Snowball Derby inspection day notebook; qualifying draw results

A combined 91 drivers across both the Super and Pro Late Model divisions drew for their qualifying spots in the Snowball Derby and Snowflake 100 on Wednesday night after a full day of technical inspection.

As any Snowball Derby week veteran can tell you, the qualifying draw very well could be the difference of making the race or having to race into the race via the last chance showdown.

At the same time, there are record low 45 Super Late Models and 47 Pro Late Models respectively officially registered for the events, so only 9 and 11 cars will be sent home from both races this weekend — making time trials a little less frightening than it usually is.

As a reference, Snowball Derby entries the past five years have been 56, 54, 51, 53 and 50. The reasons behind that are a story for another day.

Snowball Derby qualifying is Friday night and Snowflake 100 qualifying is Saturday afternoon. The top 30 drivers from each qualifying session will lock their way into their respective features. There are two provisional starting spots offered based on Southern Super Series and Blizzard Series points for the Super Late Models and track championship standings for the Pro Late Models.

Snowball Derby

Snowflake 100

Tech day

Wednesday morning and afternoon was also the official load-in and technical inspection day. Matt Craig was the first driver to have his name called by veteran track announcer Bill Roth, who has carried on the tradition started by Dave Pavlock, who said:

‘Now hear this, now arriving from Kannapolis, North Carolina, Matthew Craig. Arriving. Super Late Model. Matthew Craig.’

Roth would issue this line for each and every trailer as they drove down the backstretch and parked their car in the infield. It’s tradition.

It was a pretty procedural day in the inspection line as well with the only notable storyline being the Pollard Motorsports cars driven by Bubba Pollard and Sammy Smith being asked to make some changes to their window bracing.

Threat of rain

Thursday is scheduled to be a full day of rotating practice sessions for both the Super and Pro Late Models but the forecast also shows for a deluge to fall overnight and into the early afternoon hours. The session could be a wash … literally.

There are some drivers, like defending champion Ty Majeski, who would be confident in racing without the session and others like Noah Gragson wants the practice after a frustrating test day.

“Yeah, 100 percent we need more track time,” Gragson said of his Rette Jones Racing team. “I’m not 100 percent confident with what we got right now. We have tried some things but there are some other things we want to try to. We want the chance to get closer.”

On the other hand, Stephen Nasse says his Anthony Campi Racing group would be ready to go race immediately if it came down to it too.

“It doesn’t bother me if we don’t practice the rest of the week,” Nasse said. “Anthony Campi does such a great job bringing fast race cars. They’re really well prepared. We were fast as soon as we unloaded for our test and stayed fast.

“I’m confident in the speed the car has. We just need to get to the race and hopefully get up front and stay there.”

READ MORE: Nasse vs Pollard, one year later

David Gilliland has a custom built car with a proprietary David Gilliland Racing chassis, that has only tested twice at Pensacola but he loves what he has and doesn’t really want the chance to dial himself out if it comes down to it.

“If we lined up and qualified right now,” I would feel 100 percent confident so that’s a good feeling coming in here, Gilliland said. “That is something we never had here before as a company or me as a driver coming here before. This track is tough and things change throughout the week but I feel really good right now if we don’t even practice again.”

Ditto 2022 winner Derek Thorn:

“I think it’s a good car as it is,” Thorn said. “Last year, there was intermittent rain during both practice days and I thought we raced fine until the wreck.”

Then there’s 2016 NASCAR Canada champion Cayden Lapcevich, who has only made one start here and that came in 2020, but doesn’t race a lot these days as a crew chief for Venturini Motorsports in the ARCA Racing Series.

He says he wants the reps.

“I would like tomorrow, obviously,” Lapcevich said. “I think, just for my seat time and not being in it a lot over the last couple of years. I feel like tomorrow would help get in a rhythm but if we don’t get it, we’ve tested and felt pretty good. We have a notebook and if I could get Friday to mock up, that would be fine too.”

Scratches

Of those on the entry list, Jacob Gomes, John DeAngelis, Ryan Preece, Jonathan Knee, Johnny Sauter, Preston Peltier, Derek Griffith and Boris Jurkovic did not show.

Sauter’s spotter, Tab Boyd arrived in town to the news that Richie Wauters Motorsports decided not to come so instead, the veteran Cup eyes in the sky is looking for the best party all week.

He may have found one with Gragson.

Gragson kind of appreciates that Sauter didn’t show up because it gave them extra space parked next to them.