RIDGEWAY, VA :: Myatt Snider has called his shot and declared Sunday afternoon and the Martinsville DuPont Credit Union 300 as a coming out party of sorts.
After posting wins this season at Southern National Motorsports Park and Caraway Speedway, the 20-year-old has circled the biggest Late Model Stock Car race of the season as one in which he wants to make his name known to a national audience.
Snider has staked a verbal claim on the grandfather clock given to the winner of every race at Martinsville Speedway. More to the point, he says he’s willing to do whatever it takes to earn the prestigious trophy.
“This weekend is important to me because this is our Super Bowl,” Snider told Race22.com on Saturday night. “It’s a huge race and I’m going to make myself known one way or the other and I have a few ideas with the competition caution (that comes out each year with 10 laps to go.) I could be tenth and change the entire course of destiny for the race.
“Do I want to do that? I don’t know. I don’t know if I want to ruin everyone’s day because of that. But if the opportunity presents itself, I’m going to have some tough decisions to make.”
Snider says he doesn’t want to come across as a guy who intends to wreck the whole field but he is determined to leave nothing on the table should he make it to the 200-lap feature on Sunday.
“I not going to wreck the entire field or anything,” Snider said. “But if I’m close to the front at the end of the race, I’m going to do whatever it takes to win. I think it will be an exciting race.”
Snider says he is willing to be more aggressive than usual on Sunday due to the circumstances surrounding the most prestigious event of the season. He added that while a wrecked driver will be frustrated in the heat of the moment, he will eventually come to understand it because they’re all willing to go the same lengths to earn a Ridgeway grandfather clock.
“Of course they’re going to be furious,” Snider said. “But at the same time, it’ll come down to it being the same actions for everyone on the track.”
As for his chances, Snider says he feels pretty good about his team and car for Sunday. He posted the 33rd fastest time in Saturday qualifying but said winning this race was a matter of survival.
“I think we have a solid top-10 car right now,” Snider said. “And really, at Martinsville, it can come down to a chaotic crash fest and anything can happen due to the competition caution at the end. You can run 15th and still end up with the win the very next lap due to that caution. So I think we have a good car with or without the competition caution.”
