Dalton Sargeant heads into Sunday’s Snowball Derby looking to earn the prestigious Tom Dawson trophy to cap his first season with Bond Suss Racing. Although with a new team for the 49th running of the Derby, Sargeant has experienced success in his two previous Derby starts, finishing second in 2014 and fourth last season.
Phoenix Construction and Billy Ballew Motorsports have partnered with Accelerate Motorsports with Bond Suss to give Sargeant a great chance of taking the checkered flag in the 300-lap event.
Phoenix Construction owner James Finch and Ballew have a long history in NASCAR that includes visiting victory lane as team owners. Phoenix Construction has sponsored the Snowball Derby winner a few times in the past as well, including Erik Jones in 2013 and Chase Elliott in 2015.
“I’m super excited by knowing some of the driver’s that they have worked with in the past. Everybody at Bond Suss Racing has been working really hard on our race car and I think we’ve got a really good shot this year,” Sargeant told Short Track Scene.
“I have a good knowledge of the race and have some good experience there now after the past two years. Being able to work with Bond Suss as my crew chief, knowing how well they’ve done in the past with him working with Christopher Bell last year, is something that really excites me.”
While Sargeant hasn’t tested at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Fla. this season, his Bond Suss Racing team heads to this year’s Derby with confidence and momentum after several strong runs in the latter half of the season.
Sargeant led 84 laps in the All-American 400 in early October and followed up with a third-place result the next weekend after leading 78 laps in the Winchester 400. Sargeant and his Bond Suss team broke through with their first Super Late Model victory in the PASS South season finale at Concord Speedway in November.
“We had some challenges, with Bond Suss starting up his own team,” the 18-year-old Sargeant said of the start to his 2016 Super Late Model schedule. “We faced some challenges there at the start of the year but I feel about halfway through the season we started to come alive. We started running good everywhere we went.”
In addition to running a diverse Super Late Model Schedule, Sargeant earned his first ARCA Racing Series victory at Berlin Speedway in August and recorded 10 top-five results in 15 starts to earn Rookie of the Year honors.
“I’ve been waiting for this race all year long. With the runs I’ve had the past two years at the Derby and as a whole, especially this year; I’ve really gained a lot more knowledge in stock car racing.”
Sargeant indicated the key would be remaining patient throughout the race and managing tires during the typically long green flag runs in the early stages of the 300-lap event.
“Everybody wants to be there at the end to have a shot to win so everybody is really smart and I feel like we have a lot of green flag runs towards the first part of the race. You’ve got to have your car last for a good bit of time before you get any tires. Last year I struggled with that. I felt like I was really good for about the first 30 to 40 laps and started to fall off as the run went on,” said Sargeant, who went a lap down at one point but recovered for a top-five finish.
What will it take for the Boca Raton, Fla. native to hoist the Tom Dawson trophy on Sunday afternoon?
“There’s a lot of really good drivers. I think this is probably the biggest field I’ve ever raced in. It’s something that’s crazy and at the same time really exciting.
“I think one of the biggest things for me is staying patient throughout the entire race. Three hundred laps, it seems like a long race, but it actually goes by really quick. Towards the end of the race, within the last 100 laps, people tend to get pretty wild with it being THE Snowball Derby. As prestigious as the race is, everybody’s going for it 110 percent trying to win the race. There tends to be a good little bit of carnage at the end of the race.”