Among all kinds of drama that happened in the COTA race, Alex Bowman‘s swap with Myatt Snider caught a lot of attention. It wasn’t the substitution; it was the person substituted for Bowman. Snider’s zero experience in Cup racing raised a lot of eyebrows about their ‘unfair’ approvals, just like Cleetus McFarland’s entry did at Daytona. Now, one of the sport’s executives has finally opened up on the entire controversy surrounding their eligibility and the general practice around approvals.

NASCAR executive comes clean on Myatt Snider

“So they communicate with the tower, and it’ll get to me up in the tower,” NASCAR Cup Series Managing Director Brad Moran said while speaking to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “We look at who they wanted to put in. We get our safety personnel, David Green, over just to make sure size-wise and everything else. It’s everything’s safe for the driver.

“A lot of times, they’ll have a plan already in place. When someone’s not feeling great a couple of days before, it’s a little easier because we do all this before Sunday even happens.”

Following this, Moran explained how NASCAR approved Myatt Snider even though the latter did not have any Cup Series race experience before the race. Snider has driven in the O’Reilly Auto Parts and Truck Series before, but has yet to race in the Cup.

“Myatt Snider, obviously, we know, he’s won a race in the Xfinity Series. He’s run a lot with the O’Reilly Series, and we approved him on the spot,” Moran explained. “There’s a process that they can get approved, but if he went through it, he would certainly have been approved for Cup Road Course. So we had no issues there, but it was done kind of on the fly, which is what we’ve done in the past.”

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As Myatt Snider replaced an ill Bowman during the DuraMAX Texas Grand Prix at COTA, fans had questioned the legitimacy of his drive. However, as Brad Moran explained, the governing body completed all formalities before allowing him to take charge of the #48 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 of Hendrick Motorsports.

This issue collides with the controversy going on with Cleetus McFarland since his Daytona entry, where he was allowed to race despite his limited stock car experience. Many fans and critics questioned his approval, considering how dangerous the superspeedway tracks can be for someone like him. And then his crash on lap 6 was the cherry on the cake, where many questioned whether he was allowed to race just because of the massive fanbase he brings with him.

A part-time driver for DGM Racing with Jesse Iwuji Motorsports in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, Myatt Snider drives the #91 Chevrolet Camaro SS. The son of NASCAR on Prime Video pit reporter, Marty Snider, the 31-year-old has 112 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series races under his belt, where he claimed a victory.

Besides the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, Snider also raced in the Craftsman Truck Series and was the 2018 Rookie of the Year. Interestingly, Cleetus McFarland, another driver who had just one Truck Series race to his name, received his O’Reilly Auto Parts Series approval recently.

Having raced at Daytona in the Truck Series in February this year, where he lasted just six laps, McFarland went in for a test with Richard Childress Racing for a race at Rockingham. Interestingly, the governing body surprisingly approved him for a debut with RCR at Rockingham, the trickiest ovals in NASCAR.

Cleetus McFarland achieves a “dream-come-true” moment

As Cleetus McFarland managed to get NASCAR’s approval for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Rockingham, he shared his thoughts on it:

“To have the opportunity to make my NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series debut with a legendary race team like Richard Childress Racing is a dream come true. It’s a huge honor, and I am incredibly grateful to learn under the leadership of Richard Childress, Mike Verlander, Danny Lawrence, and everyone in Welcome, North Carolina.”

At his debut, McFarland would want to avoid a destiny like Daytona in the Truck Series. In the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, McFarland is expected to drive the Chevrolet Camaro SS entry, which the former NASCAR driver, Kasey Kahne, drove last year, at the same track. With that said, it will be interesting to see how McFarland’s debut goes next month.