Did You Notice? … Myatt Snider went from being a NASCAR on FOX employee Sunday (March 1) to driving the best equipment of his racing career? In minutes, he was in a driving suit and running a Hendrick Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series car after Alex Bowman wasn’t feeling well inside the No. 48 Chevrolet.
Snider, who works as a pit spotter during the race weekend, carries his uniform with him and was a reliable option with no other Chevy drivers out of the race. The son of famed NASCAR pit reporter Marty Snider did an admirable job, bringing the car home in one piece (albeit six laps down after the driver change).
It was a miraculous moment for the 31-year-old Snider to get his name back out there after top-tier opportunities had fizzled in NASCAR’s development series. Snider’s last full season was 2022, running the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series for Jordan Anderson Racing. He was reduced to just four starts last year, putting in a best finish of 14th for the underfunded DGM Racing operation and owner Mario Gosselin.
Unfortunately, Snider’s closer role ended up with limited publicity besides this article. Hendrick Motorsports PR did not allow him to comment after the race, focusing instead on Bowman’s condition. (Perhaps less attention was better for them? Their full-time driver sits 36th in the standings, some 45 points out of playoff position three races in).
But Snider still has a great story to sell and the experience of one of the best teams in the business trusting him to handle their equipment. Can that lead somewhere? Bowman knows how these moments can work; it was his sub role of running 10 races for an injured Dale Earnhardt Jr. at HMS that revived his dormant racing career.
Here’s a look at some other substitute drivers that got a shot running HMS equipment. The results have been all over the map, from being a steppingstone to superstardom to tripping all over themselves.
Jimmy Means (1987)
Means was an independent driver whose Cup team was similar to, say, Carl Long’s team today: hamstrung by underfunded equipment. In 455 career starts, he never posted a top-five finish and had just 17 top 10s. Simply running on the lead lap was an accomplishment.
But at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the fall of 1987, Means found himself a surprise opportunity. Tim Richmond had pulled out of his NASCAR comeback due to illness — he would die of AIDS less than two years later. That left Hendrick with a race to fill with sponsor Folgers Coffee, and he gave Means an opportunity to run the car.
For a minute, it looked like he’d cash in. Means qualified fifth, a result that would forever remain his career best. But as the race began, he dropped back with handling trouble and then wound up getting tagged by Greg Sacks in a multi-car crash not of his making.
Means headed back to the pits on a wrecker, failing to finish the race. He’d never have another opportunity like that again, shifting back to his independent ride and failing to earn a top-10 finish over the final six years of his career.
Regan Smith (2012)
Smith was Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s first sub at HMS, filling in when a concussion sidelined him for two races in 2012. Smith had just lost his ride at Furniture Row Racing and was seeking a Cup opportunity for 2013; Earnhardt had already tapped him to run full time for JR Motorsports in O’Reilly.
The first race went poorly, ending in engine failure but a drive from 39th position to seventh at Kansas Speedway was impressive. It just wasn’t enough. While Smith went on to great NOAPS success, scoring six wins and three consecutive top-five point finishes for Earnhardt’s JRM team, he ran just one full-time Cup season the rest of his career (2016).
Justin Allgaier (2020 & 2024)
For all the wins Allgaier has collected in the NOAPS (including a championship) this race feels like the one that got away. A last-minute COVID-19 diagnosis put Allgaier in the No. 48 Chevrolet, subbing for Jimmie Johnson at one of NASCAR’s crown jewel races: the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
For a driver who never really got a fair shake in Cup, it was a chance to prove his worth. Allgaier started at the rear of the field but was driving a car with the speed to win the race; Johnson had qualified fourth fastest.
He started marching up through the field, looking like a potential contender. But during an early caution flag, one of the ugliest pit road wrecks in recent memory left Allgaier an innocent victim.
In seconds, Allgaier’s chance to ascend back to Cup full-time was over.
Four years later, Allgaier had another chance to shine in HMS equipment, subbing for Kyle Larson at Charlotte Motor Speedway. And in a similar situation, working from the rear, he was hauling the No. 5 to the front as Larson found himself rain delayed after running the Indianapolis 500.
Thirteenth in a rain-shortened race, you wonder what would have happened if Mother Nature didn’t intervene. Allgaier was one of the fastest cars on the track and had already started the race (getting credit). Would HMS have let him finish? Could Allgaier have actually won?
Corey LaJoie (2023)
LaJoie, who had spent his entire Cup career without the right resources and funding, was gifted a start in Chase Elliott’s No. 9 car as Elliott served a one-race suspension for right-rearing Denny Hamlin at Charlotte Motor Speedway. LaJoie hyped up his chance to drive equipment capable of winning.
And then … he fell flat. Qualifying 30th, LaJoie never gelled with crew chief Alan Gustafson and struggled with handling all weekend long. A 21st-place finish left him completely invisible on the racetrack and potentially took him off the radar of some teams who might have considered him for a higher-quality ride.
Josh Berry, who subbed eight races while Elliott recovered from injury earlier that year, wound up a better fit. And he utilized a runner-up at Richmond Raceway in the No. 9 car to leapfrog into a full-time ride with Stewart-Haas Racing in Cup one year later.
There are a few more subs in the long, storied 40-plus year history of HMS, but those are the ones who stand out. It truly is a mixed bag of results, but the one thing these all drivers had in common? A high level of visibility during and after their time in the car. That’s the gift you’re given when suiting up for the New York Yankees of motorsports.
We’ll see if Snider got the right car owner to pay attention and find some additional belief in him.
Did You Notice? … Quick hits before taking off…
- Alex Palou follows up his NTT IndyCar Series championship with a dominant win in the series opener at St. Petersburg. Tyler Reddick has started the NASCAR Cup Series season three-for-three. Austin Hill and Chandler Smith already have commanding leads in the NOAPS and Craftsman Truck Series, respectively. 2026 sure feels like the year we find out if fans will back up their claim they care about (and will stick around to watch) individual races over a championship battle that may never materialize.
- Similar to the NASCAR-23XI Racing lawsuit last year, it feels like every day this Chris Gabehart-Joe Gibbs Racing divorce is in the news, it does nothing but hurt the reputations of everyone involved, especially on the JGR side: Ty Gibbs, Coach Joe, etc. Didn’t anyone learn lessons about the consequences of airing all your dirty laundry for weeks on end? The sooner both sides settle this one out of court, the better. As intriguing as the whole thing may be.
- Three races in, 23XI Racing has six total top-10 finishes (to go with those three wins). JGR, with an extra team, has just four. The battle for supremacy within Toyota is stepping up a notch.
Follow Tom Bowles on X at @NASCARBowles or BlueSky
The author of Did You Notice? (Wednesdays) Tom spends his time overseeing Frontstretch’s 50+ staff members as its majority owner and Editor-in-Chief. Based outside Philadelphia, Bowles is a two-time Emmy winner in NASCAR television and has worked in racing production with FOX, TNT, and ESPN while appearing on-air for SIRIUS XM Radio and FOX Sports 1's former show, the Crowd Goes Wild. He most recently consulted with SRX Racing, helping manage cutting-edge technology and graphics that appeared on their CBS broadcasts during 2021 and 2022.
You can find Tom’s writing here, at CBSSports.com and Athlonsports.com, where he’s been an editorial consultant for the annual racing magazine for 15 years.