There is only one guy on the premises who is guaranteed a starting spot in the 52nd Snowball Derby and that comes as a huge relief to Five Flags Speedway champion Giovanni Bromante.
Due to his championship, he will make the field of 36 regardless of his qualifying effort. That means just one of the 57 drivers set to take two timed laps knows his Sunday plans.
“I am very happy I don’t have to be in the last chance race, it gets pretty nasty pretty quick,” said Bromante. “To know that I will be starting the Snowball Derby, just even starting… it’s pretty crazy.”
READ MORE: Complete Snowball Derby coverage
For everyone else though, this is the most dramatic time trials session in all of motorsports.
The session will lock-in the top-30. Roderick or a past champion will automatically qualify as well — should he not make it in on time. If Roderick qualifies in on time, then the provisional will go to the highest finishing Five Flags Speedway drivers in points respectively — as long as he’s inside the top-10 in points.
Those who don’t qualify in on time or have a provisional go to the 50-lap last chance race on Saturday night.
It never fails that every year a surprise driver fails gets bumped.
“I’ve been a part of a lot of high-pressure situations at Martinsville, and this is very comparable,” Josh Berry said. “The rules are so tight, and everyone is so close and it doesn’t take a lot for you to not have a top-30 time.
“You don’t even have to be that far off the pace.”
You can feel the mood in the air. Drivers, typically affable and personable, go stoic and stone-faced as they wait in line and watch the first couple of cars go out.
“You go into like a trance,” Thorn said. “I don’t talk to anyone. You just sit in the car and you make sure you’re ready to go. You can’t give up a single tenth – not against this field.”
Traditional wisdom states that the later a driver goes out, the cooler the weather is, and the faster a lap time she or he will put down.
However, Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola is unique due the humidity-based mist that films over the track in December. It makes the racing surface greasy and can come and go at any point of the night. For that reason, many drivers want to go out sooner, especially given the way time trials has played out in recent years.
So maybe somewhere in the middle is the sweet spot.
“I drew an 18 and I’m tickled to death,” Jeremy Pate said.
RELATED: Why Jordan Anderson chose 2019 to make his Snowball debut
Making his Snowball Derby debut is NASCAR Truck Series notable Jordan Anderson and he likes his 40th place draw, even if he’s at risk of the dew.
“I like going out later just because I can watch and see what everyone else is doing,” Anderson said. “So maybe we can watch and see how cars are driving with the weather and use that to our advantage and make some adjustments once qualifying rolls around.
“It’s a coin flip, but 40th, I’ll take it.”
Qualifying for the Snowball Derby is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. ET and will air live on Speed51.com.
The qualifying order can be found below.
- Corey Heim
- Carson Hocevar
- Kyle Bryant
- John DeAngelis
- Jake Garcia
- David Rogers
- Josh Berry
- Derek Thorn
- Jesse Dutilly
- Matthew Craig
- Preston Peltier
- Connor Okrzesik
- Jack Dossey III
- Dalton Zehr
- Jett Noland
- Corey LaJoie
- Austin Nason
- Jeremy Pate
- Colten Nelson
- Augie Grill
- Derek Kraus
- Michael Atwell
- Derrick Griffin
- Bubba Pollard
- Ty Majeski
- Steven Davis
- Trey Bayne
- David Gilliland
- Jeremy Doss
- Rich Bickle
- Tim Curry
- Cole Moore
- Lucas Jones
- Dan Fredrickson
- Michael House
- Harrison Burton
- Chris Davidson
- Mason Mingus
- Casey Smith
- Jordan Anderson
- Casey Roderick
- Jeff Choquette
- Rodrigo Rejon
- Giovanni Bromante
- Hunter Robbins
- Jerry Artuso
- Derek Griffith
- AJ Wernette
- Chandler Smith
- Johnny VanDoorn
- Kyle Plott
- Stephen Nasse
- Travis Braden
- Boris Jurkovic
- Kaden Honeycutt
- Cole Butcher
- Brad May
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