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John Hunter Nemechek Captures 47th Snowball Derby, Scratches Famous Name into Race’s Lore

By Chuck Corder

John Hunter Nemechek didn’t wake up feeling like a champion Sunday morning.

The 17-year-old son of NASCAR favorite Joe Nemechek arose, stumbling around his hauler on 90 not-so-fresh minutes of sleep.

Just hours earlier, the younger Nemechek had wrapped up a runner-up finish in the Snowflake 100 for Pro Late Models. The race didn’t get over until 4 a.m. Sunday becaue of lengthy rain delays pushed back the Saturday night schedule.

When he shook the cobwebs loose Sunday, John Hunter Nemechek was flat-out sick.

“I was exhausted,� he said. “I puked a few times, and I was losing my voice. I was kinda wishing I didn’t sleep. Without it, I think I would’ve felt just as good.�

No one should keep a delirious schedule.

But, then again, it did work for Nemechek on Sunday. The baby-faced assassin took the lead of the 47th annual Snowball Derby on Lap 286 and withstood another wild finish to hoist the Tom Dawson trophy in Victory Lane.

“It’s an amazing win. I can’t describe it,� John Hunter Nemechek said. “I’m proud we can put the Nemechek name in the history books here of the Snowball Derby. There’s so much history. It’s amazing. It feels amazing. We hope to celebrate big.�

It marks the second consecutive year a 17 year old has kissed the plastic snowball. In the two previous years, a pair of 16 year olds — Chase Elliott and Erik Jones — clutched the gold-plated trophy.

Jones was looking to continue to write his own name all over Snowball lore Sunday by becoming the first driver to win three Snowballs in a row.

He actually led the race with 80 laps to go, his second hard charge Sunday, but Jones spun a lap later and had to eventually settle for a 27th-place finish.

His spin also spelled the demise of reigning NASCAR Nationwide Series champion Chase Elliot, the first rookie to win the series titel.

Elliott, who took the lead from Nemechek earlier in the race at Lap 153, tried to “whoa!� up to avoid hitting Jones. As he did, he was hit from behind and pushed into Jones.

Elliott did return to the track momentarily after suffering heavy front-end damage, but ultimately parked it for a 29th-place finish.

Pensacola’s Johanna Long had a dominant car early, leading the opening 59 laps and staying in the top 10 for much of the race before problems near the end relegated her to 17th.

The 2010 Snowball champion, who was hoping another win could once again parlaying a trip to racing’s big league, had tears in her eyes as she wandered behind her position in the pits.

“Our car was too tight from the beginning,� Long said. “We made some adjustments. We just didn’t pick up the throttle at the end.

“My pit crew did an awesome job. It’s definitely something we can take into next season. But it’s not the kinda finish we wanted. This was a top-10 car and we should’ve been there at the end.�

Sixteen-year-old Dalton Sargeant of Fort Lauderdale finished had himself a day at his first career Snowball.

Starting near the back, he somehow managed to finish right behind Nemechek at the end for a runner-up finish. California driver Derek Thorn rounded out the podium.

“We lost to John Hunter Nemechek. Other than that, we come home second and you can’t be upset with that,� Sargeant said. “We slowly worked our way up from the back. We were able to save our tires. We didn’t push it too hard. I knew it the final laps, the tires would help me.�

At 323 laps, this edition of the Snowball was the longest since Long’s win in 2010, which saw an eye-popping 328.

2014 Snowball Derby Results

(powered by 51's Third Turn)

Fin	St	#	Driver	Laps	Led
1	3	8	John Hunter Nemechek	323	68
2	25	5	Dalton Sargeant	323	0
3	11	43	Derek Thorn	323	0
4	1	18	Hunter Robbins	323	57
5	29	90	Grant Enfinger	323	7
6	20	51	Stephen Nasse	323	0
7	26	99	Casey Smith	323	0
8	4	112	Augie Grill	323	11
9	35	29	Anderson Bowen	322	2
10	18	31	Kyle Grissom	322	0
11	14	29	Jeff Choquette	322	0
12	37	2R	Clay Rogers	322	0
13	23	07	Corey LaJoie	321	0
14	5	83	Scotty Ellis	321	7
15	30	10	Steve Dorer	321	0
16	26	9K	Mark Kraus	321	0
17	2	21	Johanna Long	321	59
18	34	57	Cole Timm	320	0
19	32	91	Ty Majeski	320	0
20	21	37	Brian Hoar	320	0
21	36	11	David Rogers	318	0
22	19	26	Preston Peltier	317	0
23	17	2W	Donnie Wilson	316	0
24	8	98	Daniel Hemric	314	50
25	24	11	Logan Boyett	314	0
26	31	88	Garrett Jones	310	0
27	10	51J	Erik Jones	305	18
28	28	42P	Dennis Prunty	255	0
29	12	9	Chase Elliott	229	44
30	15	26	Bubba Pollard	219	0
31	13	42	Chad Finley	218	0
32	22	2	D.J. Vanderley	208	0
33	33	4	Kyle Plott	196	0
34	7	95	Derrick Griffin	107	0
35	5	3	Ross Kenseth	64	0
36	16	41	T.J. Reaid	16	0
37	9	1	Mike Garvey	15	0

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