Weather complicates Snowball Derby practice day decisions

No one really knew what conditions to prepare for during Snowball Derby practice on Thursday so there were all sorts of agendas.

A dreadful weekend forecast has not improved and it looks increasingly likely that both Friday and Saturday will be complete washouts. That accounts for final practice, time trials, happy hour and the last chance races for both Super Late Model and Pro Late Model divisions.

If Friday is a washout, the track is toying around with the idea of making the Snowball Derby an impound race, meaning they would qualify in race trim and the cars cannot be touched between time trials and the green flag.

That might even mean no last chance race entirely. So, if you are a race team and you have that information, what do you do with it?

“Everyone was on different agendas with the weather coming in,” said Ryan Preece of Kevin Harvick Inc. “We pretty much focused on race runs. We don’t know if it’s going to be impound qualifying or if we need a full-blown Q run. We chose to focus on the impound side.

“Our car is really good. All of our 30 lap runs were good. Our balance was solid. I was happy. I guess it’s onto the Snowball Derby from here.”

Erik Jones, driving his own car, articulated succinctly.

“People probably made their beds today, right, needing to pick and choose and we leaned towards the impound side of things,” Jones said. “I think we’re okay with the speed we have. The speed we have, some cars mocked up for a true qualifying run, and we were still fast against them.

“We’ll see. I wouldn’t mind a one day show if it comes down to it. Knock it all out. It’ll be an interesting weekend no matter what.”

One thing that hasn’t changed in all of this is Derek Thorn continuing to be the class of the field in the car that won the race last year. It doesn’t matter that Chris Purdy is now the crew chief or that it runs under the Shafer Motorsports banner.

It’s fast.

He was fastest in the first session and Derek Thorn Racing client Jacob Gomes was fastest in the second with an identically prepared car and the crew chief that won the race last year in Mike Keen.

“We all have good speed,” Thorn said. “Mike Keen, myself, Chris Purdy and Jacob Gomes. It’s really cool to be able to bounce things off each other. Our package fits well for all our cars. We have good raw speed as well.

“We tried some things, we didn’t learn some other things but at the end of the day, we’re in a good place.”

While dealing with impound versus traditional, day race or night race, Thorn said another challenge has been a greater variance in tires too.

“It’s apparent behind the wheel and it’s apparent on race monitor too,” Thorn said. “At the end of the day, the race will come down to luck in that you’ll go down to the tire barn, pull your number and those are your tires for the weekend.”

Jones agreed with that.

“There are some,” he paused. “Irregularities between what we tested on Monday and then the tires they brough in for race week. It’s been harder to repeat what we’re doing on different tires. These tires are cycling out quick and we’re not getting a lot of useful information out of them.

“It’s tough and combined with the weather rolling in, it’s going to make these decisions awfully interesting.”

Bubba Pollard said there was a lot to learn but it’s a challenging dynamic for sure.

“It’s going to be different,” Pollard said. “You can take a lot from today because the race track is going to rubber up come race time. That’s what we focused on, how the track changed as it took rubber, from where it started.

“We didn’t change a lot of our baseline. It’s been too good. Yeah, we’re not top of the boards, we’re up there and we’re still in race trim. You’re going to need to be in race trim, I think. We’re all playing the game. What are you going to do? We’re going to qualify but is it going to be an impound race? The race track isn’t going to be the same as it was when we all practice today.”

And really, for the most part, everyone wants to qualify on race trim.

Jamie Yelton, owner and crew chief of Fathead Racing says it should be the same way for the Derby as it is every ASA, Southern Super Series and Blizzard Series race. Qualifying trim now involves special oils and moving weight around.

One crew chief told Short Track Scene, ‘you won’t believe all the things we do to our cars’ to make it faster in q-trim.

Derek Kraus has just struggled to find raw speed when he comes down to Pensacola so he would welcome ditching anything related to the qualifying setup.

“That helps a lot because you have all these teams over here next to us, Wilson and Campi, big teams who have complicated setups and fluids,” Kraus said. “Impound is way better for us. It would be better speed wise.”

Pollard certainly would like to do what he’s done all year.

“That’s what we’re accustomed to all year,” Pollard said. “We have to do so many things to build speed and get heat and the weather is cooler than the summer. There are a lot of factors that go into this. I’m not saying I have the answers. I may be wrong. I hope I’m not.

“It’s just, I don’t know what to do. I’m going to leave the race track and leave the race car alone.”

Combined Derby Practice Times

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Combined Snowflake Practice Times

Short Track Scene’s Snowball Derby Derby coverage is presented by Phoenix Water Solutions.

Phoenix Water Solutions joins Short Track Scene as Snowball Derby presenting partner