Saying Chase Elliott’s weekend was great would be an understatement. The 18-year-old swept the weekend at Five Flags Speedway by winning the Snowflake 100 and Snowball Derby becoming the first driver in history to win both on the same weekend.
Elliott led 233 laps en route to his second victory in the prestigious Super Late Model event. The deciding factor of the race came on lap 272 after a caution fell for Josh Hamner spinning. Elliott’s crew chief, Ricky Turner, decided to take two tires despite having four behind the wall.
During the final caution Grant Enfinger stayed on the racetrack with only seven cylinders and was quickly overtaken by Elliott and defending Snowball winner Erik Jones. After the restart it left Elliott in clear space to glide to victory lane after demolishing the competition not only on Sunday but the entire weekend.
“It means the world to me honestly,” Elliott said in victory lane, “what a heck of a weekend.” Elliott also gave credit to his crew chief, a former Snowball Derby winner himself. “It was a great call,” Elliott said of a late race pit stop. “Two tires was the right call.”
Jones finished the event second in his Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 51 machine. He was followed by Enfinger, Austin Theriault and Hunter Robbins rounded out the top five.
“We wanted just a few more laps or a caution and if he still won, he would’ve had to work for it.” Jones said disappointingly.
“The car was still really good on long runs,” Enfinger said. “I think if we had all eight cylinders we would’ve been better on short runs and had a chance to win.”
Daniel Hemric, Southern Super Series champion, had issues in the early going that forced him to retire from the race along with Augie Grill. Talladega Sprint Cup winner of this season, David Ragan, was forced from the race as well with a broken ball joint.
UPDATED: After all the hyped cooled down from Elliott’s impressive win he was disqualified by Five Flags officials for having tungsten in the car which is illegal. Following Elliott’s disqualification it gave the victory to Erik Jones meaning he won the Snowball Derby back-to-back years.
Elliott declined comments with the Media.
“It was an oversight on my part. I messed up,” Ricky Turner, Elliott’s Crew Chief said.
Tungsten is lead that adds weight allowing the car to pull to the track. According to Speed51.com another one of the competitors spotted the tungsten quickly alerting officials. The tungsten weighed 36 pounds and the rule is in place because of how expensive the lead is.
Jones became the first driver since Augie Grill to win back-to-back Snowball Derby’s.
