{"id":15133,"date":"2012-12-03T04:05:02","date_gmt":"2012-12-03T04:05:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/?p=15133"},"modified":"2012-12-03T04:05:02","modified_gmt":"2012-12-03T04:05:02","slug":"out-of-nowhere-16-year-old-erik-jones-wrestles-busch-for-45th-annual-snowball-derby-crown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/front-page-news\/out-of-nowhere-16-year-old-erik-jones-wrestles-busch-for-45th-annual-snowball-derby-crown\/","title":{"rendered":"Out of Nowhere, 16-Year-Old Erik Jones Wrestles Busch for 45th Annual Snowball Derby Crown"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"\"By Chuck Corder –\u00a0<\/strong>The anticipation boiled inside Carol Jones.Sandwiched between fans and Escambia County\u2019s finest, behind the track gate at Five Flags Speedway, she watched as her boy Erik Jones climbed out of his black No. 4 Super Late Model in Victory Lane and celebrated his improbable 300-lap win at the 45th annual Snowball Derby.<\/p>\n

Carol Jones clinched her fists and grinded her teeth. Her prince, now the king of short-track racing\u2019s heaviest crown, wrestling away the Tom Dawson trophy from NASCAR superstar Kyle Busch.<\/p>\n

And she couldn\u2019t get through these unfamiliar faces.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to throw up,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is amazing. This is unbelievable. This is the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cutting through the kindness of strangers, mother finally reached son and the two shared a lifetime of adulation.<\/p>\n

Jones became the second consecutive 16 year old to win America\u2019s most prestigious short-track race, a year after Chase Elliott became the event\u2019s youngest winner.<\/p>\n

Jones also is the first driver to win in his first Derby attempt since Gary St. Amant did it 20 years ago.<\/p>\n

What made it more head-turning was who he beat. Jones never flinched when Busch, the 2009 champ, pressed him for the lead.<\/p>\n

The teenager dug in, fought back and took it back to lead the final 18 laps, cruising to an 0.752-second margin of victory while Busch finished third after surrendering second to Jeff Choquette.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just beat NASCAR star Kyle Busch,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI can\u2019t believe it. Guys race for this championship for a lifetime and don\u2019t get it. And for me, my first time, to get it? It\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones led three times for a total of 123 laps, which was tops Sunday. Busch was out front three times, as well, but only led 14 laps.<\/p>\n

Johanna Long was a distant 14th, struggling with her car all afternoon and failing to deliver another Derby title to her throng of hometown supporters.<\/p>\n

Pole sitter David Ragan, another of the several group of NASCAR faces Sunday, had issues early before salvaging eighth.<\/p>\n

Elliott was snakebitten in his title defense. The now 17 year old was involved in a mid-race incident and spent lengthy periods in the pits trying to get right.<\/p>\n

After congratulating Jones in Victory Lane, Elliott walked away, lamenting his finish and, more notably, Busch\u2019s return to Pensacola.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m disappointed. We should be here,\u201d Elliott said. \u201cThe only thing I\u2019d do different is I\u2019d tell Kyle Busch to not come down here and race with us. He needs to show respect to all drivers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several drivers echoed Elliott\u2019s frustrations.<\/p>\n

T.J. Reaid, who used to be a part of Busch\u2019s late model teams, got spun out by his former boss while leading early in the race.<\/p>\n

After a subsequent crash, Reaid held nothing back in expressing his feelings toward his ex-employer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess (Busch) got pissed off I got him on the restart,\u201d Reaid said. \u201cTypical him, he\u2019s gonna (expletive) cry.\u201d<\/p>\n

As polarizing as he might be, fans had to appreciate Busch\u2019s valiant comeback. He was penalized to the rear of the 36-car field for spinning Reaid, but managed to be a serious factor in crunch time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we had it a fuzz better, we would\u2019ve got Erik,\u201d Busch said. \u201cMy guys gave me a great piece. I hate it we didn\u2019t have enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Busch knew he had his hands full when Jones began making his way through the field.<\/p>\n

Busch has long admired the kid\u2019s talent, recruiting Jones to drive as his emergency backup at another late model race three months ago before Busch was able to avoid a conflicting race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of funny, at 27, to think I\u2019m old,\u201d Busch said. \u201cBut the roles have definitely been reversed. Erik fought all day for 300 laps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Words that would surely make a momma proud.<\/p>\n

\u201cKyle\u2019s one of the best, obviously, but I wasn\u2019t going to lose this,\u201d Erik Jones said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to describe what it means to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

UNOFFICIAL SNOWBALL DERBY RESULTS\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
1<\/td>\n4 J<\/td>\nErik Jones<\/td>\n300<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\n29 C<\/td>\nJeff Choquette<\/td>\n300<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\n51<\/td>\nKyle Busch<\/td>\n300<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\n67<\/td>\nJeff Fultz<\/td>\n300<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\n9<\/td>\nChase Elliott<\/td>\n300<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/td>\n36<\/td>\nGrant Enfinger<\/td>\n300<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/td>\n71<\/td>\nKyle Benjamin<\/td>\n300<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8<\/td>\n77<\/td>\nDavid Ragan<\/td>\n300<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9<\/td>\n41<\/td>\nChris Davidson<\/td>\n300<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10<\/td>\n8<\/td>\nJohn Hunter Nemechek<\/td>\n300<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11<\/td>\n25<\/td>\nRoss Kenseth<\/td>\n300<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
12<\/td>\n45<\/td>\nDwayne Buggay<\/td>\n300<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
13<\/td>\n2<\/td>\nD.J. Vanderley<\/td>\n300<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
14<\/td>\n10<\/td>\nJohanna Long<\/td>\n300<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
15<\/td>\n2 W<\/td>\nDonnie Wilson<\/td>\n300<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
16<\/td>\n22<\/td>\nHunter Robbins<\/td>\n299<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
17<\/td>\n7<\/td>\nChuck Barnes Jr<\/td>\n299<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
18<\/td>\n84<\/td>\nClay Alexander<\/td>\n297<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
19<\/td>\n21 J<\/td>\nKyle Jones<\/td>\n283<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
20<\/td>\n29 T<\/td>\nAustin Theriault<\/td>\n249<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
21<\/td>\n99S<\/td>\nCasey Smith<\/td>\n228<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
22<\/td>\n66<\/td>\nSteven Wallace<\/td>\n226<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
23<\/td>\n11<\/td>\nDavid Rogers<\/td>\n226<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
24<\/td>\n96<\/td>\nBen Kennedy<\/td>\n221<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
25<\/td>\n0<\/td>\nBrad Rogers<\/td>\n201<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
26<\/td>\n41 R<\/td>\nT.J. Reaid<\/td>\n164<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
27<\/td>\n26<\/td>\nBubba Pollard<\/td>\n158<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
28<\/td>\n5<\/td>\nNelson Piquet Jr<\/td>\n125<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
29<\/td>\n98<\/td>\nDaniel Hemric<\/td>\n125<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
30<\/td>\n11 B<\/td>\nLogan Boyett<\/td>\n125<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
31<\/td>\n1<\/td>\nMike Garvey<\/td>\n123<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
32<\/td>\n51<\/td>\nStephen Nasse<\/td>\n117<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
33<\/td>\n4<\/td>\nJeremy Pate<\/td>\n116<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
34<\/td>\n20<\/td>\nBrian Campbell<\/td>\n112<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
35<\/td>\n10 K<\/td>\nPaul Kelley<\/td>\n45<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
36<\/td>\n49<\/td>\nAugie Grill<\/td>\n38<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
37<\/td>\n10 D<\/td>\nSteve Dorer<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Chuck Corder –\u00a0The anticipation boiled inside Carol Jones.Sandwiched between fans and Escambia County\u2019s finest, behind the track gate at Five Flags Speedway, she watched […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[56,22,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-5-flags-speedway","category-featured","category-front-page-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15133"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15136,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15133\/revisions\/15136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}