HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Myatt Snider made the most of a second opportunity Saturday evening at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
After spinning the tires during an overtime restart and losing the race lead, Snider learned from his mistake and bested Tyler Reddick on a second overtime restart to earn his first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory during the Contender Boats 250.
“I guess I learned my lesson on that first restart,” Snider said. “I spun the wheels and then I saw Tyler spin the wheels on the next one and I knew I might have a chance.”
Saturday’s race looked like a redemption story for Noah Gragson, who dominated a pair of Xfinity Series events at Homestead last year only to come up short in both of them. He had nearly a 10 second lead with three laps left when disaster struck.
Racing into turn three Gragson’s path at the top of the track was suddenly blocked by the slowing machine of David Starr. Gragson had nowhere to go and slammed into the rear of Starr’s Toyota, destroying the front of his Chevrolet to bring out the caution flag.
NASCAR Cup Series regular Tyler Reddick, driving a second car for Our Motorsports in partnership with RSS Racing, inherited the race lead as a result and led the field down pit road for tires and fuel.
Snider, who entered the pits third, beat everyone off pit road to take the lead.
Snider opted for the bottom on the overtime restart while Reddick took the top. When the green flag waved Snider struggled to get up to speed after spinning his tires, allowing Reddick to pull into the lead.
However, behind the leaders contact between A.J. Allmendinger and Brandon Jones sent Allmendinger spinning in turn one. That brought out the caution again, setting up a second overtime restart with Reddick now leading Snider.
Reddick opted to take the top for the restart with Snider on the bottom. Given a second opportunity at the final restart, Snider struck gold as he launched perfectly on the bottom and was clear into the lead by the time he got to turn one.
Behind him, Reddick found himself in a hornets nest of cars as he tried to hold on to second. Coming to the white flag Reddick was able pull clear into second as Snider tried to hang on for his first Xfinity Series victory.
“I knew if I could just lay as much power down as I could and get out ahead of everybody, that I’d have a great chance,” Snider said.
Sticking to the top of the track, Reddick was able to make big gains on Snider in turns one and two. Entering turns three and four Reddick again went to the top, but Snider had just enough of a gap coming out of turn four and Reddick was unable to get alongside him.
Reddick slid back in behind Snider, who raced to a .085-second margin of victory to earn his first Xfinity Series triumph in his 36th series start.
“It’s just amazing to finally be in this position,” said Snider, who is running the full Xfinity Series schedule this year with Richard Childress Racing after splitting his time between RSS Racing and RCR last year. “The amount of support I have behind me is unreal and I’m just so happy for everybody.”
Reddick, a two-time series champion who started 38th in his first Xfinity Series start for Our Motorsports, said he thought having defending Xfinity Series champion Austin Cindric behind him on the last restart was going to be the key to winning the race.
Unfortunately, things didn’t work out that way as not only was he unable to catch Snider, but Reddick’s No. 23 was disqualified in post-race technical inspection for rear ride heights.
“I thought having Austin Cindric behind me to push was going to be my best bet,” Reddick explained. “I don’t know if I needed to be more predictable there so he could push me. I’ll go back and look at it obviously. I didn’t really give him a good opportunity to push.”
The Joe Gibbs Racing duo of Brandon Jones and Daniel Hemric finished were scored in second and third, with Kaulig Racing’s Jeb Burton and Cindric completing the top-five.
For complete results, advance to the next page.