Myatt Snider jumps in for ailing Alex Bowman late at COTA
AUSTIN — The finish of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series DuraMAX Texas Grand Prix race at Circuit of the Americas saw a 38th driver enter the 37-driver race.
From being a pit road spotter to being put in one of the top cars in the NASCAR Cup Series field, Myatt Snider had a Sunday he wasn’t expecting.
With around 35 laps to go, Alex Bowman reported he hadn’t been feeling well and that he wasn’t sure if he was going to make it to the end. The team gave him the choice to get out of the car or keep going, telling him they’d have have a relief driver for him “in a couple laps” while also adding, “There’s no difference between finishing right now or not. Points don’t matter. Whatever you need.”
Eventually, Bowman drove the car back to the hauler to do the driver swap. Medical crews carted him to the infield care center while his car spent a lengthy amount of time in the garage as Myatt Snider got ready to get into the car.
“As soon as you can. What is the braking point for the turn off the esses at COTA,” Snider texted close friend and driver Brad Perez, who posted the text on x.
As a caution fell with 21 laps to go for Ross Chastain losing a wheel, Snider brought the No. 48 car back on track. While he ran lap times a couple of seconds off of the pace and didn’t have any attrition that could’ve allowed him to move up in the running order, Snider got the car to the finish line and finished 36th, six laps down, after running out of gas near the end.
After the race, ninth-place finisher A.J. Allmendinger fell to the same fate as Bowman. Allmendinger laid down on pit road and was eventually carted away, awake, to the infield care center.
The 83-degree day saw Snider secure a point for Bowman. He now sits 36th in points, 45 points behind 16th-place and a Chase spot.
Bowman is in a tough spot after finishing 40th at Daytona and 23rd at EchoPark Atlanta. Next is Phoenix Raceway, where he finished 15th in the fall race and seventh in the spring race last year.
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com