Myatt Snider may not have scored the victory on Saturday night but his third place performance was certainly one of those moral victories that go a long way for young drivers.

In two seasons of racing in Late Model Stock Cars, the 20-year-old has earned a reputation for being aggressive.  In Saturday night’s CARS Tour Late Model race at Southern National Motorsports Park, Snider exercised patience as he stayed inside the top-10 all race and methodically worked his way to a third place finish.

“The car that my crew gave me was ridiculously good,” Snider said after Saturday night’s race.  “I was sort of watching everything very carefully and playing it by ear.  I was sort of, just, adjusting my pace accordingly every single lap.  That’s why my track position fluctuated so much.  In the end, it just sort of worked out for me.  The track sort of changed and that helped me out a bunch.  I really liked how the car acted.  I think this proves that we will be major contenders this year.”

In the closing laps, Snider raced his way back up into the top-five and was biding his time.  A late race pass on Tommy Lemons, Jr. put Snider in the third position and in a position to potentially win the race.  He found himself riding behind Deac McCaskill and Todd Gilliland.  As the leaders raced each other very aggressively, Snider kept himself in a position to take advantage if the two leaders took each other out.

“I was thinking the whole time that they were going to pile into each other eventually because, half the time, that is the product of that hard racing,” Snider remarked.  “They’re both great racers so I sort of expected it to go both ways.  They ended up racing really well.  I was waiting to pounce.  Because of all the cautions we had, I didn’t have enough right-rear tire saved up to make a run.  I had enough to stay even but not enough to make a run.”

Todd Gilliland got around McCaskill and went on to score the victory, his first career Late Model Stock Car win.  Snider took his third place finish in stride and held his head up high.  As Snider stated, he certainly appears primed to be a contender for the CARS Late Model Stock Tour championship.

The next race for the CARS Tour will be held on April 18th at Orange County Speedway in Rougemont, North Carolina.