On a nightmarish Friday the 13th for the top three in points, Grill could’ve had the top off of his No. 112 Super Late Model.
The two-time Snowball Derby champion looked to be in late-season form, lapping all but seven of the 17-car field to capture the Miller Lite 100 on Friday at Five Flags Speedway.
Josh Hamner, in his Kyle Busch-owned No. 51, finished a distant second with Donnie Wilson in third.
“It’s actually just like it was in the last race,” said Grill, who won his second consecutive Blizzard Series race. “We didn’t do a thing to it. We had six laps of practice and we put it back because it just felt good. We know what it feels like here.”
So do Chase Elliott, Bubba Pollard and Pensacola’s Johanna Long.
But that trio, which came into the night 1-2-3 in points, struggled mightily. Only Elliott, the series points leader, finished the race, but that was a distant eighth.
“We don’t points race, but this definitely closed the gap on Chase,” said Grill, who’ll likely leapfrog Long and Pollard into going fourth to second. “Chase would have to really stumble next time out for us to overtake him.”
Anything’s possible if Elliott has another disappointing run like Friday.
The first shockwaves of the night, though, came when Pollard’s car slowed to a near-crawl on the back stretch.
He had all sorts of problems beginning when he qualified a disappointing 12th. Pollard’s bad dream culminated just short of the competition yellow. Pollard pulled into his pits, as his crew scratched their heads about what was ailing the No. 18.
“Let’s just say, we didn’t have good weekend,” Pollard said, explaining his frustrations. “This was our second motor in two days. The motor just let go again. It’s not our year this year. We’ll fix it.”
Long, fresh off an impressive back-to-back debut with NASCAR’s trucks in the last month, couldn’t fix her problems Friday.
Ten laps away from competition yellow, Long began to fall back from her position in fourth. Elliott, T.J. Reaid ? the other Busch-owned car ? and Mike Garvey all flew by Long.
When she came to the pits for the competition yellow, her problems only increased. She failed to make it out before the 5 minutes expired, but the hood remained up on her No. 10.
A broken power-steering line ended her night.
Grill didn’t want this Friday night to end.
“I don’t think that much changes about this place,” Grill said. “If you’re good early in the year, you’ll be good for the Snowball. I’ve raced here probably more than anybody else, and we just want to have a good car going into the Derby.”
1 112 Augie Grill 100
2 51 Josh Hamner 100
3 82 Donnie Wilson 100
4 52 TJ Reaid 100
5 67 Jeff Fultz 100
6 1 Mike Garvey 100
7 29 Allen Karnes 100
8 9 Chase Elliott 99
9 31 Tyler Millwood 99
10 12 Chuck Barnes Jr. 99
11 49 Ryan Lawler 99
12 41 Chris Davidson 99
13 99 Jr. Niedecken 97
14 10 Johanna Long 51
15 23 Jeremy Rice 50
16 18 Bubba Pollard 44
17 92 Ron MacDonald 23
18 18 Dave Mader III DNS
Super Stocks
Earl Polk wasted little time getting to the front. He was just thankful he stayed there.
Starting on the outside of Row 1, Polk passed polesitter Mike Moore in Turn 3 of Lap 1 and never looked back.
Randy Thompson provided a furious rally late, but could not pass Polk at the finish line as both cars scrapped the outside wall down the front stretch.
“Randy raced me real clean coming to the checkered and I sure do appreciate that,” Polk said of his second win of season. “We made it to the winner’s circle one more time.”
After Moore was black flagged when his right front tire began to rub, Thompson and third-place finisher Jessie Reid moved up spots.
Thompson slowly began to reel in Polk and had a look coming out of Turn 3. But both he and Polk got sideways and it was enough for Polk to hold on in the 20-lap feature.
“This was probably the best race we’ve had out here in quite a while in this searies,” Thompson said.
Sportsmen
Steve Buttrick and Bubba Winslow went door-to-door for most of the 25-lap feature.
But it was Buttrick again, as the series points leader picked up his seventh victory of the season.
“That was good racing with Bubba,” Buttrick said. “I didn’t know if I was gonna get around him or not.”
Jim Pokrant, who sat on the pole, finished third.
Bombers
Brandon Burks thought he had the perfect birthday present ? Victory No. 1 of 2010.
But on technical inspection, the Milton youngster was disqualified, pushing Burks’ close friend Michael Nelson to first, series points leader Mike Goraum to second and Tony Boyd to third.
Miller Lite 100 results?1. Augie Grill; 2. Joshn Hamner; 3. Donnie Wilson; 4. T.J. Reaid; 5. Jeff Fultz; 6. Mike Garvey; 7. Allen Karnes; 8. Chase Elliott; 9. Tyler Millwood; 10. Chuck Barnes; 11. Ryan Lawler; 12. Chris Davidson; 13. Wayne Niedecken Jr.; 14. Johanna Long; 15. Jeremy Rice; 16. Bubba Pollard; 17. Ron McDonald
Super Stocks feature results?1. Earl Polk; 2. Randy Thompson; 3. Jessie Reid, 4. Mike Austin; Mike Moore
Sportsmen feature results?1. Steve Buttrick; 2. Bubba Winslow; 3. Jim Pokrant; 4. Thomas Warren Jr.; 5. Marty White; 6. Calvin Cook; 7. Bo Resmondo; 8. Wes Gardner; 9. Mark Montgomery; 10. Justin Babb
Bombers feature results?1. Michael Nelson; 2. Mike Goraum; 3. Tony Boyd; 4. Courtney Rodrigues; 5. Hunter Ward; 6. Rick Thompson; 7. Leonard Craig Jr.; 8. Wilber Goraum; 9. James L. Beal III; 10. Bobby Jones; 11. Tracy Soles; 12. Tim Norman; 13. Benny Bender; 14. Dayton Sidner; 15. Brian Lane; DQ Brandon Burks