MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Myatt Snider doesn’t know how many chances he will have in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series this season, so every race is important.
The 2018 Truck Series rookie of the year planned to return to ThorSport Racing for another full season slate. However, the last-minute addition and return of veteran Johnny Sauter to the Sandusky, Ohio organization left Snider with just a part-time ride and no assurance on how many times he’d race the No. 27 Ford F150.
The son of television sports personality Marty Snider ran the season-opener at Daytona, but like much of the field was collected in an early race accident. But with sponsorship from TaxSlayer, Snider has returned to the scene for Saturday’s TruNorth Global 250 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
“Racing in NASCAR is still my No. 1 priority,” Snider said Friday. “I’ve been working toward this for years. You can’t just give up because of a bump in the road.
“We’re trying to dig and get as many leads as we can, keep me afloat and keep me racing and hopefully I’ll be able to get make to fulltime racing in 2020. It’s just part of it – you take what you can get and do your best with it.”
Martinsville should provide Snider not only an opportunity to shine but perhaps earn his first career Truck Series victory.
Last year at the famed Virginia short track, Snider impressed.
A solid sixth in the spring was followed up with a podium third-place effort in the fall – a time where Snider rose to the occasion and had become one of the most improved drivers on the tour.
He also has experience at the 0.526-mile short rack competing in Late Model stock cars.
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On Friday, Snider was back again in rare form with the third and sixth-fastest times in the two practice sessions. He qualified 15th on Saturday morning.
“You can’t squander any opportunities you get to perform at your best,” added Snider. “I’ve always looked forward to Martinsville, it’s one of my home tracks and one of my best tracks. Short track racing is what I grew up doing.
“This place always provides such good racing in my opinion. To be able to run here and run a truck for ThorSport Racing, a group that I’ve built an awesome rapport with, is an awesome feeling.
“I think we have a really good chance this weekend. These were the best practices I’ve ever had at Martinsville – p3 and p6 – and I think I could have gotten more out of it. To have such a good truck makes me really excited for (the race).”
Although his next start is undetermined, Snider will still make the trip to Texas Motor Speedway to support his team. And even though being on the sidelines is difficult, it doesn’t mean that the 24-year-old is giving up anytime soon.
In the meantime, he’ll support his team from the sidelines while juggling a schedule as a part-time student at UNC Charlotte and continues to work on getting his pilot’s license.
“I want to try to keep my core group together but it’s also important to learn. As the season goes on, things change,” he said. “We saw that last year with the splitter rules and all that. It’s important to keep up with how the garage is flowing, not just in people terms but in race car terms.
“To keep on top of that and to keep on top of tracks and how they may have changed is especially important.”
While his sophomore season isn’t what he hoped it would, Snider remains focused and strongminded to make the best of the situation.
“Definitely toward the end of last year, I feel like we were in championship mode even though we weren’t a contender,” sounded Snider. “So, if I continue to improve on some of the things this year that I may have lacked in 2018 then I definitely think we can contend for a championship in 2020.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
