Grant Enfinger relieved to finish second in 2013 Snowball Derby

PENSACOLA, Fla. -- Grant Enfinger didn’t pick up the Tom Dawson Memorial Trophy on Sunday afternoon but a second-place finish in the Snowball Derby was a satisfying conclusion for the Alabama-native and two-race ARCA winner from this past season.

The fact that Enfinger was even around for the finish is remarkable by itself given that he dropped a cylinder early in the race and kept fighting the car to cross the finish line in third. And when original victor Chase Elliott was disqualified, it moved Enfinger into the runner-up position.

Enfinger competed in the Snowball Derby this year for Tracy Goodson Racing as a teammate to former All-American Challenge champion Mike Garvey. When considering that Garvey dropped out of the race with an early engine failure, Enfinger was relieved just to be around the podium late in the race.

“We went down a cylinder early in the race but had a great car,” Enfinger told SB Nation immediately after the race. “I’ve got to thank Tracy Goodson, Mike Garvey and (sponsor) D.R. Horton and everybody who put this deal together -- they gave me a great car.

“It’s just that going down that cylinder, we couldn’t run with them on new tires but we were really good on old tires.”

Crew chief Jack Johnson made the call to pit Enfinger on lap 230 and the driver never returned. And on the final restart with 30 to go, Enfinger had the lead on only lost two positions as only Elliott and Erik Jones were able to pass him on fresher tires.

And as it turns out, only one of those passes would stand, giving Enfinger a runner-up on tires that were 40 laps older than those championed by Elliott and Jones.

“We were going to come in because I thought we needed to do something to get off-sequence because of our motor issues -- but it is what it is what it is.”

The complete interview between Enfinger and SB Nation’s Tony Stevens can be viewed below.