Grant Enfinger Awarded Hal Goodson Award for Snowball Derby

A part of the Snowball Derby tradition with Speed51 is awarding the annual Hal Goodson award winner after the race. Many years ago, Goodon finished a Snowball Derby with almost no body panels on the car and the unofficial award was handed out in our post-race leftovers section.

As the race has evolved, so has the award, as it has switched from the car with the most damage to the team, person or driver who overcame the most adversity during the race weekend. This year, Speed51’s staff has decided to award Grant Enfinger as the 2020 recipient of the Hal Goodson award after the Snowball Derby.

Coming from 17th to finish eighth is what the record books will show, but what they won’t show is all the work and dedication he and his Go Fas Racing team had to put the pieces of a team together in just a few days.

“I am proud of the effort,” said Enfinger after the race. “This deal to race down here came together late. These last two week or so we have been working really, really hard.”

Enfinger has had Derby success in the past, but having been out of Super Late Model for a while and working with Go Fas Racing to put together a last-minute deal was already an obstacle. Because of the nature of the team, they had to focus on qualifying runs on Thursday and Friday to ensure they made the show on pole night. Once that was accomplished with a 17th-place qualifying effort, the team focused on race pace.

However, an engine failure at the conclusion of Saturday’s final practice gave the team one more hurdle. Even that could not slow the path that led Enfinger to his eighth top-10 run at the Snowball Derby.

“We popped the motor [Saturday] towards the end of practice,” said Enfinger. “We are thankful for Jeff and Josh Hamner and Bubba Pollard for letting us use a motor from them.”

The team had to put in the new power plant Saturday and started the race with no practice following the swap, just the engine warming process on Sunday. The timing could have been worse, but after the final practice they had almost 24 hours before the race.

“Overall it was a good result. We had a sixth or seventh-place car,” explained Enfinger. “I wish we could have had more time back to work on race stuff. I have to thank Archie [St. Hilaire], Go Fas Racing and Michael Shelton and all the guys for making this all come together. We made a lot of progress from where we started.”

Enfinger hopes there will be another chance at the Snowball in the future.

-Story by: Elgin Traylor, Speed51 Contributor
-Photo credit: Speed51 Photo