Matt DiBenedetto is riding a wave of confidence into Sunday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
The last time DiBenedetto made a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series start two weeks ago at Bristol Motor Speedway he scored a career-high second place finish behind Denny Hamlin. DiBenedetto had the lead late in the going until Hamlin got around him with twelve laps to go leaving the Levine Family Racing driver in the runner-up spot when the checkered flag flew.
DiBenedetto found out earlier that week he would not return to the No. 95 entry next season with Christopher Bell expected to be elevated from the Xfinity Series to take the ride. The news triggered an outpouring of support from around the NASCAR world and DiBenedetto remains grateful despite his unknown future.
“I got a lot of like really nice, encouraging texts and stuff from a lot of fellow drivers and such so that was really neat and encouraging,” DiBenedetto said about what might lie ahead. “Nothing in particular. Just keeping all options open.”
Although DiBenedetto doesn’t know what direction his driving career will go after the end of this season, he does not plan on altering his approach behind the wheel.
“I drive the same really any race under any circumstances,” he said. “At Bristol some people were like, ‘oh, did you drive different there,’ and I’m like, ‘no, it doesn’t make a difference’. When I strap in the car, I’m 100% every single lap I’m on the race track no matter what. I’ve learned that lesson and been that way a long time.
“I always feel like I’m auditioning every time I climb in a race car for basically my whole life. That’s nothing any different, but I want to win for this team really, really bad because it would be really special to get their first win for the team.”
DiBenedetto has two more chances to win a race before the regular season ends after Darlington and next week’s trip to Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Of the two, he feels more confident about his chances in Sunday night’s Bojangles’ Southern 500.
“This one’s a real important one for us,” he said. “I think if I’m picking and choosing and being totally honest, if we’ve got Darlington and Indy left, I’m circling off Darlington as probably more of a strong suit because we’re going to have more off-throttle time and be a little more grip limited here, which are the things we need as a team to make it where I can stand out more and my team can stand out more with the things they do.
“Hopefully we can do that here and a win would be great because we have the speed at those type of race tracks. We really do.”
