Gander RV 400 at Pocono Raceway
No. 95 Toyota Express Maintenance Camry Notes:
· DIBENEDETTO BY THE NUMBERS: In nine Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career starts at Pocono, Matt DiBenedetto has an average start of 29.9, an average finish of 31.0, and he’s completed 1,103 of 1,422 (77.6 percent) career laps at the 2.5-mile triangular-shaped track in Long Pond, PA.
· THE TOYOTA EXPRESS MAINTENANCE DIFFERENCE: When your Toyota needs factory-scheduled service, Toyota Express Maintenance (TXM) helps keep our guests moving with quality, speed and value. Toyota Express Maintenance provides precision service that’s precisely timed to fit within the busy schedules of Toyota owners. The pit crew-inspired approach helps get our guests in and out quickly, all at the right price with the quality they expect from a Toyota dealer. Toyota Express Maintenance emphasizes quality workmanship, competitive pricing and fast service. Services performed under Toyota Express Maintenance include oil and filter change, brake inspection, tire rotation, fluid inspection/replenishment and multipoint vehicle inspection. Additional expedited services are available.
· RACE INFO: The Gander RV 400 at Pocono Raceway (2.5-mile) begins at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, July 28th. The race will be broadcast live on NBCSN, Sirius XM Channel 90 and MRN Radio.
DiBenedetto’s Career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Stats at Pocono:
Date Event: S F Laps Status
06/07/15 Axalta 400 41 32 158/160 Running
08/02/15 Windows 10 400 36 29 159/160 Running
06/06/16 Axalta 400 27 40 57/160 Crash
08/01/16 Pennsylvania 400 34 28 138/138 Running
06/11/17 Axalta 400 30 32 153/160 Axle
07/30/17 Overton’s 400 29 37 1/160 Crash
06/03/18 Pocono 400 32 37 113/160 Brakes
07/29/18 Gander Outdoors 400 18 27 164/164 Running
06/02/19 Pocono 400 22 17 160/160 Running
Races Wins Top 5s Top 10s Poles
Cumulative 9 0 0 0 0
DiBenedetto’s 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Season Stats:
Starts Wins Top-5’s Top-10’s Poles Laps Led Avg. Start Avg. Finish
20 0 2 3 0 50 21.8 21.4
DiBenedetto’s Career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Stats:
Starts Wins Top-5’s Top-10’s Poles Laps Led Avg. Start Avg. Finish
160 0 2 7 0 73 29.9 28.0
From the Driver’s Seat:
Matt DiBenedetto: “Pocono in June was a very track position dependent race. This year’s race at Pocono that we had back in June was completely different from the type of racing we’ve seen at Pocono in the past. We weren’t shifting as much there as we have in the past and there’s a lot more on-throttle time. Because of those two elements of what we experienced in the June race, everyone is running a very similar speed around the racetrack and there’s less discrepancy in speeds since there’s not as much off-throttle time. We found ourselves having to time our runs and planned for dirty air while waiting for other people around you to make mistakes. Qualifying well and then being able to use some varied pit strategy to stay out will be ways that we can help make sure that we’re closer to clean air up at the front of the field. For the June race, we didn’t see as much tire wear as we had in years prior, so we anticipate similar results this coming weekend. Restarts with Turn 1, you want to be coming out of there hopefully on the high side because that’s really the only area where you have the opportunity to pass. Last year, we approached Pocono like a short track because you were shifting, out of the gas a lot, you used a ton of brakes, and tires fell off, but now it’s the complete opposite style of racing where you barely let off the gas, we don’t see much tire falloff, and we can run intermediate brake packages there.”
From the Pit Box:
Mike Wheeler: “Looking ahead to this weekend heading back to Pocono, the good thing from our side is how Pocono is one of the first tracks we’re going back to that we actually have some notes to refer to that pertain to this package on track there. So far this year, everything we’ve done has been from scratch, but this weekend is nice because we’ve been through a weekend on track with this package and tires, and we know some of our shortcomings we had to improve upon. If we make the right adjustments, we’ll be better than what we were back in June. We had a trying weekend last time at Pocono with having to do a motor change in practice as well as getting spun out during the race which damaged our Camry. We came from the back a few tires during the race and managed to still get a top-20 finish out of it, so with good notes, hopefully we can come back and improve by a dozen spots. Tying all three corners together well is one of the most challenging things about Pocono because they are all very different. You want to correct the balance in your race car so that all three corners are optimized the best they can be, as well as to have a clean day, so that you can keep track position. The June Pocono race was definitely a track position race and you had to have a much better car than the car in front of you in order to pass. Tires didn’t seem to matter as much back in June as they do at tracks where we see more falloff, so being able to stay out or take two tires is an avenue we can take this weekend. Executing all day and avoiding trouble will be one of the main tasks as well though. There will be PJ1 this weekend and that should make for two different lanes so that should help with passing because at the end of the day you want to keep the car wound up in the corner to get on the straightaways. There’s not a lot of passing zones at Pocono, but at the end of the day, if you can get off the corners well, the straightaways you can attack and maybe make some passes or set-up positions to make a pass in the next corner.”
No. 95 Toyota Express Maintenance Camry Team:
Driver: Matt DiBenedetto Crew Chief: Mike Wheeler
Car Chief: Greg Emmer Spotter: Doug Campbell
Engineer: J.R. Houston Engineer: Etienne Cliche
Mechanic: Bill Mares Mechanic: Matt Kimball
Shock Specialist: Sean Studer Mechanic: Zach Marquardt
Tire Specialist: Tony Ramirez Jackman: Charles Thacker
Fueler: Brian Eastland Rear Changer: Deven Youker
Front Changer: Adam Hartman Tire Carrier: Chris Hall
Hauler Driver: Damon Lopez
About Toyota:
Toyota (NYSE:TM), creator of the Prius hybrid and the Mirai fuel cell vehicle, is committed to building vehicles for the way people live through our Toyota and Lexus brands. Over the past 60 years, we’ve built more than 38 million cars and trucks in North America, where we operate 14 manufacturing plants (10 in the U.S.) and directly employ more than 47,000 people (more than 37,000 in the U.S.). Our 1,800 North American dealerships (nearly 1,500 in the U.S.) sold nearly 2.8 million cars and trucks (2.4 million in the U.S.) in 2018 – and about 87 percent of all Toyota vehicles sold over the past 16 years are still on the road today.
