Bubba Pollard and Stephen Nasse’s 2023 Snowball Derby; one year later

It was probably always going to be that way.

For over a decade, two of the most prolific Super Late Model regulars of their generation have been trying to win the biggest race of the year, and there simply wasn’t enough room in Snowball Derby town for both Bubba Pollard and Stephen Nasse.

Pollard, making his 16th start in 18 attempts, darted under leader Nasse, making his 13th start in 13 attempts with seven laps to go with no shortage of history between them. They came together in Turn 1 and both ended up in the wall in Turn 2.

Instead, Ty Majeski claimed the Tom Dawson Trophy for the second time in four years and one of the longest tenured rivalries in Stock Car racing added another dramatic chapter.

The 2020 Speedfest incident
The 2021 Snowflake 100 incident
The 2024 Snowball Derby incident

Nasse knows what it’s like to experience winning the Snowball Derby, having crossed the finish line first in 2019, but also painstakingly knows what it’s like to have it immediately taken away from him in post-race technical inspection too.

He still hasn’t gotten over what he feels like was a flimsy disqualification.

“It’s definitely been an emotional roller-coaster but I think it’s made me a better man and race car driver through all the heartbreaks,” Nasse said. “You know, I believe everyone in this infield knows we won the race that day and got screwed in tech.

“It was not something that helped us win and didn’t even know about but I truly do believe that I’ve won it already. But, I need that trophy on my shelf back home and I’m not resting until we win it again.”

So after picking off Majeski for the lead, Nasse was not going to make it easy for Pollard to take it away from him, even if he believes what ultimately happened in Turn 1 wasn’t how it has been portrayed.

“I do wish we could have just rubbed fenders like we should have and drove off Turn 2 and raced into 3 and 4 like normal but when we got together, something broke and that’s what drove us into the wall, and it’s just really unfortunate. It was bad luck. It wasn’t like I chopped him down low enough to cut a tire. It was just one of those unfortunate circumstances where both of us got the bad end of the deal.”

For his part, much like Nasse, Pollard also started to feel what it was like to win the Snowball Derby riding behind Majeski and Nasse and knowing he had the fastest car inside of 10 laps to go.

“I knew when I was sitting there and those guys were running side-by-side that I was better than they were,” Pollard said. “I was better. I just had to wait for them to get in line. So, I had enough time sit there and think, this could be it. I did.

“And everyone was like, ‘oh, you should have been patient,’ but its eight laps to go. We’ve been pacing for 292 laps. It’s time to go. It’s eight laps to go. It was time.”

The parts failure assertion aside, Nasse received criticism too that he shouldn’t have raced Pollard that tight. He also held Majeski pretty tight when they raced for the lead just a few laps prior as well.  

After the crash, Pollard said that Nasse wrecked him over a if I can’t win, he won’t either mentality but they disagree on that front.

“Listen, I am going to race hard with everybody,” Nasse said. “Whether it’s Ty or Bubba …. Bubba can say what he wants but just like the Snowflake a few years ago, it was a perfect bump and run move I made on him and he’s a good enough race car driver that there is zero reason he should have spun.

“The only reason he spun out is because he wanted to wreck me so I wouldn’t win the race. He didn’t want to lose to me that night. He can act however he wants but he doesn’t want me to win this race either and we’re both going to race harder against each other and I’m looking forward to having a good car this year and hopefully we put on a good show for the fans.”

How did Pollard feel about that general sentiment?

“If you want to know the truth,” Pollard said. “I do not give a shit what he does. I am tired of hearing about all this shit. I really do not care. … I do not care what he thinks and he is not what I think of in the morning when I wake up.

“I’m going to do my job this weekend, hopefully make the show on Sunday, and try to win the race. I just … he wants this to be a rivalry because he needs the attention, point blank. The way I look at it, if you win races, you don’t need no attention.”

Pollard said he did go back and watch the finish just to know.

“I watched a few things and there is no different I could have done, nothing really,” Pollard said. “It just sucks. It’s hard. But it’s crazy that it’s been a whole year because I feel like we were just here. This time, we just need to be better, already be out front and have the track position and none of that other stuff will matter.”

That’s probably the one thing they would agree on.