Matt DiBenedetto – No. 95 One Bite Toyota Camry – Talladega 2 Preview

DiBenedetto’s Career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Stats at Talladega:
Date                Event                              S        F       Laps         Status
05/03/15    GEICO 500                           43     18     188/188     Running
10/25/15    CampingWorld.com 500       36     40     177/196     Running
05/01/16    GEICO 500                           35     36     98/188       Engine
10/23/16    Hellmann’s 500                     35     27     192/192     Running
05/07/17    GEICO 500                           26     18     191/191     Running
10/15/17    Alabama 500                        31     32     171/188     Parked
04/29/18    GEICO 500                           33     19     188/188     Running
10/14/18    1000Bulbs.com 500              27     30     192/193     Running
04/28/19    GEICO 500                           26     31     181/188     Crash

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
30            0               3                7               0                152                20.7              18.4

DiBenedetto’s Career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Stats:
Starts      Wins      Top-5’s     Top-10’s     Poles       Laps Led     Avg. Start      Avg. Finish
170           0               3                7               0                175                29.3               27.1

From the Driver’s Seat:

Matt DiBenedetto: “Going back to Talladega this weekend, we’ve really been focused on learning how these cars race differently this year with this package.  We’ve had a few speedway races now to learn about what works best as far as the moves you make, what’s important for your car, how these cars handle in the pack, and things like that.  We’ve just learned what is working now, since when the rules change that drastically on the race cars, it was a learning curve for everyone.  Now that we’ve had a chance to study the earlier speedway races, we can hone in on what worked so everyone should be better this coming weekend overall, I’d think.  We’re more educated on moves and making line decisions in the pack.  Talladega is one of those races that we just study a lot for actually.  I just try to race hard, but also smart all day long at Talladega so that you can position yourself to win.  This week I add a lot of extra studying to my schedule just so that you can try and be as perfect as I can since every decision we make affects the outcome of our race.”

From the Pit Box:

Mike Wheeler: “I anticipate this weekend being a lot similar to what we had at Daytona in July since the 550 spec is typical of the Daytona and Talladega packages.  We learned from the first Talladega race earlier this season where we needed to be when it came to post-race, so we’ll apply a lot of that heading into this coming weekend’s race.  I thought that we ran well at the Summer Daytona race, and it’s really the same package as that one for this weekend, except handling doesn’t matter as much at Talladega.  Dirty air and traffic can affect your balance pretty well at Talladega though where it can beat your tires up and make you have handling problems later on in a run.  If you can run in clean air, it should drive fine, but once you’re five to ten rows back, the dirty air is affecting the tires which then affects the performance over the course of a run.  Strategy-wise for this weekend, there’s no real good place to hide there in the field at Talladega.  Ultimately, the guys that run up front and can stay within the top-five generally stay out of trouble, but you can also go from fifth to running 25th in the matter of a lap or two there.  My game plan for Talladega is always to let these guys race the best they can, and if you get in a wreck, you get in a wreck.  I’m not a fan of being the guy that rides around in the back and still gets wrecked.  I’d rather try and wreck rather than simply ride around trying to stay out of trouble and still get wrecked.  We’ll try our best to get up front and then stay up front this weekend.”

No. 95 Barstool Sports Toyota 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: Bailey Walker                   Rear Changer: Deven Youker
Front Changer: Jason Charles    Tire Carrier: Chris Hall
Hauler Driver: Damon Lopez       Pit Support: Brian Eastland

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