By Matt Courson, Staff Writer
SONOMA, Calif. — Matt DiBenedetto finished fourth in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway, marking his best finish in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
“I cannot explain how thankful and glad I am that we got a good run that we deserve,” DiBenedetto said. “It has been a tough year; we just haven’t had the results that we deserve. We have had fast cars. I cannot explain how thankful I am to have this opportunity and how desperate I was to get a run like this for my team and how many people took a chance on me.”
” I can’t explain how many people had to say yes including all of the JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) teammates, Toyota, TRD, the sponsors, Procore and Dumont Jets, team owner, everyone on the team, it took every one of those people to say yes because my path to get here is unorthodox. I didn’t have the funding to get there; we did it the old school way.”
DiBenedetto attributes the good finish to advice taken from A. J. Allmendinger. “Yeah, you know a lot of what he told me — I don’t want to give away all of his secrets, it was just stuff of how to execute through the weekend and what to feel in my racer,” the driver said. “I’ve always felt confident in my ability to drive a car on the track and wheel it, but that’s only a small fraction of it.”
The finish was especially special for DiBenedetto, who drove a special paint scheme honoring NASCAR on Fox’s Darrell Waltrip, who singed off the air after 19 years in the broadcast booth.
Family and friends of DiBenedetto flocked to the 2.52-mile road course from nearby Grass Valley, which is DiBenedetto’s hometown.
“My family is here, so this is cool! I hate that my wife couldn’t make it, she had some conflicting things in her schedule, so that stinks. But she will be home, and her and our friends, neighbors will be waiting on me for when we get home so we can have a good night and have some fun.”
DiBenedetto made the switch from Go Fas Racing to Leavine Family Racing (who has an alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing) over the offseason and the 27-year-old has steadily improved over the course of the season.
When the season began back in February at Daytona International Speedway, DiBenedetto led 49 laps in the season opening race, the Daytona 500. Heartbreak ensued when the driver was involved in a multi-car accident with 8 laps remaining in the scheduled race distance.
Prior to Sonoma, the driver of the No. 95’s best career finish came at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2016 when he drove to a sixth-place finish with BK Racing.