Stephen Nasse Adds to Five Flags Legacy With Snowball Derby Charge, Snowflake Win

Stephen Nasse finished one position shy of his first Snowball Derby victory in the 57th Annual Snowball Derby. However, he still had a weekend he and his fans won’t forget any time soon.

The Florida driver won the Hard Charger Award for both the Allen Turner Snowflake 100 and the Snowball Derby. In the Snowflake 100, Nasse drove from 24th to the victory. He started 30th in the Snowball Derby, but fell just one spot short of the win as Kaden Honeycutt scored the victory.

“It would have been real sweet if I had pulled off this double in one weekend, the first to ever do it,” said Nasse. “But people will remember this. They’ll remember that I won the Snowflake and I almost won the Snowball. I think people will be talking about it for a little bit. I can’t hold my head too low, but we’re disappointed. That’s a fact.”

Weekends like this one have helped create a legacy for Nasse and earned him a loyal legion of fans.

“I do feel a shift in the mood of people, how people embrace me and act around me. I think I’ve turned a lot of people into Stephen Nasse fans. I’m super thrilled about that. I do all this for the fans.“

Nasse fighting his way through a field of cars has become a calling card, for better and worse. In three of the past four years at the Snowball Derby, Nasse has converted starting positions outside the top 25 into top-1o finishes, including going from 36th to third in 2022.

He loves the thrill of passing cars, but acknowledges his qualifying efforts probably hurt him in cases like Sunday’s Snowball Derby.

“At any track I go to, especially here, as long as your car is handling right, it’s so much fun to pass cars. I’m blessed to be in the position I’m in. I’ve come through the field in three Snowball Derbies, from the back, and finished in the top five and been running for a lead or a win here.

“It’s been tough. I like passing cars, but I think maybe we do need to get qualifying a tad bit better.”

It took some time on Sunday for Nasse to find his stride. He and the Anthony Campi Racing team searched for balance during the first half of the race, and even battled some damage to his car after an early incident.

“The car just wasn’t very good,” said Nasse. “We were ill-handling. The first adjustment we made on the first stop didn’t make it 100 percent. I ended up getting into somebody’s bumper there when they all stacked up and it caved my front-end in. That made it even tighter.”

That’s the double-edged sword of Nasse’s dramatic and thrilling charges. They bring the crowd to its feet and have drawn plenty of those spectators into the Nasse fan club, but what could have been after his late-race surge came up a half-second short?

“It was tough, just because I think if I had started up front, I would have been one of the best cars. Qualifying, I guess, is kind of hindering me, but at the same time, I’m gaining these fans because of this.

“Nobody likes somebody who just goes out there, leads every lap and wins. They might like them, cheer for them, respect them. But they really like the guy that comes from the back to the front, back to the front, rubbing fenders, coming through all this adversity.

“This stings, I won’t lie. I’m so close to it. The emotions will be high. I’m sure I’ve got hundreds of text messages, Facebook messages and everything. People are coming more on my side, and that makes all this that much easier.”

While Nasse is unquestionably one of the best racers from Central Florida, the half-mile oval in Pensacola at the tip of the Florida panhandle. Through the highs and lows – and yes, the search for that elusive Tom Dawson Trophy – Five Flags Speedway has become a home away from home for him.

“This and Winchester are my favorite race tracks,” said Nasse. “New Smyrna is a close third there. This place right here, there’s nothing like it. I’m enjoying the years that we have on it now.

“Here in the next five or ten years, this place will probably be repaved, and it won’t be the same. We’re all going to be talking about that old Pensacola I was really good around. I want to keep on making memories here. Me and this racing surface get along. I hope they never pave it.”

-Photo credit: Will Bellamy, Racing America