Set Back By Early-Season On-Track & Personal Issues, Young Charger Is Ready

To say the month of March presented some trying times for promising young racer Myatt Snider would be an understatement.  The 19-year-old NASCAR Whelen All American Series driver faced an incredible amount of hardships both on and off the race track.  He has been able to maintain his focus through the rough period and is ready to resume his challenging 2014 racing season.

“I’ve always heard that you become a stronger person by enduring adversity,” said Snider, who is balancing his on-track schedule this year with time in the classroom at Belmont Abbey College and regular work hours at Joe Gibbs Racing.  “We’ve certainly had our share of it recently and are determined to bounce back tougher than ever.

“We started off the season with a really strong showing at Kenly (4/10-mile Southern National Motor Sports Park),” said Snider, who is in the JGR driver development system.  “We had a strong top-five finish in the first feature and had one of our best runs yet going in the second 75-lapper.  We were able to lead 30 laps before getting caught up in a crash.

“We went on to South Boston for their opening weekend with high hopes,” Snider continued.  “They had a great field of cars there for the first weekend of racing.  We started 11^th and finished seventh in the first feature.  We were battling for fifth in the second feature with less than 10 laps to go.  I was underneath a guy going into Turn 3 and he just decided to cut down and take me out.

“It was disappointing enough to see such a potential solid day go down the drain by getting wrecked like that,” said Snider.  “It was even more discouraging to learn we had totaled out our best race car there that day.  My crew has been so hard at it ever since trying to get caught up.”

As if his racing situation didn’t already present ample distress, it got even worse.  Only a few days after the South Boston race, Snider learned of the death of his grandmother out in Phoenix.

“My family flew out there that Friday and it was a really sad time for all of us,” said Snider.  “What made it so hard on me personally was the fact that my grandmother had chosen to donate her body to science and there was no viewing.  It was like I couldn’t see her one last time and try to deal with the grief that way.  It was really difficult.

“We got back home on Monday and only a couple of days later had to put down our family dog,” said Snider.  “Abbey was a special Golden Retriever and she had been a big part of our family for 14 years.  So it was like the saddest week a family could go through with the losses we faced.”

Snider and his No. 2 MyattSnider.com Chevy Team return to the track in this weekend’s twin 75-lap feature card at South Boston.  The determined teenage charger says it can’t come soon enough.

“Man, I don’t think I have to tell anyone just how much I am looking forward to getting back to the race track,” said Snider.  “We have our backup car ready and are heading back to South Boston for another couple of battles with some of the best short-track drivers in the country.  Without a doubt, they’ll have more than 20 cars there, so it’ll count as national points. We’ve gotten behind by missing a couple of weeks, so we need to be able to start getting all the points we possibly can.”

Snider began his racing career at the age of 10 when he was Rookie of the Year in Bandelero Bandits in the Summer Shootout Series at Charlotte Motor Speedway.  He finished second in that series’ points battle and third in the 2010 national points race.  He moved up to the Legends cars the following season and finished third in his very first race.  Snider competed in more than 100 Legends races, scoring 12 victories and posting top-5 finishes in an amazing 88 percent of his races.  He went on to win Legends track championships at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Concord Speedway.  He won the Legends North Carolina State Championship and was runner-up in the 2012 Legends National Championship standings.

Snider moved up to the Late Model ranks during the 2013 season, driving for his cousin, Jay Hedgecock, former winning driver and successful car owner.  Competing in a total of 38 points races at Southern National, South Boston, Caraway Speedway and Motor Mile Speedway, Snider won one race (at Caraway) and posted six top-five finishes and 25 top-10s.

Snider’s team, owned by his father, noted broadcaster Marty Snider, moved over to Jeff Caudill’s Four Oaks, N.C., shop for their 2014 campaign.  Caudill, a veteran racing mechanic and former JR Motorsports employee, serves as the team’s crew chief and heads all race car preparation.  Jeff’s brother, Jamey, who won big races all over including Martinsville in 2003, is Snider’s driver coach.  Veteran spotter Paul Griffin is also an active member of the team this season.

“Jeff worked with us last season and his dedication to the preparation aspect of racing really got our attention,” said the elder Snider.  “At this stage in Myatt’s career, it is so important that we are ready to race each and every time we go to the track.  He has so much God-given talent and to show up less than 100 percent prepared just wouldn’t be fair.”

The team’s schedule for 2014 will see them race most every weekend through mid-October.  They will be pursuing NASCAR Whelen All American Series national points along the way.  There is again a great mix of events at Southern National, South Boston, Caraway Speedway and Motor Mile Speedway.

“It will be so good to get back into a regular rhythm of going to the race track again,” Snider said.  “I’m looking forward to it and all the challenges ahead.  In addition to our weekly calendar, we have the Denny Hamlin race (Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown on Thursday, April 24 at South Boston) and the big race at Martinsville (Oct. 5) on our schedule.  I can’t wait.”

Myatt Snider is a gifted youngster who is committed to doing what it takes to be successful on and off the track. “I want to continue to mix my education with competing on the race track and getting the hands-on knowledge at JGR,” said Snider.  “I hope to rise through the ranks and move up to the K & N Series.  I think our schedule is providing me with great racing experience on all the different tracks.  I also think what I am doing off the track is molding me to be a pretty well-rounded individual.  It’s all equally important to me.”