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Short Track Racing's Best Set to Compete with Best in the World at Pensacola's Snowball Derby

by MattWeaver on Dec 1, 2011 2:57 AM EST

Pensacola, Fla. - The NASCAR season ended at Homestead but the racing doesn't have to.

The Snowball Derby in Pensacola picks up exactly where the Sprint Cup season left off with high stakes and even higher rates of attrition.

Fifty-seven cars have been entered for 37 starting spots making this race one of the most difficult to earn your way into. The local Blizzard Series guarantees two spots with the defending winner (Johanna Long) also guaranteed to start.

If the top two in the Blizzard standings (Augie Grill and Grant Enfinger) make the race on time or in the last chance race, then the provisional starting spots move down the standings through the top 10.

It's a track that rewards its local stars and then invites some of the best in the world to compete against them. The race has been won by Darrell Waltrip (1976), Ted Musgrave (1988), Rick Crawford (1989) and even Kyle Busch (2009).

Crawford cut his teeth on the track before becoming one of the founding fathers of NASCAR's Camping World Truck Series. He paved the way for Long, the defending race winner, to begin carving a similar path to NASCAR greatness.

Long has started in 24 Truck Series races over the past two seasons and hopes to impress enough to earn a full-time ride in 2012. Winning back-to-back Snowball Derby races against some of the toughest competition appears be the most impressive way to earn a shot at the big leagues. Long is just 19 years old.

The same can be said of the 26-year old Enfinger, who recently inked a deal to run part-time in the Sprint Cup Series for the start-up Sinica Motorsports. The team is owned by American businessman George Sinica and is seeking additional sponsors to go full-time by 2013.

It would be a major coup if Enfinger could win his first Snowball Derby and reap the benefits of such a victory. Last year, images of Long's Snowball triumph was streamed during Speed's television broadcast of Daytona Speedweeks. Enfinger is looking for the same treatment, approaching his first Daytona 500 in February.

Coming full-circle, the Snowball Derby may not be the Sprint Cup Series but for many of this weekend's competitors, a victory could mean a shot at NASCAR super-stardom.

Beyond the jump is a list of past winners and the entry list for this weekend's Snowball Derby. Check it out!

 

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