sometimes, that hasn’t been the case but with this tire and how the track progressed, it just suited what I do and what our cars do.
“So yeah, really good night and glad we were able to capitalize on it. I’m excited to have another good opportunity at the Snowball.”
Kaden Honeycutt was the 11th driver to take time and held the provisional pole until Majeski knocked him off as the 39th entrant to qualify. This is the second time that Honeycutt will have started second in the Derby, also starting alongside Josh Berry in 2022, but doesn’t feel like there way anything more on the table for his Jett Motorsports with Larry Blount No. 21.
“I think he just beat me,” Honeycutt said. “I don’t think there was a huge difference in the track all that session. Like, Matt (Craig) went out there and ran .20 and he was like the second guy out. It might have been a little better to go out there later but I don’t think I would have done anything differently, maybe hit the throttle off 2 a little harder.
“I didn’t expect the track to have that much grip but he just beat me straight up. There was no dew setting in or anything like that. It was just really cold. If we were on the other tire, we would have set a track record tonight for how cold it was so hats off to Ty. He had a good lap and hopefully we’ll be racing him on Sunday for the Tom Dawson Trophy.”
William Sawalich took his Rackley WAR, Kevin Harvick Inc. co-entered No. 62 to third place for the drop of the green flag on Sunday and was more pleased with the results than just missing out on the pole.
“The happiness outweighs the disappointment,” Sawalich said. “I mean, this is the best I’ve qualified at the Derby. And finally some good luck here in Pensacola. It shows we have good speed and that we’re really not that far off, just a blink of an eye so it’s just about our long run speed on Sunday. That’s all I’m worried about.”
Bubba Pollard will start his latest pursuit of the Tom Dawson Trophy from P8 and is pretty satisfied with it.
“I think so,” Pollard said. “I was just too free. I couldn’t get into the gas. I didn’t have no lateral grip when I went back into the throttle. The car had more in it but we just freed it up too much there. The race track was going to grip up and we had to get free. Or I thought we needed to free up but we went too far. But all in all, our car drives good and I’m happy about it.”
READ MORE: Bubba Pollard told to make technical fix or be black flagged
Noah Gragson made the show, so he won’t need to be B-Main Bobby, but the disappointment was palpable.
“We definitely want to be a lot higher than that,” Gragson said. “We were just looking at Dartfish and it was pretty good in 1 and 2 but we just need to keep working on our 3 and 4. But, still super proud of this Port City Race Cars 30 team.
“Everyone’s been working super hard, including this guy right here, Mark Rette. It was super fun, and I love this session because everything is ramped up to the next level. We got some work to do but we’re going to keep working. We just got to keep digging.”
With the top 30 qualifiers locking into the field by virtue of time trials, Stephen Nasse took the final spot. He and Nick Loden clocked in with identical 16.396 seconds, placing 29th and 30th. John Bolen and Billy VanMeter received the ASA Southern Super Series and Blizzard Series provisionals respectively and will start 35th and 36th.
Nicholas Naugle and Kyle Steckly will lead the field to green in the 50 lap last chance race on Sunday ahead of World Series of Asphalt champion and CARS Tour rookie of the year Brent Crews.
The latter was reflective of another tough Wilson Motorsports qualifying effort with Chandler Smith going 10th fast, Cole Butcher going 15th quick and Gio Ruggiero in 26th.
Saturday night will also see qualifying, a last chance race and the Snowflake 100 for the Pro Late Model division. The Super Late Models will also have two happy hour final practice sessions before racing on Sunday for 300 laps.
57th Snowball Derby Qualifying
Five Flags Speedway
December 6 2024
- Ty Majeski 16.175
- Kaden Honeycutt 16.203
- William Sawalich 16.204
- Haeden Plybon 16.217
- Connor Okrzesik 16.235
- Sammy Smith 16.247
- Derek Thorn 16.253
- Bubba Pollard 16.263
- Dawson Sutton 16.265
- Chandler Smith 16.269
- Luke Fenhaus 16.271
- David Gilliland 16.273
- Treyten Lapcevich 16.277
- Jake Finch 16.282
- Cole Butcher 16.289
- Matthew Craig 16.294
- Jake Garcia 16.314
- Buddy Shepherd 16.316
- Kole Raz 16.316
- Jace Hansen 16.324
- Jeremy Doss 16.326
- Dylan Fetcho 16.333
- Dustin Smith 16.336
- Michael Hinde 16.338
- Carson Kvapil 16.354
- Giovanni Ruggiero 16.368
- Cayden Lapcevich 16.372
- Noah Gragson 16.387
- Nick Loden 16.396
- Stephen Nasse 16.396
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- Nicholas Naugle 16.401
- Kyle Steckly 16.407
- Brent Crews 16.426
- Caden Kvapil 16.433
- Timothy Watson 16.443
- Derek Kraus 16.457
- Conner Jones 16.478
- John Bolen 16.487 (Provisional)
- Casey Kleyn 16.513
- Billy VanMeter 16.611 (Provisional)
- Conner Sutton 16.614
- Michael Scott 16.668
- Vito Cancilla 16.748
- Joseph Meyer 16.889
