WHY I RACE: MYATT SNIDER

Following a solid NASCAR Xfinity Series campaign a year ago, Myatt Snider shares his thoughts about driving Richard Childress Racing’s No. 2 TaxSlayer Chevrolet in the full Xfinity Series schedule this season.

BY ROB TIONGSON

Snider: I am a guy who flies under the radar half the time. I’ve spent a lot of my time in the No. 93 car last year, and that kind of obviously was an under-the-radar ride. I pushed that thing to its max with performance.

I think there is a good chance we win at least a couple races this year. There’s a certain point where people start liking you at so many wins, and then once you get above that certain amount, then people start hating you. But there’s a chance I could win some races this year.

It’s phenomenal because I’ve had to go through not quite a straight path to get here, going from a fulltime ride in 2018, to kind of cobbling something together in 2019, to getting together what I could for 2020 and being able to run some select races at RCR and the rest of the races in the No. 93. It feels good and the fact that I’m back with the same team makes it even better. I’m glad that I’m keeping most of the same guys, and it’s good to be building on what we built on last year.

This will only be my second fulltime season in anything NASCAR with one team at a time. Obviously, 2020 was a little bit special, switching between the two teams, which made for a unique challenge. But it taught me a lot that I can transfer to this year. So being able to build on what we built at RCR with crew chief Andy Street, TaxSlayer, ECR Engines and everybody, I think it’ll be good going into 2021, and I think my experience in the No. 93 and the No. 21 cars is really going to help me.

I think it’s going to be great because we had a couple races there where we performed really well. I think I was maybe a lap or two away from winning Pocono. We ran top-five at Bristol. There were plenty of times where we were the fastest car on the race track last year. I think it’s all just a matter of putting it together.

I had a couple of strong performances in the No. 93. The fact that I was able to do that and really kind of put together a good season out of something that I didn’t even know was going to be happening until Homestead, I think it really leads into a great opportunity for 2021.

We’re pushing the limits in every aspect in this sport. For example, in a race at Homestead, watch us rip the fence there. We’re running within inches of the wall, trying to get as much grip as we can. That’s running at the absolute limit of what the aerodynamics on a car can do.

I prefer the heat much more over the cold. Now, the benefit of driving a race car in the cold is that it’s always warm inside, so you never have to worry about losing feeling in your feet or anything. But I’ve always preferred the heat.

When I grew up racing Late Models, it would be 100 degrees outside, 95 percent humidity in the North Carolina summers, so it was always intense. I think the most intense it ever was a race day at South Boston Speedway. We had to quit halfway through because of rain, and it rained for like four hours. I have never seen any place more humid than that after that. It was bad, but I prefer the heat all day, every day.