On Sunday, December 2 at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida the 45th Annual Snowball Derby will be held. The 300 lap Super Late Model race has been compared to the Daytona 500 of the Super Late Models. The 2012 edition has 71 entries, many of which are familiar names in NASCAR circles.
Current Sprint Cup Series regulars Kyle Busch, David Ragan and Landon Cassill are the major headliners.
Current or former Nationwide Series or Camping World Truck Series drivers include Johanna Long, Steven Wallace, Erik Darnell, Cale Gale, Nelson Piquet Jr., Jeff Choquette, Mike Garvey, Jeff Fultz, Augie Grill, and Grant Enfinger.
John Hunter Nemechek, the 15-year old son of Sprint Cup Series veteran Joe Nemechek, will also compete along with 16-year old son of Bill Elliott, Chase Elliott who won last year. Ross Kenseth, the son of Matt Kenseth and Kyle Grissom the son of former NASCAR driver Steve Grissom are also on the entry list.
Former winners of the race include Donnie Allison in 1975, Darrell Waltrip in 1976, Butch Miller in 1987, Ted Musgrave in 1988, Rick Crawford in 1989, Rich Bickle in 1990, 91, 96, 98, and 99, Jeff Purvis in 1995, Steven Wallace in 2004, Augie Grill in 2007 and 2008, Kyle Busch in 2009, Johanna Long in 2010, and Chase Elliott in 2011.
Action on the track gets started on Thursday with practice for the Snowball Derby from 10 a.m. ET to 4 p.m. Qualifying is set as the WXBM Pole Position Snowball Qualifying at 6 p.m. on Friday where the top 30 will lock themselves into the Derby. On Saturday, there will be another practice from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and then at 4 p.m. there will be a 50 lap qualifying race where four cars will race their way in. At 2 p.m. on Sunday the green flag will be thrown for the 45th Annual Snowball Derby.
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