Ty Majeski claimed his second victory in the prestigious Snowball Derby on Sunday at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida.
The event is the most prestigious stock car race in the country not sanctioned by NASCAR and the victory is the second in four years by Majeski, a regular contender in the Craftsman Truck Series over the past several years.
The race was won and lost under dramatic circumstances as leaders Stephen Nasse and Bubba Pollard crashed each other racing for the win in Turn 1 with seven laps remaining right in front of Majeski. Both Pollard and Nasse are considered the two biggest regular heavyweights of the discipline but are both searching for their first win its biggest event.
Majeski drove by both crashed cars and drove away from Gio Ruggiero on the ensuing restart to add a second Tom Dawson Trophy to his resume following a victory in the race back in 2020. Fittingly enough, Majeski won the race in the same chassis, one of the oldest cars in the field as it was built back in 2018.
While Pollard and Nasse are considered the heavyweights of the discipline, Ty Majeski would be right there with them as he won the ASA national tour championship this year while simultaneously racing in the Truck Series.
Ironically, Majeski says this car was not the best car in the field in both years he won and was crashed out with cars that were arguably more dominant.
“It seems like you can’t ever be fast enough to win this race,” Majeski said. “I thought we actually had the best long-run car today. We were really strong at the end of a run. I thought we were catching Nasse there when that caution came out with about 20 to go.
“It came down to a short run. We made some adjustments to the car to make it better. I still don’t know if we could have won on a short run (with Nasse). Anything can happen in the Snowball. You just have to be in the game, right?
“You have to be in the top-five when it’s ‘go time’ and anything can happen. It was a hell of race between Nasse and I. That was a hell of a good race between a lot of good race cars and drivers.”
Ruggiero, Travis Braden, Cole Butcher and Matt Craig completed the top-five. Nasse limped his damage car to a sixth-place finish while Pollard was credited with a 19th.
“I told myself it was either going to be me wrecked or me winning and it was one of those deals where those guys behind me were fast, and definitely faster on the short run compared to me, so I knew they were going to be charging hard,” Nasse said. “That’s what happened.
“I definitely hate the way it ended. I ain’t trying to wreck any more than the next guy. I come here to win. I come here to race hard. I did crowd Bubba there a little bit but he knew what he was doing and I knew what I was doing. We were racing hard.
“I think if I really had done him wrong, he would have had a few words with me by now.”
Pollard had a muted response to that sentiment.
“Ain’t nothing else for me to say then,” he retorted.
Pollard described it was a ‘if I can’t win, he can’t win kind of thing’ from Nasse.
The other notable incident occurred on Lap 282 when Noah Gragson missed a shift from fourth and stacked up the entire field behind him. The melee included Jake Finch, Erik Jones, William Byron, Hunter Robbins and defending winner Derek Thorn.
“It looks like Noah messed up and we paid for it,” Finch said.
Byron said he had nowhere to go.
“I didn’t see much,” Byron said. “I think the 30 missed a shift. I thought I was getting a good restart and as soon as they bottled up, I just crashed over all of them. Pretty wild.”
It sent Robbins to the hospital.
Gragson took responsibility.
“I just screwed up,” he said. “I couldn’t get it in fourth and I don’t know if I was too fast or got on the gas too hard but I couldn’t get it in. I can’t remember the last time I missed a shift.”