Recent Wins Boost Snider’s Optimism Ahead of Martinsville

CHARLOTTE, NC :: Myatt Snider has peaked at the right time of the season, scoring two wins in the last two weeks.  Those victories give Snider renewed confidence and optimism heading in to the biggest race of the year, the Martinsville DuPont Credit Union (MDCU) 300 at Martinsville Speedway.

Snider has scored two wins in the last five races at two different racetracks – Caraway Speedway and Southern National Motorsports Park.  The victory at Caraway came on September 6^th.  Entering that race, Snider had a winless drought dating back 11 months.  Snider says his confidence was shaken though.  With a little patience, he finally raced his way back to victory lane.

“My confidence wasn’t down; I just sort of wasn’t being patient enough,” Snider explained.  “I took some advice from Jamey Caudill that day instead of just going for the lead on lap 10.  It was twin 40s so I dropped back and saved until lap 25 then i started going and it was a rocket ship from there.  So I passed Robert Tyler with about eight to go then I got out front and stayed from there.  We got our first win which was a good thing.”

Snider finished second in the second race in the Caraway doubleheader.  Six days later, it was off to Southern National Motorsports Park which was hosting a weekend doubleheader where there were three Late Model races scheduled across two days.  In Friday’s 35-lap shootout, Snider picked up the victory – the first of his career at Southern National.

“For a 35 lap race, I guess I did exhibit patience for a little bit,” Snider remarked.  “I was just letting Garbo run his stuff in the track.  What he was doing, almost every lap, was getting a good 15-35 degrees sideways so I knew he burned the tires off especially when they went up on pressure like that.  So, I let him to that for about 10 laps then we gave him a nice little bump on lap 10 and it was all out front from there.  I made sure I kept him side-by-side so I could rotate the corners as fast as I could and get away from him.  I made sure I waited for that and got as far away from him as I could because, I knew the way he drives, he’d shove me without caring so I got away and it was all good from there.”

While Snider’s gotten hot at the right time, he plans on leaning on Jamey Caudill for advice at Martinsville as well as NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin.  Hamlin is a former Late Model Stock Car standout who has scored four victories at Martinsville in his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career.

“I’ll definitely be listening to Jamey’s advice for Martinsville because he’ll definitely be a guru for that.  I’m also definitely going to try to hunt down Denny Hamlin if he’s at the shop this week.  I took advice from him last year and I was ninth at the test so I’ll take his advice this year and apply it as best I can.”

Last year, Snider finished 19^th in his Martinsville debut but he felt he could have finished better.  This year, his expectations are to finish in the top-five and be there at the end of the race.

“I’d really like to finish in the top-five because, last year, I didn’t even finish because we had a battery issue. I think we’ll have a good race this year.  We’ll see.  A top-five is a possible goal.  Hopefully, if our car’s that good, we can see what we have if any of the typical Martinsville craziness happens in the last couple laps which is usually does so we’ll see.”

After Martinsville, Snider will turn his attention to the Mid-Atlantic Shootout at Caraway Speedway, which he won last year, as well as the Fall Brawl at Hickory Motor Speedway, the Myrtle Beach 400 and the Thanksgiving All-Star Classic at Southern National.

Victory lane had eluded Snider throughout much of the season.  He scored several top-three finishes at Southern National prior to his scoring his second career win at Caraway a couple weeks ago.  Entering Martinsville, Snider comes in renewed optimism along with the confidence that comes when being mentored by a former MDCU 300 winner.