PENSACOLA, FL – Pictou, Nova Scotia’s King Racing has qualified for the rich and historic Snowball Derby super late model stock car race set for Sunday afternoon at Five Flags Speedway. Maine’s Cassius Clark is the pilot of Rollie MacDonald’s No. 13 this weekend, a formidable pairing in the latter half of the 2015 season with wins in both the Atlantic Cat 250 and the Irving Blending and Packaging 250 at Speedway 660. With 70+ teams attempting to make the 36-car starting grid qualifying for the big event was almost as big a deal as the race itself. The first shot to make the field was time trials which were held Friday evening after two long days of practice. Clark was 43rd fastest so missed the top 30 transfer and had to run in the Last Chance Race on Saturday. Twenty-five cars ran 50 laps to fill the field with only the top four advancing; Clark started 12th and finished third. Chris Bell, Christian Eckles, and Caleb Adrian are the other three drivers who finished in the top four and qualified for Sunday’s show that pays $1,500 to make the field and where the winner takes home a guaranteed $22,500 (USD). Ty Majeski and Chase Elliott will start on the front row after 2014 winner John Hunter Nemechek and fast time setter Chris Bell were DQ’d in post-qualifying tech inspection. Clark will start 33rd on Sunday and is the only driver in the field from the Northeast. Besides King Racing, there is another Maritime Canadian connection in the field with Dartmouth, NS-native Gary Crooks being car and crew chief for Zane Smith, starting 19th. Nemechek made the starting grid for the Snowball Derby with a provisional but Bell, driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports, had to start the Last Chance race at the rear; he took the lead for the win on lap 42. The field for this 48th running of the Snowball Derby features some of the biggest names in short track stock car racing as well as many second-generation drivers with now retired famous NASCAR fathers, i.e. Chase Elliott (son Bill Elliott), Kyle Grisson (son of Steve Grissom), Harrison Burton (son of Jeff Burton), and Corey Lajoie (son of Randy Lajoie). Starting Lineup – Snowball Derby (showing car number, driver name) 91 -Ty Majeski 9 – Chase Elliott 48 – Preston Peltier 5S – Dalton Sargeant 11 – Logan Boyett 7 – Casey Roderick 21 – Johanna Long 51N – Stephen Nasse 20 – Spencer Davis 3 – Kaz Grala 5H – Daniel Hemric 43 – Derek Thorn 112 – Augie Grill 31 – Kyle Grissom 9 – William Byron 2 – D.J. VanderLey 5 – Jerry Artuso 26 – Bubba Pollard 77 – Zane Smith 9 – Derek Kraus 2W – Donnie Wilson 45 – Kyle Plott 83 – Scotty Ellis 12 – Harrison Burton H2 – Bret Holmes 42 – Chad Finley 67 – Clay Jones 17 – Quin Houff 8 – Noah Gragson 7 – Corey LaJoie 51 – Christopher Bell 15 – Christian Eckes 13 – Cassius Clark 29 – Caleb Adrian 99 – Casey Smith 1 – Garrett Jones 8 – John Hunter Nemechek Nemechek won Saturday’s feature, the Snowflake 100 for late models, with Elliott settling for second. Fans who can’t make it to Five Flags Speedway for the Snowball Derby can view it live on Speed51TV’s pay-per-view online broadcast which starts at 1 p.m. ET (2 p.m. ET) Sunday afternoon.
