Everyone is chasing Bubba Pollard after Day One of practice for the 50th Annual Snowball Derby.
The 30-year-old reigning track champion paced the field with a 16.552-second lap around Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida. It’s a familiar story for the Senoia, Georgia native who has won 15 races at the Florida half-mile, but never the big one in December.
Thus, Pollard isn’t letting the fast lap get to his head.
“Yeah, we’ve been here before, fastest lap of the day, and all you guys want to talk to me,” Pollard said. “That’s not the lap that matters. Let’s see if y’all want to talk to me on Sunday after the one that does.”
Pollard posted three wins in four starts at Pensacola this season in the Southern Super Series. He finished second in the other.
“The track has gone through a lot of changes today, and I think we were prepared for it,” Pollard said. “We’ve taken a lot of notes and have just made this car as good as it can be. But it’s just day one. We could be better. We’ve got it dialed in where we want it and will work on it some more tomorrow.”
He took the top spot from Ty Majeski halfway through the 2-3 p.m. practice session.
“We’re all chasing the 26 right now,” Majeski said of Pollard.
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Majeski said he worked on race trim in first practice and then spent the rest of the day seeking a good qualifying run.
“We’re just kept chasing the car and we made it better and better after each lap,” Majeski said. “But a lot of guys were making their mock runs so I don’t think we can read too much into for race day. We built our baseline all day today, and hopefully we can execute our plan for tomorrow. Go into race trim for first and second practice.
“Finish off in qualifying trim and make sure we’re ready for that.”
Reigning Southern Super Series champion Stephen Nasse was seventh on the board, but believes his team left a little bit on the table in advance of Qualifying Day.
“We definitely got a lot better, we made a lot of gains there but are still missing a little bit of drive,” Nasse said. “We got a lot better from the beginning of the day. We were just so free. We’re actually really tight center in the beginning of the day and really free off, finally got it turning better, just can’t get the drive in that we want.
“I feel like we get it, where I can get the throttle up off the corner, we’ll find that little bit more speed we’re missing. I’m actually really happy with that time and that spot on the board, it’s a good spot to be and it’s higher than I thought it would be. I’ll take it, we’re going to work on it a little more and we’ll see what happens.”
The most notable incident of the afternoon occurred when Johnny Sauter drilled the wall in opening practice. The damage completely destroyed his Super Late Model. He must either acquire another team’s back-up car or go home.
Then there is the Kyle Busch entry, being practice by veteran Kyle Benajmin, who posted the 40th best time throughout the day. With that said, they didn’t bolt on new tires all day.
“We’re just struggling on corner entry,” Benjamin said. “Turns 1 and 3. All of our cars.”
The results of final practice can be viewed below.
- Bubba Pollard 16.552
- Ty Majeski 16.692
- Spencer Davis 16.715
- Chase Purdy 16.764
- Christian Eckes 16.808
- Mason Mingus 16.816
- Stephen Nasse 16.824
- Chris Davidson 16.849
- Corey LaJoie 16.863
- Logan Boyett 16.863
- Raphael Lessard 16.863
- Kason Plott 16.868
- Dan Fredrickson 16.869
- Harrison Burton 16.929
- Jeff Choquette 16.87
- Jeremy Doss 16.904
- Brandon McReynolds 16.929
- David Rogers 16.935
- Tyler Dippel 16.944
- Jerry Artuso 16.950
- Brandon Oakley 16.954
- Garrett Jones 16.959
- Cole Butcher 16.965
- Preston Peltier 16.966
- Jake Crum 16.998
- Augie Grill 17.004
- Kyle Bryant 17.011
- Cole Rouse 17.023
- Dustin Smith 17.025
- Garrett Evans 17.052
- Derek Kraus 17.056
- Anthony Cataldi 17.058
- Cassius Clark 17.076
- Steven Davis 17.078
- Kyle Plott 17.080
- Donnie Wilson 17.107
- Jeremy Pate 17.126
- Joe Aramendia 17.126
- Kyle Benjamin for Kyle Busch 17.130
- Boris Jurkovic 17.142
- John DeAngelis Jr. 17.145
- Chandler Smith 17.171
- Noah Gragson 17.209
- Casey Roderick 17.239
- Tate Fogleman 17.246
- Donald Crocker 17.258
- Ben Rowe 17.323
- Dennis Schoenfield 17.348
- Rich Bickle 17.690
- John Coffman 17.889
- Stuart Dutton 18.090
- Jeff Firestine 18.797
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