Well, the 40th annual Snowball Derby is over and Augie Grill took home the checkered flag with a battered racecar. Pretty cool deal.
Grill has been around Five Flags Speedway all his life, literally. He went to the track for the first time when he was just one month old. The son of Alabama car owner Frankie Grill, Augie’s now 31 years old. In those 31 years, he has been to victory lane in the Snowball Derby two other times but both as a crewmember—one for Wayne Anderson, the other for the late Butch Lindley.
But this past weekend was his time to shine. He took the lead for the final time on lap 267 of the 300-lapper from defending Snowball Derby Champion Clay Rogers. He never looked back as Rogers faded to Fifth. Matt Hawkins crossed the stripe behind Grill to claim Second, while Jeff Fultz finished Third and Eddie Mercer came home Fourth. With the victory, Grill became the 30th different winner of the prestigious short-track event.
In an odd twist, two of the bigger names to enter the event, Steve Wallace and Kyle Busch, both got bounced from the race after failing post-race tech. Wallace’s car crossed the scales too light while Busch’s was declared too low. Needless to say, both drivers were pretty upset. It was even reported that Wallace tried to stuff sockets in his pockets before the car was reweighed. Take our advice Steve-O, sockets aren’t heavy enough. Fill some driving gloves with lead and keep them handy. They work great, so long as the inspector doesn’t try to pick them up.
I know what you all are thinking, yes that trick was tried by a team I used to work for in the NASCAR Cup Series, and no it was not my idea.