Perhaps no driver in NASCAR has had a more interesting couple weeks than Myatt Snider, who had no concrete driving plans for the 2026 season as he was working as a pit spotter for Fox Sports pit reporter Jamie Little during the Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) three weekends ago.
Skip ahead a couple hours, and Snider was driving the No. 48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, marking the first Cup Series appearance of his career.
With Alex Bowman feeling ill, Rick Hendrick's' team called upon Snider to take over for the remainder of the race. After an expedited approval process, Snider entered the race in 36th place, five laps off the lead lap, and brought the car home in one piece in the same position.
He didn't compete at Phoenix Raceway, but he got behind the wheel of an O'Reilly Series car for the first time since October 2025 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this past weekend. He drove the No. 30 Chevrolet for Barrett-Cope Racing, a team that made their series debut in the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway in February.
Snider, however, failed to qualify; he was one of three drivers on the 41-car entry list who did not make it into the race, and it marked the first time in 113 career O'Reilly Series appearances and 149 career NASCAR national series appearances that he had failed to get in.
Myatt Snider set for Darlington return
The 31-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina native is back on the entry list for this weekend's race at Darlington Raceway. With 40 cars on the entry list and 38 spots in the race, Snider does once again risk failing to qualify and will be looking to bounce back after the Las Vegas disappointment.
Snider is the first driver to drive the No. 30 car on more than one race weekend this year. Carson Ware finished in 19th place at Daytona, before Cody Ware had a DNF at EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta Motor Speedway) and Baltazar Leguizamon had a DNF at COTA. Austin J. Hill (not the other Austin Hill) finished 34th at Phoenix.
Beyond this weekend, Snider does not have any more starts lined up in any series this year, so he will be looking to make the most of his latest opportunity.
The No. 30 Chevrolet is set to be driven by Leguizamon in the race at Martinsville Speedway later this month and the race at Watkins Glen International in May, and Hill is set to return for at least six more starts (locations TBD), leaving the seat open for 17 other events on the calendar.
Snider has two career top 10 finishes at Darlington in six starts, with a top result of ninth place in 2021 for Richard Childress Racing. He finished 28th in his most recent start at the "Lady in Black" in 2022 for Jordan Anderson Racing.
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