Matt DiBenedetto is a big fan of road course racing and can’t wait to get to Daytona International Speedway for the Go Bowling 235.
DiBenedetto had a solid season on the road courses last season with his former team, Leavine Family Racing, and will turn left and right for the first time with Wood Brothers Racing in Sunday’s 65-lap race.
"I love road course racing," said DiBenedetto, who posted an average finish of 7.0 in the road races in 2019. "It’s probably my favorite thing that we get to do each year. I don’t come from a road racing background, but it’s something I’ve taken to and I love doing more than anything.
"I never grew up doing much of it. I ran some go-karts on road courses for a little bit, but really most of my experience was dirt racing when I was growing up. Really my first times at road courses were in stock cars at races in NASCAR stuff so really no more experience than anybody else."
Before the NASCAR season even started, DiBenedetto was the first to turn laps on a road course in 2020. In January, DiBenedetto was asked to participate in a test for the inaugural Xfinity Series race, which was held on July 4, on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 2.439-mile, 14-turn course.
"When you get opportunities like NASCAR asking me to do the test at Indy in the Xfinity car, things like that, really mean a lot," DiBenedetto said. "It’s cool that people take notice of I think my passion for road racing."
DiBenedetto will start ninth at Daytona with NASCAR’s new way to determine the lineup based a number of statistical factors, including the finishing position of the previous race.
"I love it," DiBenedetto said about the new lineup formula. "I’m glad they did that. "Now I think it’s a little more fair. It’s neat that it’s more performance driven so I appreciate the efforts that they made there."
See Also: Daytona Schedule and Lineup
Last weekend, DiBenedetto finished seventh at Michigan and finds himself currently in the playoff field, 57 points to the good with four races remaining. So far in his first season with the Wood Brothers, DiBenedetto has already equaled his career season-high mark in top 10s with seven.
"The main thing is now that we’ve really hit our stride and are working together great as a team and got the team’s performance to where we know it can be and continue to get better when the playoffs hit. That’s encouraging. You’re hitting your stride at the right time."
Motor Racing Network will have live coverage of Sunday’s Go Bowling 235 starting at 2 p.m. ET.
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August 15, 2020 at 01:01AM
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Matt DiBenedetto Brings Passion for Road Course Racing to Daytona - mrn.com
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