John Hunter Nemechek captured the 47th annual Snowball Derby victory for the first time of his racing career. Nemechek led four different times throughout the entire 323-lap event. Sunday marked his third career start in the Snowball Derby and came into the weekend looking to improve on his previous best finish of fifth.
Dalton Sargeant made his first career Snowball Derby appearence and shocked many fans with a runner-up finish. Sargeant stayed upfront in majority of the race despite not being able to lead a single lap. The 16-year-old started the event from the 25th position.
Derek Thorn, who also made his Snowball Derby debut on Sunday, will leave the Five Flags Speedway with a finish of third. Thorn started the long afternoon from the 11th starting position in his No. 43 ride. Thorn is no stranger to the racing comunity as he competed in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series last season.
Many of the fan favorites, Johanna Long, Erik Jones, Chase Elliott and Mike Garvey, all got caught up in race incidents throughout the day. Long, who got caught up in an accident on lap 295, was able to salvage a 17th-place finish after starting in second.
Jones had a very strong run going until he cut-down a tire on the lap 220 restart. Jones, who was leading at the time, stacked the field up behind him that caused a chain reaction crash that took Chase Elliott out of the running. Both drivers will leave the half-mile short track with a 27th and 29th-place finish.
Ross Kenseth did not have a very delightful day either after a mechanical problem on his car brought out the caution on lap 65. Kenseth, driving the “ugly christmas sweater car,” started his day from the sixth spot. He did not lead any laps during that time.
Mike Garvey, who was involved in the first caution of the day on lap 16, will leave the Five Flags Speedway with a 37th-place finish out of 37 total cars. Garvey had a solid qualifying effort with a ninth-place start.
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
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