PENSACOLA, Florida - Chase Elliott capped the most dominating performance in the history of week by winning the main event, the 46th annual Snowball Derby presented by JEGS, on Sunday afternoon at Five Flags Speedway. Except the record won't show Elliott became the first driver to win the super late model classic and the companion Allen Turner Hyundai Snowflake 100 for pro late models in the same year.
In postrace inspection, Elliott's car was disqualified for having a prohibited tungsten part, elevating second-place finisher Erik Jones to first place and giving the teen from Byron, Mich., back-to-back Snowball Derby victories.
Simply sorry to everyone. One Mistake on our part costed us the race. I Can't thank the ones who are still supporting us tonight enough.
-- Chase Elliott (@chaseelliott)Elliott, an 18-year-old from Dawsonville, Ga., started from the pole positions in the Snowball and the Snowflake after setting super late model and pro late model track records in qualifying. He won the Snowflake on Saturday night for the third time and looked as though he'd won his second Derby, joining his 2011 victory.
Erik JonesElliott led 233 laps on Sunday and wasn't challenged for the checkered flag, running out front for the final 19 laps of the race. But the ,500 winner's purse and the Tom Dawson Memorial Trophy will go to Jones.
of Fairhope was elevated to second place, equaling his best showing in the Derby.
Enfinger made a go of it despite running most of the race on seven cylinders.
"We really had something that could run with them on the long runs," Enfinger said. "We went down one cylinder on that first run, and that hurt us on the short runs. That kind of played out to the strategy that we used at the end."
When Josh Hamner brought out the last of the race's eight cautions by spinning coming out of Turn 2, Enfinger stayed on the track while almost everyone else pitted. Elliott took two tires on his stop, although most all the other pits put four on their cars.
When the race restarted with 20 laps to go, Enfinger had the lead, with Elliott second. The next time they came around the track, Elliott was in front, and he led the rest of the way.
The run-up to the checkered flag was repeated several times during the race: Caution periods took Elliott's lead away, and he quickly put the No. 9 back in front once the green flag came out.
The 300-lap race was hard on several of the drivers thought to be Elliott's top challengers. Two-time Gulf Coast super late model champion Bubba Pollard started on the outside of the front row and ran in Elliott's wake until a broken axle ended his race about 80 laps from the end. Daniel Hemric, the 2013 Gulf Coast super late model champion and the inaugural Southern Super Series champ, started experiencing mechanical issues early in the race and spent the caution periods darting on and off pit road. He finished 20st. Two-time Snowball Derby winner Augie Grill of Hayden didn't survive the pace laps, the victim of a broken rear axle.
Three of the hardest chargers in the race were David Rogers, who tied Wayne Niedecken Jr.'s record by making his 29th Derby start; Donnie Wilson, an Oklahoman who's a regular competitor at Five Flags and Mobile International Speedway; and Mobilian , a winner on the ARCA and NASCAR truck circuits.
Rogers made the most improvement from start to finish, rolling off 32nd and coming in sixth.
Wilson ran as high as second. A rugged few laps late in the race dropped Wilson to an 10th-place finish.
Gale got into the race by the skin of his teeth, surviving the last-chance race to get into the Derby on Saturday when two drivers who finished ahead of him were disqualified in postrace inspection. Gale showed he belonged: After starting 33rd, he wheeled his No. 21 to a 14th-place finish.
Elliott caught the back of the field on the 22nd lap. A mandatory yellow flag flew after the cars completed the first 75 laps - all led by Elliott - without a caution. Elliott came out of the pits third behind Hemric and Pollard for the restart. Five cautions followed, the last of those coming out on the 221st lap (another competition caution), wiping out Elliott's seven-second lead on Wilson's second-place No. 2. That round of pit stops is where Pollard's race ended, sitting at the end of pit road before slowly backing into his pit stall.
Elliott was all the way back in seventh for the restart on the 231st lap. Three laps later, Elliott and Wilson nearly got together going through Turn 1, and the incident sent Wilson high on the track and back into 11th place. Elliott had two more cautions to deal with, restarting fifth with 57 laps to go and the final restart on the outside of Enfinger with 20 laps remaining.
Jones beat NASCAR star Kyle Busch to win last year's Snowball Derby. He came to Five Flags this year driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports.
Jones, who started from the 12th position and was fifth for the final restart, passed Enfinger on the 286th lap. It proved to be the winning move of the race.
After Elliott's disqualification, Austin Theriault finished third, Hunter Robbins of Shorter was fourth and John Hunter Nemechek came in fifth.