CHARLOTTE, NC :: Myatt Snider has been knocking on the door of his second career Late Model Stock Car victory all season long. In fact, if you look through his results, you’d find a myriad of second and third place finishes during the season. Now, Snider is looking ahead to three opportunities to score his first victory of the 2014 season.
Snider, who is the son of NBC Sports Network (NBCSN) veteran broadcaster Marty Snider, is a sophomore in the Late Model Stock Car ranks. To date, he has one career win which came at Caraway Speedway last fall. This season, however, victory lane has eluded him as he races Late Model greats like Lee Pulliam and Tommy Lemons, Jr.
“It’s a little frustrating but rewarding at the same time since I’m running with drivers who have raced for years in Late Models,” Snider said. “I just have to figure out how to get by them without wrecking them because they know how to get in the corner so perfectly. I’ve figured it out pretty well. What I could say is, the first year was my learning season. Now, I’m applying all of that and I’ve applied it well. I’ve got plenty of chances this weekend to get a win and I think it is close.”
This weekend, Snider will have three opportunities as he will race at Caraway Speedway on Friday night and Southern National Motorsports Park on Saturday night. Snider feels confident about his chances at Caraway.
“The last time we ran Caraway was the Rusty Harpe Memorial and I was running third while hardly even running. I would’ve had something for Kaz Grala if my motor hadn’t blown. I think we’ve got a really good shot this weekend so we’ll see.”
But there is one man who has seemingly been in between Snider and Victory Lane all season. That man is the two-time defending NASCAR Whelen All-American Series National Champion Lee Pulliam. What would it mean to Snider to beat Pulliam?
“It would mean a lot to beat him,” Snider remarked. “He’s got things figured out in his car and his driving. I’m still sort of the new kid. I think it would be great to get past him. I’m still perfectly fine with running in contention with him compared to last year but it’s great we’re running like this. It shows I’ve figured out Late Models pretty well and growing in Late Models. It’s fun to run competitive against him and I don’t think it will be too long before I run more competitive than him.”
Snider sits third in the point standings at Southern National Motorsports Park, 50 points behind points leader Tommy Lemons, Jr. with some eight races remaining. Snider knows he still has a shot at the championship. But he’s also looking ahead to some of the bigger races that will take place this fall, including Martinsville, the Thanksgiving Classic at Southern National and, very possibly, Myrtle Beach.
“When we moved to Jeff Cadill’s shop, it’s allowed us to save money while he gets more time on the car and it’s not far from his house. Last year, when we didn’t have it there, we weren’t able to run Myrtle Beach or the Denny Hamlin even though we were invited. Now that we have that, we can run it if we want to. I really want to run that and learning about saving tires and running half-throttle. It would be very valuable experience running a track like that which is a respected Late Model track with a lot of history. It would be fun. I look forward to running it.”
During the week, Snider is working for Joe Gibbs Racing assembling racecars. He says his 2015 season plans are contingent on sponsorship but that they are pursuing possible opportunities in ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards and the NASCAR K&N Pro Series– but nothing is official yet.
Snider has raced at Caraway Speedway, South Boston Speedway and Southern National Motorsports Park this season. He sits 28th in the NASCAR Whelen All American Series National Championship standings with 11 top-five finishes and 17 top-10 finishes in 25 starts on the 2014 racing season.
