John Hunter Nemechek wins Snowflake 100

John Hunter Nemechek rebounded from a disqualification in Snowball Derby qualifying in grand fashion by winning the Allen Turner Snowflake 100 on Saturday night at Five Flags Speedway.

By virtue of starting on the front row, Nemechek was able to avoid the carnage of the first half of the race, including a multi-car accident that ended the night of several would-be contenders. The crash ultimately involved Martin Latulippe, Riley Thornton, Derek Thorn, Derrick Griffin, Brad May, Jake Kruger and Anthony Cataldi, thinning the field of challengers for the young NEMCO Motorsports ace.

There were several other incidents as well and Nemechek was able to steer clear of each of them, battling Justin South and Bubba Pollard during the opening crash-filled salvo.

Once the green flag came flew on lap 42, the race ran green to the finish with Nemechek emerging victorious over Chase Elliott and Bret Holmes. Nemechek, who won the Snowball Derby in 2014, was said navigating around slower cars was the key to his victory.

“It was all about who saved the most,” Nemechek said. “It came down to lapped traffic, trying to get through all the lapped cars and we got through them better than he did and that was a positive.”

“You had to save no matter what, if they were going to pull away and burn their stuff up, you had to let them, and you just had to be patient, we saved enough for the end and that’s what made it count.”

Elliott was complimentary of Nemechek’s conservation of equipment as the race went on.

I just think we came up a little short, he just ran a good race overall, I think he did a good job saving his tires and put them to use when it counted the most, and he outdid me a little bit right there.  We’ll try to be better for tomorrow,” Elliott said.

Holmes, however, was almost as proud of his third place finish as Nemechek was of his own victory.  Holmes started 18th and couldn’t challenge Elliott and Nemechek at the end of the race because he had to use up his equipment to get through the field.

“I had to use a lot of my tires to get up to the front, I couldn’t ride that much like they could, so by the end there, my tires had been worn out and hot and that was the main difference.”

“I’ve won a couple [races] at Montgomery Speedway this year but still, finishing third at the Snowflake 100, the biggest pro late model race of the year is definitely a pretty big deal, I’d definitely put this up there with one of my top races because I started so far back and I made it up front, and I had a lot of fun,” Holmes said

Nemechek did learn something that would help him out for Sunday’s Snowball Derby.

“[I should] listen to my spotter and crew chief and dad and car chief, they were all giving me lap times but it’ll be a whole different story tomorrow, we’ve got to come from the back, so who knows, hopefully we’ll make it a weekend sweep.”

The finishing order for the Snowflake 100 can be found below.