SNOWBALL DERBY LEFTOVERS

THE TRUTHS ABOUT THE DERBY

There are two hard truths about the Snowball Derby. First is that tires wear out quickly. A set of rubber is almost used up by the time a car is off pit road.

The second is that there is trouble everywhere. Lapped cars get in the way and battles for the lead turn ugly. Avoiding trouble is a key to survival.

JR Norris had a promising run cut short by both problems on Saturday night.

A pit stop for tires early on left him back in the pack and that is where trouble could not be avoided.

“It was as short night, as usual,” said Norris. “We had a tire problem on the first set (of tires) that killed my track position. I tried to hang on as long as we could. If I tried to hang on much longer, we would have went a lap down. So we came in and changed them trying to stay on the lead lap.

“Then, the 09 car drove like an idiot down there and took out the 41 car and spun me. That put us behind.”

Niedecken is referring to an accident where he was in the middle in a three-wide battle with Randy Gentry on the bottom and Chris Davidson on the outside. All three were battling for position. All three got to turn one still three-wide and there was no room left. Davidson got the worst of it and slammed into the outside wall after the contact. Niedecken spun out, but gassed it and kept it off the wall. Gentry continued on.

“Davidson drove off into three and four and got up high,” said Gentry of the accident. “Niedecken was on the inside and I just turned on the inside of them down the front stretch. I had them cleared. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know why they wrecked behind us. I was clear of them and I never touched them. One of his guys thought they got into him. It was racing hard. I knew I had to go, but it wasn’t like I ran into them or anything.”

“We ran off up in there with Randy Gentry and Junior Niedecken,” said Davidson of the accident. “Between the two of them, I ended up in the wall. I’m not exactly sure what happened.”

That put Niedecken behind the eight ball, something he could never come back from.

“What an awesome car though. I came from a half-lap down at one point and was passing people on the outside. We had a hot rod.”

FLORIDA'S HOTSHOT LEFT A SITTING DUCK

However, just like Bradberry, a accident would prevent him from getting that shot. However, unlike Bradberry, Niedecken would still get a chance to finish. He came home 16th.

“We didn’t get the finish we deserve, but you can’t do a thing about it,” said Niedecken. “You are in a rock in a hard spot. We pitted with 50 laps to go and that was the right move. I knew we’d have a good number of cautions after that. But the tires never really came in. I don’t know if the tires were too hard or what.

“We came in and put 80 lap tires on it and the car was faster. When the chips were down, I couldn’t put my chips down because of a bad set of tires.

"I was just riding around out there and went of into one and they piled up. I went to the high side trying to miss it and someone came up and hit my left front and I shot up into the wall. There wasn’t anything I could do. That is about all I can say.”

The wreck left Norris, who had to use the #4 during the race, with a finish of 34th.

“We had a fast car. We had a good car on the long runs. I was looking forward to the race. We just got to have some luck down here. You can have all the patience in the world here and do whatever you can do. When you get in a pile of cars and one of those guys get inpatient, you are likely going to get caught in it. You can’t back off. You just got to try to play it right and pick your moves and guess what someone is going to do. Sometimes, you just guess wrong. I didn’t see anything happening. I caught a slow car. I went on the outside and was going to go around him. As I went to the corner, everyone slammed on the corner. It all happened at once.

“This is about my luck in the Derby,” said Norris. “I’ve run four races down here and haven’t finished a single one yet. But we’ll come back. We always come back and see what we can do.”

JUNIOR HAS A FAST CAR, UNHAPPY WITH GENTRY

Local and fan favorite Junior Niedecken, racing in his 25th Snowball Derby, looked like he had one of the fastest cars on the track late in the going. In fact, after Kevin Cywinski fell out, it looked like possibly Niedecken and Charlie Bradberry were the only two that might have anything for eventual race winner Steve Wallace.

It is hard to believe that arguably Florida's best Super Late Model driver, Wayne Anderson, had run the Snowball Derby just four times prior to the 2004 race. In those four races, he's got two top-10s, with one of those being a win, which came back in 2001.

Anderson looked to be in a spot to give himself win number two on Saturday night, but the cautions just didn't pan out quite like he had hoped and old tires with just a few laps to go left him a sitting duck.

“It's a shame the way the situations went there at the end with the two red flags near the end because I got hung out with old tires,” said Anderson. “I've got two new tires

in the pits, which is a good thing for the Snowball, but I just couldn't bring myself down pit road, leading this thing, with 19 laps to go. When you are out on old tires, you are just a sitting duck.

“Either way, we'll take it. To finish in the top five is a tremendous run for us. This is my dad's car and to come and run so well with him. This is a family deal. We can go home with our heads high.”

So why not come in and take tires and take the chance?

“Damn, I'm from Florida and I wanna win this race. I feel like I'm the hot dog down south. But when you come to the Derby, you fell like you are coming north because so many guys show up to this race.”

THANK GOD FOR RAINOUTS

Dave Mader III had to be thanking some sort of higher power when the rains came last weekend.

With a good engine in the car, Mader made the most of it. He even avoided a little bit of trouble during a run in with Steve Wallace by keeping his car out of the wall.

“When my spotter told me to get in line, I hesitated and Steve and I came together a little there. That just killed me. That is part of it all I guess. No harm, no foul.”

It was also a good night for Mader business-wise. His Dave Mader Race Cars had a good night.

“Ronnie Sanders finished sixth in one of my cars and Junior Niedecken ran good all night. I’m proud of my guys. They showed something there.”

FATHER & SON BOTH END UP IN WALL

You see, Mader had to take a past champion's provisional just to make it in the race. Why? His engine has serious problems. Had the race ran when scheduled, he would have likely just made few laps and pulled it in. However, the week delay gave Mader and his team a chance to fix the engine (they couldn't change engines, just fix it) and they made the most of it. Mader came back and finished on the lead lap in ninth.

“Coming back a week later helped me a ton,” said Mader. “I don’t think that engine last week would have run but about five laps. It had a water leak and the head was cracked. It might have gone 300 laps, but I doubt it. More than likely, it wouldn’t have. So the rainout saved us.”

The father-son combination of Greg and Chris Davidson both had fast cars in practice and qualified next to each other in 20th and 21st spot. And keeping with the theme of the night, both followed each other to the garage area, as both drivers' nights ended against the wall.

Father Greg was the first victim. Just 34 laps into the event, Davidson was spun and slammed into the backstretch wall, ending his night prematurely.

“The car was better than in practice, which meant it was going to be pretty good,” said Greg. “Someone got into me in turn one and we got hung out high. We were working our way back in and someone got into us on the

with Randy Gentry and Junior Niedecken. Between the two of them, I ended up in the wall. I’m not exactly sure what happened.

“It was a good car. It was horribly loose at the beginning of the race, so we just fixed it with tires and got it to where we could run in the top 10. We stayed there for most of the race and just put ourselves in a position to be there at the end. I guess we just ran out of car apparently.”

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And he was watching son Chris make a charge to the front. Chris overcame an early spin and fought his way back into the top-five with just 20 laps to go before coming out on the short end of the stick in a battle for position with Randy Gentry and Junior Niedecken.

“There was 20 laps to go,” said Davidson, who finished sixth in this year's NASCAR Southeast Series points standings, “We were running third or fourth and we had two new tires left in the pits. That set us up perfect for a late caution. I don’t think anyone else in contention had tires left. We were just biding our time. We ran off up in there