Myatt Snider led 23 laps from the pole in Stage 1 of Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series season-opener at Daytona International Speedway, and he looked to have a very fast No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro.
Unfortunately, Snider was shuffled back due to pit strategy in Stage 2, but as Snider, 25, was lining up his position for the final Stage of the race, a crash broke out in front of him as the field was coming to the end of Stage 2.
Riley Herbst appeared to think he was clear, and cut to the inside. Herbst wasn’t clear and was sent sliding across the track and into Snider, ending Snider’s day.
After exiting the infield care center, Snider, who is usually very chipper, was less than pleased by the impatience shown by Herbst.
“Yeah unfortunately,” Snider said. “I don’t know what people were thinking there. I just saw somebody try to clear themselves. I thought I had it cleared and then he came up at the very last second and caught me in the left rear.”
In the end, though, Snider chalked the accident up to superspeedway racing.
“Phenomenal opportunity for me, but it’s a shame that I gotta get caught up in somebody else’s mess,” Snider explained. “But that’s racing at Daytona.”
Despite the early exit, Snider had a great afternoon at Daytona. And had he trusted his spotter Derek Kneeland toward the end of Stage 1, he very well could have won the opening Stage on top of his first-career NASCAR Xfinity Series Pole.
Kneeland cleared Snider, but Snider felt he wasn’t clear so he didn’t block. As a result, Jeb Burton and others went by and went on to the Stage win.
Snider apologized to his spotter after missing out on the Stage 1 win.
Autoweek’s Matt Weaver posted a full video to Snider’s post infield care center interview:
“I’m not sure what some guys were thinking. Someone just tried to clear himself, thought I was clear and had nowhere to go.”
Myatt Snider led early and learned some lessons about drafting in these cars. pic.twitter.com/PXDttDnvqK
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverAW) February 15, 2020
