PENSACOLA, Fl – The 2025 Snowball Derby could be the last for one of the great racers of this generation. After having not been in the car for 14-months, Preston Peltier returns to the Snowball Derby this season for what could be the final time in his career as a driver.
Peltier grew up racing late models in the Carolina’s, well known for his time at tracks like Hickory Motor Speedway and Orange County Speedway. Peltier had a lengthy career in the NASCAR ranks as a fab guy, serving as a vital part of Jimmie Johnson’s seven championships. More recently, Peltier moved out to Colorado to build late models for clients, including fellow Snowball Derby competitor Jace Hansen, who Peltier served as the crew chief for in last year’s Derby.
When looking back on the unexpected third place finish with Hansen a year ago, Peltier mentioned that 2025 may be his final attempt at earning the Tom Dawson trophy as a driver himself.
“I’ll tell you, it was pretty special,” Peltier told Short Track Scene. “Obviously we wanted to win, it was a really good run for us and it was an accomplishment for me, it was an accomplishment for those guys. It was definitely special, it’s something I’ll never forget and it was a proud moment. Hopefully I can help them take the next step and pull one of these off sometime.
“My days are numbered, actually. This might be the last one for me, but I’m not going anywhere you know, this is my life. I can maybe help somebody else out there get there.”
With the news that Peltier will likely be stepping away from the driver role, it begs the question, is he happy? Is he satisfied or content with the direction his career has gone post-NASCAR, or even in general. The perspective given in his answer is one filled with wisdom, wisdom that only comes with father time.
“I mean, you’re never satisfied right,” Peltier said. “It’s hard to be satisfied, you’re always striving to be better I should say. The satisfaction, I guess, comes in the chase and not necessarily the finish. I’ve kind of learned to accept that and enjoy that part of it. We do this to win, but It’s not all about winning all the time. There’s a lot of relationships that are built and that’s really important.”
Given the unusually small amount of practice thanks to the weather situation in Pensacola, you’d think a driver who hasn’t been in the racecar in 14-months would have some nerves about where their program is coming into the biggest race of the year. However, it’s the exact opposite for Peltier, who falls back on his veteran experience says this is the best racecar he’s ever had at Five Flags.
“Man, my car is badass,” Peltier said. “I’ve never had a car with this kind of speed down here, even the year we sat on the pole, it wasn’t as good as this thing. These P1 Chassis are just incredible and with the help of guys like Owen and Jace, we’ve really honed in on what we need with these things, … I haven’t been in a car in 14-months, we came down and tested. I ran maybe 40 laps on Sunday, and four laps today and it’s just good, you know. It’s good to be back in a car and it’s really nice to have a fast car.”
While he may now live out in Colorado, Peltier feels as though low grip tracks like Five Flags out on the east coast are the bread and butter of a guy like himself. Those are the places Peltier feels at home, and the scenarios in which he feels he has an edge to make a car go faster.
“Absolutely,” Peltier said. “I grew up racing at Hickory and Orange County, all these places back east that have no grip. I learned to get around those race tracks from Feddie Query, Ben Rowe, and Mike Rowe, those guys. It helped me develop my prowess on a slick racetrack, you know and saving tires. That was a big thing back in the day, if it was a 50-lap race man, I could win it. But they were 150 lap races and normally I’d end up wrecked or laps down because I didn’t know. But I was a quick study and I kind of figured it out and that’s all translated to what we have today.”
In just four laps of practice on Friday, Peltier put himself third on the charts out of 45 cars. Clearly, the car is there, and it’ll be up to the driver to put it in the show and be where it counts at the end of 300-laps on Sunday. At that point, who knows, the “old man” just might have one more left in the tank, maybe even enough to ride off into the sunset, Tom Dawson trophy in hand.
