It Is What It's Going to Be for Pollard in 15th Derby

There was a time when Bubba Pollard rolled into the first week of December absolutely consumed with winning the Snowball Derby, but this year is different.

No, it’s not that Pollard cares less about winning the one glaring omission from his pavement Super Late Model resume, but life has happened to the 35-year-old. In addition to running a family construction company, Pollard has now added an entire family and now a local dirt track to his list of priorities.

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All of this to say that Pollard just doesn’t have the bandwidth to be absolutely consumed with anything like he was in his 20s, but he absolutely does care. But instead of obsessing over every little minutia of his No. 26 Super Late Model, he has taken a more whatever happens, happens approach this year.

Fifteen years of showing up as one of the favorites but closing out will have that effect on a guy.

"It's just another race, kind of gotten used to it and don't know that I feel too differently about it," Pollard said. "Not differently, I guess, but it's kind of 'is what it is' because we've come here with expectations, and that doesn't produce anything.

"We haven't had the greatest of good years, but it hasn't been bad either so we're just going to come down here and just do what we can -- that's all we can do. Maybe we will turn things around. I felt good when we tested the other day, so we'll see.

"We've done a lot of things and hard work to get to this point, so we'll see how it pays off."

At this point of his life and racing career, Pollard is starting to see the value of taking the pressure off himself, because it’s not like that was making a difference one way or the other anyway. Having kids and a race track in addition to Pollard Construction has actually been a benefit in some ways.

He says the Snowball Derby practically feels like a vacation compared to promoting a rain filled Peach State Classic at Senoia Raceway due to the 12-14 hour days and seven days a week grind that was to get the racing in against Mother Nature.

"Maybe it's good to get your minds on different things and just come down here and enjoy it, so it is like a vacation in some ways," he said.

Pollard says he's relied on Port City Race Cars to supply him with the best information possible heading into the week and isn't going to overthink his effort.

"It's so hard because we have other priorities and other things going on to where it's hard to stay on top of the technology," Pollard said. "People don't realize that we don't race for a living, that we've been fortunate to be able to stay on top of a lot of things because the technology wasn't changing the way it is now.

"It's even harder now than it was two or three years ago. It's hard to explain, but it is what it is, and you make the best of it. We're learning with this car, have changed some things but I feel good about what we have."

Pollard didn't even win a race here during the course of the summer, far from his usual 'four or five, something stupid like that' that was custom over the past decade.

"Maybe that means it will be different here in December too," he surmised.

Pollard also debuted a new blue wrap designed by himself and Mark Bucker.

"It's different," Pollard said. "I like the blue. Now we got it in the sunlight, and I feel better because in the shop, I really thought it was too dark. But out here, in the sun, it looks good."

He really hopes it races that way too, but even if it doesn't, it is what it is.