PENSACOLA, Fla. — Recap by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor Jacob Seelman — Lea Richardson photo —
At just 17 years young and just a month removed from winning the All-American 400, John Hunter Nemechek can say he has done something his father Joe never accomplished — winning the Snowball Derby.
Nemechek used fresher tires to rocket to the inside of two-time Snowball Derby champion Augie Grill — who stayed out after a caution with five laps to go in regulation — on lap 305 of Sunday’s running of the annual Super Late Model classic and then held off fellow teenage young gun Dalton Sargeant on a green-white-checkered run at lap 321 to lay claim to the Tom Dawson Trophy for the first time in his career.
Nemechek weathered two caution flags after he took the lead for the last time before finally crossing the checkered flag in his No. 8 McDonalds Chevrolet — posting his personal fastest lap of the race (16.860) on the final lap.
The race at Five Flags Speedway officially went 323 laps, 23 laps beyond its scheduled 300-lap distance. Nemechek also led the most laps on the evening — 68 circuits out in front of the field.
Once he finally got to victory lane, Nemechek was emotional talking about the victory — also his first career Super Late Model triumph. After the All-American 400, the young gun cited that victory as his biggest win to date — but the Mooresville, North Carolina native was straight to the point talking about the win that supplanted the Nashville Fairgrounds triumph as the one at the top of his list.
Well, almost.
“I’m speechless; this is awesome,” Nemechek said in victory lane, tears in his eyes as the emotion of the moment hit him. “The guys gave me a great car this weekend and pit stops were flawless. I can’t say thanks enough to my dad,” Nemechek added, “because he’s the main reason I’m here. This is just awesome.”
Nemechek was on two tires at the finish, while several guys behind him had four fresh tires coming to the final restart — but the driver said he never looked back once the green flag dropped.
“I never got told any of that [about the tire situations], I was focused on what was ahead,” Nemechek expressed. “I never looked in the rear-view mirror the last ten laps [or so].
Sargeant, in just his seventh ever Super Late Model start, held on to finish second as a Derby rookie. The 16-year-old, who returned just a year ago from racing Formula Renault in Europe, was thrilled with his result and his team’s effort over the course of the weekend.
“I’m very happy with the results,” Sargeant said following the finish. “Unfortunately, just got beat by John-Hunter on that last restart and lost momentum there. But overall, the night was great; [we] ran really well. Started towards the back and just slowly worked our way all the way up through the field [to finish] second. A great night, thank you to all the fans for their support…and it really means a lot to come out here and run as well as we did.”
While the top two got the finishes they hoped for, a wild afternoon saw numerous names in contention and a series of heavy-hitters move up and down the pylon over the course of the afternoon.
Johanna Long roared to the lead early, getting around her boyfriend and polesitter Hunter Robbins, after Robbins got extremely sideways in turn three on the opening lap. However, a caution on lap 17 collected T.J. Reaid and Mike Garvey in turn two and slowed the pace for the first time.
“The 42 [Chad Finley], I don’t know what he was doing — lap 20 of a 300 lap race and he just goes down in there and turns the 1 [of Garvey]. I just had nowhere to go,” Reaid said, very frustrated following his early exit from the Derby — his fifth straight DNF in the annual short track classic.
Long got the jump on the field when the race went back green, but it was Daniel Hemric beginning to make moves forward in the pack. Hemric was third by lap 35, dispatched Nemechek and moved to second just after the 50-lap benchmark of the event, and surged to the point at lap 60 to take the lead for the first time.
Almost immediately after that change for the lead, Ross Kenseth slowed on the race track with high water temperatures and a severe vibration, drawing the caution at lap 64 and allowing multiple drivers, including a struggling Corey Lajoie, to make pit stops under the yellow flag.
Kenseth would pull into the garage under the caution with a broken wheel — ending the afternoon for the 2014 Best Appearing Car at the Derby.
By the time lap 100 went up on the scoreboard, former Derby winners Augie Grill and Chase Elliott both began charging forward, taking second and third away from Nemechek at lap 106 and setting their sights on the Carswell Motorsports No. 98 of Hemric, who was lapping cars just before Grill spun exiting turn four and collected Derrick Griffin, bringing out the third caution of the event at lap 107.
Pit stops for the entire field shuffled the running order at the front of the pack and put Erik Jones out of the service lane first, but Scotty Ellis and Anderson Bowen staying out put them at the front of the field for the restart.
On the lap 117 restart, the Derby rookie gave way to Alabama 200 winner Bowen, who took the lead after starting 35th on a provisional, but Bowen would lose the spot to a dueling Nemechek and Hemric, who both got back past. Hemric powered back to the point on lap 138 and brought Elliott along for the ride — just before Elliott passed him for the lead seven laps later.
Then, the battle for the lead got fast and furious, seeing Nemechek and Elliott exchange the lead twice within five laps in a heated battle. At halfway it was Nemechek ahead of Elliott, Hemric, Grant Enfinger and two-time defending Derby champion Erik Jones.
Elliott took the lead for an extended stay at lap 153 after Nemechek was pinned in lap traffic, allowing the NASCAR Nationwide Series champion to begin pulling away and lapping cars just shy of the two-thirds mark of the event.
A competition caution flew at lap 193 after a run of 75 straight green flag laps — allowing the leaders to make pit stops and dial their cars in for the stretch run inside of 100 laps to go. Enfinger and Jones made it a drag race off pit road, but it was the No. 90 of Enfinger edging ahead and taking the top spot under yellow at lap 196, while Elliott dropped back to 11th after his crew dropped a lug nut on his pit stop.
With a restart coming at the 100 to go mark, Enfinger took off on the restart but was swallowed up by Jones just moments later, allowing the two-time winner of the Derby to take the lead for the first time with 97 laps to go. Moments later, the fifth caution of the race flew on lap 208 when Donnie Wilson spun in turn three.
A fiery crash on lap 220 drew a half-hour plus red flag for cleanup and ended the Derby hopes of Chad Finley and Snowflake winner Bubba Pollard, who had nowhere to go.
“The 42 [of Finley] just drove it in there and door-slammed us,” a disgusted Pollard said on pit road. “He was driving in over his head. Just a shame.”
Following the stoppage, the race resumed and the complexion completely changed — Jones’ KBM machine led the field to green, but spun wildly in turns one and two after the rear end broke on his No. 51. Chase Elliott left the scene with heavy damage to the front of his machine, and Logan Boyett and Donnie Wilson also got into the wall in the exchange.
With two major contenders gone, Grant Enfinger assumed the point, but without a lap being completed after the red flag, the caution laps following Jones’ spin would not count and the ensuing restart would again come with 80 laps remaining.
Following the restart, polesitter Hunter Robbins powered back into contention by taking second before rocketing to the lead on lap 229 to claim the point officially for the first time in the Derby.
Moments later, Chase Elliott came to pit road with a geyser of water erupting from the base of the windshield. The 2011 Derby winner would take it to the garage and his bid for a second Tom Dawson trophy would be done.
Over the long green flag run that stretched beyond lap 250, Nemechek’s Derby chances began to be cast into doubt, but lapped traffic and a well-timed inside pass of Robbins with 15 laps to go in regulation handed the lead to the 17-year-old before the yellow flew for Preston Peltier and Johanna Long’s troubles on the frontstretch.
That caution set-up Grill’s and Jones’ last-ditch effort to win the race, however staying out did not pay for the duo — they were shuffled back before ending up in the wall on lap 306, ending Jones’ evening after a trying day.
From there, even a Daniel Hemric spin on lap 315 that bunched the field one final time was not enough for Sargeant to catch Nemechek at the end, coming just a couple of car lengths shy of winning as a Derby rookie.
Former NASCAR K&N Pro Series West champion Derek Thorn finished third, followed by polesitter Robbins and ARCA Racing Series star Grant Enfinger rounding out the top five.
Stephen Nasse came home sixth, Casey Smith was seventh and Grill remained on the lead lap to finish eighth — the final car on the lead lap at the checkered flag. Anderson Bowen was the first car a lap down in ninth — after starting the day on a provisional in 35th — and Kyle Grissom completed the top ten, a lap down as well.
After finishing second in the last two Snowflake 100s, Nemechek was simply glad the runner-up streak was finally broken, citing a year and a half’s worth of work by NEMCO Motorsports to get to this point.
“I can’t thank [these guys] enough for all the work they’ve put in — it’s been a year and a half building this car from the bottom up and it definitely showed tonight.”
One of those who put in work on the car was of course, Joe Nemechek, who made two Derby attempts in the late 80s but never won it as a driver. Now he can say he’s won it as a father.
“I’m telling you what — I came here and raced this race back in 88 and 89 — haven’t won it but won the [track] championship here. I’m just so proud of my son and this whole team. We brought a lot of guys down here; we’re a small Truck team [but] our late model program we’ve worked really, really hard to get John Hunter running good. Lot of good things happening; we won the [All-American] 400 and now the Snowball Derby. Just an incredible day.”
When he finally got through the interviews and began to celebrate, John-Hunter took the spoils of victory, including the heralded Tom Dawson Trophy — which he promptly laid a kiss to the top of.
“That might be the best kiss I’ve ever had,” the teenager smiled.
