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Landon Cassill and 25 others to compete in Snowball Derby last chance race

By MattWeaver on Dec 1 2012, 3:06a  @MattWeaverSBN 2

Some of the drivers expected to compete for the Snowball Derby pole were way down in the charts on Friday night, including Mike Garvey, Austin Theriault, Landon Cassill, Steve Wallace and Logan Boyett. Garvey, Wallace and Boyette used their provisional options to lock themselves into Sunday’s race with the last four spots up for grabs in a last chance taking place on Saturday afternoon.

The 31st place qualifier Brian Campbell will start that race from the pole with Paul Kelley to his inside. The field will contain 26 cars with the top-four transferring into Sunday’s Snowball Derby.

Cassill appeared to be a threat for the pole in early practice sessions but will have to race his way into the main event on Saturday afternoon after qualifying 35th. Cassill declined to talk to reporters after turning his two laps but later posted the following to his Twitter account:

"Tough night we haven't locked ourselves into the #SnowballDerby yet. One more shot at it tomorrow but I know we can do it. #cherrypop"

With just 50 laps on the board to get into a transfer spot, the racing promises to be chaotic with lots of contact in the middle of the pack.

Dennis Prunty brought a group of 22 people from Knowles, Wisconsin. Before qualifying, he told SB Nation that he wanted, "absolutely nothing to do with the last chance race. I've seen a lot of good cars get torn up in it and I don't want any part of it."

Unfortunately he qualified 38th and will also have to transfer on Saturday.

The race is expected to be so turbulent that one driver outside of the top-30, Scott Carlson, withdrew his entry and loaded up at the end of the night. When asked for a reason why, he cited his freshly-prepared car and said, "I have a complete race car and I’d like to keep that way."

Here is the starting lineup for Saturday’s last chance qualifier (4 p.m. CST/ Speed51.com radio):