MARTINSVILLE, Va. – He may not be full time in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series this season, but Myatt Snider is making sure the rest of the field hasn’t forgotten about him when he’s been behind the wheel.
Snider rolled to a sixth-place finish on Saturday during the TruNorth Global 250 at Martinsville Speedway, surviving a rough-and-tumble afternoon for a top 10 in just his second start of the year.
The reigning Truck Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year steadily improved throughout the day, marching from 15th on the grid to ninth by the end of the second stage, then raced among the contenders for most of the final 100 laps before settling in just behind the front five by the checkered flag.
Snider was one of five ThorSport Racing trucks inside the top 10 at the finish Saturday.
For the 24-year-old, it was a solid day at a track where he’s “about as comfortable as anywhere,” considering his past late-model experience at the .526-mile Virginia bullring.
“I would say this was a good day,” Snider noted. (Martinsville) is a short track I’ve been going to for a long time. ThorSport has a good history here. It’s good to come here with a good team you have rapport with and a good sponsor. We had all that today with ThorSport, Ford Performance and TaxSlayer. I’m really happy with the run today. I just wish we could have gotten some track position because we were pretty much the fastest car on track regularly.
“It’s good when you’re disappointed with a sixth place finish; we just got knocked around by a couple people,” he continued. “Nobody seems to even try to make a pass anymore, they just kind of move you out of the way. That kind of affected our race towards the end, because I was in the top four with about 30 to go and got knocked out of the way by two separate people. It’s just the nature of the beast here.
“It’s good to run well with a team that you like, though. That’s a good sign for the rest of the season.”
For Snider, who ran as high as fourth during the closing stages, he believed he had a chance to contend with eventual victor Kyle Busch if he had gotten the opportunity.
“This truck could have won. I just struggled to get underneath people,” Snider told SPEED SPORT. “It rotated so well … until I got right up next to somebody. That’s something we can probably work on. But when we’re that good, mired back like that … it’s just a little frustrating. We’ve been one of the fastest trucks on the track pretty regularly.
“I’m really happy with the truck, just not happy with the finish.”
Snider has raced in IMSA sports car, late model and Truck Series competition so far this year, but admitted after Saturday’s race that he doesn’t know when his next start in a ThorSport truck will be.
He’s just taking each race one at a time and enjoying the moment.
“This is a good day. We always want more, but this wasn’t bad.”