DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Myatt Snider said he is “extremely blessed to be as OK as I am” after his car went airborne and into the catchfence on the last lap of Saturday night’s Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway.
Snider suffered only an injured left foot.
Snider, who was running sixth when the last lap began, had contact that turned his car head-on into the backstretch SAFER barrier.
“It’s the last lap and everybody is trying their best to push as hard as as possible, and I’m trying to keep as much momentum as I can get,” Snider said after exiting the infield care center. “I felt a push, and then I started feeling the car go right and I’m like, ‘Crap. I might be along for a ride here.’ Sure enough, I was.
His car went airborne, as the rest of the field passed by.
“I got turned around to the side and then I was facing backwards,” Snider said. “I started seeing the racetrack and I’m like, “Hmm, this is getting better as it goes.’ I think what happened is that the left rear started yawing toward the fence and then the fence caught it and that’s what really started tearing everything up.”
The rear of Snider’s Chevrolet went into the fence and as the car rotated, the front went into the fence. That ripped the engine out of the car.
“It was violent,” Snider said. “I saw sparks kind of going everywhere. You don’t really know what’s going on. You just know you’re going some direction and it is not the right one. I was just kind of holding on, kind of hunching over and keeping everything together as much as I could.”
Much of the car’s front and rear were ripped away, leaving only the center section with Snider.
“The whole car was basically in shambles,” he said. “I looked forward when I got out of the car and I see the motor is gone and it looked like the fuel cell was almost gone. There was not much left of that race car.”
Snider exited the car quickly and then motioned for safety workers to give him some space.
“They were trying to ask me a bunch of questions, and I just needed to get my bearings,” Snider said. “I needed to figure out ‘What just happened?’ I had to take a second to figure all that and get ready and get my stuff. Thankfully, they took care of me.”
Snider said he expects to be able to race next week at Auto Club Speedway.
“It is sore, but I think I should be fine to race,” he said of his left foot. “It’s just a matter of getting the opinions of the experts, but I think I’ll be fine.”
Snider finished 22nd. Austin Hill won the race in his debut with Richard Childress Racing.
A portion of the backstretch fence needed to be repaired. It was expected to be completed Saturday evening and be set for Sunday’s Daytona 500.
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Myatt Snider ‘extremely blessed” to be OK after crash in Daytona Xfinity race originally appeared on NBCSports.com