PENSACOLA, Fla. – The 50-lap last chance qualifier for the 53rd Snowball Derby on Saturday afternoon will look like the field for the main event in any other year.
That’s simply how much elite talent missed out on locking into the field during Country Pleasin’ Sausage Pole Qualifying on Friday night at Five Flags Speedway.
While less familiar drivers like Michael Atwell and Jesse Dutilly found their ways into the show by qualifying inside the top 30, household names such as two-time Derby winner Augie Grill reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott were left out in the cold.
Grill timed in 31st quick and the proprietor of Grand American Race Cars fell a scant .009 seconds short of 30th in the end. His lap of 16.518 seconds (108.972 mph) wasn’t enough.
“I just messed up on my second lap there,” noted Grill. “I ran a decent first lap and just missed (turns) three and four on my second lap. That was the best the car had been and I really wasn’t prepared for it, and just kind of muffed up there, but three hundredths is about all I needed. The car was real tight.
“We’re already here and the money’s already spent, so what’s it gonna hurt to run another 30 laps?” Grill added, erasing any question of whether he would run the LCQ or not. “Hopefully the car is good enough to be able to maintain that space and advance.”
Kodie Conner, who snagged a surprise pole for the All American 400 at Tennessee’s Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville a month ago, wasn’t able to replicate the magic at Five Flags on Friday night.
However, Conner was among those still content with their effort at Five Flags. He qualified 33rd and will line up third in the last chance qualifier.
“Tomorrow is going to be a little bit rough. I’m a little bit worried with everybody knowing what’s on the line and being a bit more sporadic; that’s one of my big concerns, because I want to come home in one piece, but we’re OK,” said Conner. “I thought we had it. We ran pretty well. We still made progress. We were three tenths faster than we have been all weekend. So we’re still getting better. I feel what hurt us was not having that practice today. I was wanting to try a couple of different things and I didn’t get that opportunity.
“But overall, I’m pretty pleased. There’s a lot of good guys in the LCQ with us, so we’ll just go up against them and see how we shake out after 50 laps.”
NASCAR Xfinity Series regular Noah Gragson, in a late entry for Wauters Motorsports, timed in a disappointing 35th and will start fifth in the LCQ alongside Carson Hocevar, who struggled mightily in qualifying and grids sixth after timing in just 36th of 53 cars.
The true shocker, however, was reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott.
After looking solid throughout practice, the two-time Snowball Derby champion was only able to muster the 42nd-quickest lap in qualifying. He was three tenths of a second off the pole time set by Derek Thorn.
With Bubba Pollard taking a Southern Super Series provisional to start Sunday’s race, Elliott will line up 11th in a last chance qualifier that takes only four to the main event.
“We just qualified poorly. When you qualify poorly, you end up in the last chance race,” said Elliott, the first reigning Cup champion to attempt the Derby since Bobby Allison in 1983. “That’s how it is here. I just need to be better. I didn’t do a good job this week giving good feedback on what the car needs, and I certainly didn’t do a good job getting up on the wheel in qualifying.
“I’ll try to do better tomorrow and we’ll see what we can do.”
Other notables in the last chance qualifier include Gulf Coast young gun Connor Okrzesik, Kyle Busch Motorsports young gun Sammy Smith – who had to requalify Friday night after a scoring issue where he was only credited with one lap – and Truck Series young gun Chandler Smith, who was disqualified for a cell phone violation after his qualifying run.
The Snowball Derby last chance qualifier will hit the track at approximately 3:30 p.m. CT Saturday afternoon, following qualifying and the last chance race for the Snowflake 100.
The complete starting lineup for the event follows below.
Snowball Derby Last Chance Qualifier Lineup
- #112 – Augie Grill
- #5j – Casey Johnson
- #45 – Kodie Conner
- #14n – Austin Nason
- #51g – Noah Gragson
- #14h – Carson Hocevar
- #12 – Derek Griffith
- #15 – Gabe Sommers
- #119 – Dalton Zehr
- #9h – Hudson Halder
- #9e – Chase Elliott
- #14c – Connor Okrzesik
- #51s – Sammy Smith
- #4m – Kyle McCallum
- #19 – Kason Plott
- #88 – Perry Patino
- #44j – Justin Johnson
- #10 – Ryan Crane
- #79 – Kyle Bryant
- #8n – Colten Nelson
- #26 – Chandler Smith