![\"Joneswins2\"](\"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Joneswins2.jpg\")
Chuck Corder, Pensacola, FL –\u00a0It what was a virtual coronation Sunday of Chase Elliott\u2019s growing kingdom of trophies in Victory Lane at Five Flags Speedway rose another power in the Tech Shed.<\/p>\nChuck Corder, Pensacola, FL –\u00a0It what was a virtual coronation Sunday of Chase Elliott\u2019s growing kingdom of trophies in Victory Lane at Five Flags Speedway rose another power in the Tech Shed.<\/p>\n
A few short hours after Elliott had hoisted the Tom Dawson trophy for his second career Snowball Derby victory, he was stripped of the crown under technical inspection.<\/p>\n
Instead, Erik Jones went from settling for second to successfully defending his historic 2012 Snowball Derby win by capturing a second consecutive crown.<\/p>\n
Not surprisingly, Elliott had no comment to share about his feelings following the official ruling of \u201cunapproved weight\u201d to his No. 9 Super Late Model.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was all a fair process,\u201d Five Flags general manager Tim Bryant said. \u201cThere were no arguments from the Elliotts on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elliott and crew chief Ricky Turner have been simpatico for the duration of the 18-year-old\u2019s entire late model career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an oversight on my part,\u201d Turner told Speed51.com, short-track\u2019s online bible. \u201cI messed up\u201d<\/p>\n
The disqualification meant Elliott\u2019s apparent weekend sweep of the 46th annual Snowball and Saturday night\u2019s Snowflake 100 for Pro Late Models went poof.<\/p>\n
More importantly, it meant once-bridesmaid Jones was now back-to-back champion Erik Jones.<\/p>\n
Last year the Byron, Mich., native outdueled NASCAR superstar Kyle Busch for the most coveted prize in short-track racing to become the 300 lapper\u2019s youngest winner.<\/p>\n
This December, the 17-year-old drove the Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 51 into short-track lore by becoming part of an exclusive group that has won consecutive Snowballs.<\/p>\n
Rich Bickle did it twice (1990-91, 1998-98), amazingly, and Augie Grill won the country\u2019s most prestigious race in 2007-08.<\/p>\n
Ironic that the back half of Grill\u2019s two also came when Brian Icklar\u2019s 2008 win was tossed out in tech.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty special to join that list,\u201d Jones said. \u201cIt puts my name on a list with some awesome racecar drivers. That\u2019s something pretty special to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before he walked through another milestone, Jones\u2019 second-place finish was an impressive showing in a champion\u2019s role.<\/p>\n
Not many drivers could say they\u2019ve done that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to lose to Chase,\u201d Jones said moments afterward the race\u2019s conclusion, as he had to watch Elliott pose for photos and get doused with water from his joyous team.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s my biggest competition. I like beating him more than running second.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elliott, a Mozart of late models, dominated the 300 laps, a night after dominating the Snowflake 100.<\/p>\n
He said in prerace introductions he expected to be the man to beat. He showed quickly that he wouldn\u2019t be intimidated by the field of hunters by mixing it up with lapped cars on Lap 26.<\/p>\n
At one point he had lap the entire 37-car field, safe for 11 drivers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means the world to me,\u201d the Dawsonville, Ga., native said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, an authority on jaw-dropping performances offer his invaluable two cents.<\/p>\n
\u201cA weekend performance like this comes once in a lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those were the immortal words of Bill Elliott, Chase\u2019s father who just so happens to have the nickname \u201cMillion Dollar\u201d for his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series exploits in one dominant 1985 season.<\/p>\n
Chase Elliott crossed the finish line, left index finger hanging outside the window net as the checkered flag waved wildly.<\/p>\n
His legion of fans screamed for his attention as he ascended from the car with an emphatic and elated \u201cYes!\u201d<\/p>\n
The race had eight cautions for 71 laps, but two yellows were competition cautions as the race twice stayed green for 75 laps. Rules state the yellow must wave with that much green-flag racing.<\/p>\n
Johann Long couldn\u2019t channel the magic of her 2010 title run, finishing a disappointing 17th<\/sup>\u00a0and never was a factor.<\/p>\n Augie Grill (37th) and Bubba Pollard (31st), both perennial favorites for any late model event their names are entered in, had nightmarish days.<\/p>\n Grill\u2019s day was done before the opening green, doomed under pace laps.<\/p>\n \u201cI was just spinning the tires with one to go and it just broke,\u201d said the two-time Snowball winner (2007, 2008). \u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking. In the last two Snowballs, I haven\u2019t made it to the first pit stop.\u201d<\/p>\n Pollard, right in the thick of the top three for most of the race, couldn\u2019t make it out of the pits during a caution on Lap 221 due to a broken axle.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just broke before I could get out of the pits,\u201d he said. \u201cWith all that racing, the parts take a lot of abuse. It\u2019s disappointing \u2026 we had a lot left for Chase.\u201d<\/p>\n Who knows? Maybe he did.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Chuck Corder, Pensacola, FL –\u00a0It what was a virtual coronation Sunday of Chase Elliott\u2019s growing kingdom of trophies in Victory Lane at Five Flags Speedway […]<\/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":[56,22,3,4,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-5-flags-speedway","category-featured","category-front-page-news","category-race-results","category-racing-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20506","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=20506"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20510,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20506\/revisions\/20510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}