Augie Grill Takes 2011 Snowflake 100 Crown

Pensacola, Fla. - The possibility of a perfect Bubba Pollard weekend lasted approximately 93 laps on Saturday night as the Snowball Derby polesitter crashed out of the Allen Turner Snowflake 100 after starting that race from the pole. Instead the Snowflake 100 trophy went to Pollard’s longtime rival and Pensacola veteran Augie Grill.

Grill dominated the race, leading 91 of the race’s 100 laps but received a strong challenge from Pollard on the lap 93 restart. Pollard restarted the lap on the outside of the front row and kept even with Grill throughout turn two.

Grill lost the handle on the backstretch and slid up into Pollard who was a nose up on Grill. Pollard’s no. 18 caught Grill’s no. 12, sending Pollard spinning and protecting Grill’s lead for the remainder of the night.

“That thing was bad to the bone. It was the cat’s meow,” Grill said. “I rode when I needed to and raced when I had to. The car was great.”

The race featured a multitude of cautions and saw only 14 of 36 entrants finish the race. The event was stopped under the red flag twice and the average race speed was a measly 24 mph.

Pollard was involved in a second accident on lap 96 when his car spun by itself on the front straight, slamming it’s driver hard into the inside retaining wall.

“I’m okay,” Pollard said of the heavy impact. “I shot low to go into turn one and it just broke loose. We had a great car and I thought we had something for Augie there at the end.”

Chase Elliott entered Saturday’s race as the defending Snowflake 100 Champion. If Elliott was able to win back-to-back Snowflakes, he would have won $1,000 for a randomly selected fan. Instead, Elliott spun out during his second qualifying lap and started the race near the back. He was collected in a seven-car pileup on lap 73 and was not a major threat for the rest of the race. Elliott ultimately survived his way to a sixth-place finish and moved up to fifth when Brandon Johnson failed post-race inspection (illegal camshaft). He was disqualified.

The Snowflake 100 was raced with different models of race cars than those that will be seen on Sunday during the Snowball Derby. Saturday’s Snowflake was contested with the slightly slower Pro Late Models while the Derby will use high-speed Super Late Models.

Pollard is the polesitter for Sunday”s race with Augie Grill set to start eighth. Johanna Long is the defending race winner and will start 13^th.

Complete Snowflake 100 results can found after the jump!