Myatt Snider, part-time driver of the No. 51 Louisiana Hot Sauce Toyota Tundra has been around racing his entire life. Prior to becoming a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver, Snider’s road to this point is an interesting one.
“It was only natural that I had interest in racing from an early age,” Snider said. “When I was 10-years-old, a buddy of mine I went to school with was driving Bandolero racing and I thought, I could do that as well. Ten years later after going through Bandolero, Legends cars, Late Models, ARCA Racing Series and now the Truck Series.”
And at that time, while driving those cars, his first win came early on in Snider’s racing career.
“First win was at Atlanta (Motor Speedway),” Snider said. “We were doing some of the winter heat races out there and managed to get a win with a car falling apart. It was a crazy experience.”
In Snider’s first start, he didn’t know what to think when it came to racing.
“You really don’t know what to expect,” Sinder said. “You’re going around in circles for the fun of it and then you start getting more, and more serious about it, when you get older and then you start moving up into Late Models, ARCA and Truck Series where you start competing at a higher level.”
Myatt’s dad, Marty Snider, who is a sports commentator for NBC Sports has always been a huge fan of his racing career and supporting him through every step of the way.
“It’s good to have someone like him in my life,” Snider said. “He knows so much about the industry after being it in for 20-plus years, it’s difficult to pick out a favorite memory of my dad.”
In December of 2016, it was announced that Myatt Snider would drive part-time in the No. 51 for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Snider says that it would be hard to imagine getting that call when he was younger.
“If you would’ve told 10 or 12-year-old me that I would have driven for KBM, he would jump out of his socks,” he said. “It was unprecedented getting that call, Kyle’s team is obviously one of the most competitive teams in the business and it’s been a treat racing for them.”
Snider’s second, but first start with KBM, came at Daytona earlier this year. He placed his first ever top 10 finish by finishing 10th, not bad for his first ever superspeedway start. He remember’s the race like it was yesterday.
“It was pretty wild honestly,” Snider said. “Daytona is its own animal and it’s different from Talladega because Daytona is a lot narrower. The racing gets really close together real quick and the track is a crazy place.”
“We had a good truck but was set back early, however, we raced hard and earned a great finish.”
Before entering the truck series, Snider competed in the ARCA Racing Series to gain some experience on tracks where NASCAR competes.
“You run the ARCA series to get a feel for something like racing on a mile and a half, or running the radial tire, you race a heavier car to get that experience,” he said. “It’s pretty unique, especially when you go the mile and a half’s because you notice the air and everything that comes while racing. ARCA is a great way to prepare.”
Louisiana Hot Sauce has been Snider’s sponsor for the majority of his career. He enjoys having their support and had a little fun while doing a commercial shoot for them.
“Brad Olsen (Senior Director of Marketing for Southeastern Mills) has always been very supportive of me,” Snider said. “He came on during the ARCA Series and I won my first race out with them, which was really a dream. I really can’t narrow down a favorite food to put the sauce on because it does go on just about everything I can think of.”
“The wildest thing I can think of is for a commercial, I had to put it on a donut and it actually wasn’t that bad,” Snider said. “I tried it out with some of the guys at KBM and it was delicious.”
There are four races remaining in the 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season. For Snider, it’s been a solid one as he has one top five and three top 10 finishes with five laps led and a best finish of third at Talladega. Although, he really can’t give himself a grade yet until the season is over.
“When I got in the trucks earlier this year, I was inexperienced with the trucks and didn’t get the finishes, I would have liked too,” he said. “I progressed through the latter half of the year, however, I don’t think I can give myself a grade as of right now but after Texas and Homestead, I’ll be able too. So far, I’ve been given great trucks.”
If you didn’t notice, whenever people tweet or reply to Myatt, their phones are always auto-correcting it to Matt or another name. However, it doesn’t both him because he likes to have fun with it.
“I’ve been a big fan of self-aware jokes,” Snider said. “It’s funny when people call me Matt on twitter, I like to play around with them by saying, I want to meet Matt Snider too. Always fun when you can mess around with people like that. I was named Myatt my whole life and gotten used to the misspelling of my name.”
You can follow Myatt on twitter, @MyattSnider, and the Louisiana Hot Sauce Racing account, @LHSRacing.
