Stephen Nasse Charges to Allen Turner Snowflake 100 Victory

Stephen Nasse was not going to be denied on Saturday night at Five Flags Speedway.

Nasse scored the elusive victory in the Allen Turner Snowflake 100, charging from the 24th starting position and finishing ahead of Matthew Craig and Seth Christensen.

After losing the 2020 Snowflake 100 on a penalty for last-lap contact with Bubba Pollard, as well as being disqualified in post-race technical inspection in the 2019 Snowball Derby, the fire has burned brightly for Nasse to win one of the big races at the Pensacola half mile.

That led to Nasse’s impressive showing on Saturday night, as he drove from the 24th starting position to the victory. Nasse took the lead for the first time on lap 59, and held off challenges from the likes of Craig and Dylan Cappello for the win.

"They ain't taking this one from me, I promise you that," said Nasse in victory lane. "It feels damn good. I hope everybody enjoyed the show. I had a great time putting it on everybody. That was some good racing, that three-wide for the lead. It got crazy out there. I'm just glad I could come home with the win.

"Ever since we put this car back together and running it as a Pro car, it's been super-fast everywhere we go. Mark just loves this car here. I'm just so damn proud of these guys, and I'm kind of speechless."

Craig settled for a runner-up finish on a hard-fought night of racing.

"It was really good to fire off. The 11 was giving me a good run at the beginning. Maybe I pushed the right front a little too hard too soon. You'r eracing so hard to win.

"We worked really hard. This car was not good in practice. We kept tuning on it, tuning on it, and got better and better. So close."

Cappello, who serves as Layne Riggs’ crew chief at Front Row Motorsports in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, started on the pole for the event. Craig took the lead on lap eight, but Cappello regained the lead on lap 58 with a three-wide move around Nasse and Craig.

Nasse regained the lead one lap later on a restart, just before the race slowed again for a caution on the frontstretch.

An eight-lap stretch between laps 55 and 62 saw six cautions, shaking up the complexion of the race and several cars ending their night early. The most significant moment came on lap 62, when a massive incident collected several cars and sent Casey Roderick hard into the turn four wall.

Cappello was penalized for jumping the restart prior to that incident, beating Nasse to the start/finish line. Cappello ultimately finished 11th.

"I guess I got a warning earlier on one of the starts," said Cappello. "I don't know which one yet, I haven't seen the replays or anything. I thought I heard him go, and I went. I felt like I gave some back, and we were really close at the line.

"I figured he didn't fire real good and I tried to give it back. They apparently looked at it differently and sent us to the back. It is what it is. I just hate it for everybody's who worked on this thing all week. We spent a lot of time, money and effort to come down here. I feel like we were close. The 51 was really good, too, I don't know if I had anything for him, but we'll never know now."

Meanwhile, Craig briefly challenged Nasse for the top spot on what proved to be the final restart of the race, but Nasse held strong and pulled away to win by 1.6 seconds.

-Photo credit: Will Bellamy, Racing America

Allen Turner Snowflake 100 Unofficial Results