In a move that should benefit Matt DiBenedetto, Go Fas Racing has hired Gene Nead to crew chief the team’s No. 32 Ford Fusion in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competition, CATCHFENCE.com has confirmed.
“I’m excited to be joining the Go Fas Racing team,” Nead said. “I’ve enjoyed working with Matt the last couple of seasons and I’m really looking forward to working with the rest of the guys on our No. 32 Ford team.”
Nead, an industry veteran crew chief brings more than 20 years of crew chief experience in NASCAR’s top-three national series and has accumulated nine wins, 66 top-five and 110 top-10 finishes along the way. His most noteworthy achievement came in 2005 when he won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship with driver Ted Musgrave at Ultra Motorsports.
Last year, Nead served as crew chief of the No. 83 Toyota at BK Racing with driver DiBenedetto. Together, they earned a season-best sixth place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway.
CATCHFENCE.com first reported in December that DiBenedetto left BK Racing for Go Fas Racing, which has leased a charter from Richard Petty Motorsports for the 2017 Cup season. In addition to the lease of the charter, Go Fas Racing has acquired several race cars from RPM which should benefit the Archie St. Hilaire-based team who has been a competitor in NASCAR’S premier series since 2012.
“Gene has been extremely influential on my growth as a driver. We’ve been working together now for a while and I really think we work very well together,” DiBenedetto told CATCHFENCE.com. “We’re both very competitive and it’s nice to know that we have a team full of people who really care about the results we get on the track. Especially with a transition to a new team, it’s nice to have a lot of the same voices in my ear.”
Can-Am, a member of the BRP family and the leader in ATV and Side by Side vehicles will back DiBenedetto for a minimum of 11 events in their second year of a multi-year partnership with Go FAS, while serving as an associate partner for the remaining 25 races.
The signing of DiBenedetto will mark the first time GO FAS won’t host a multiple of drivers in one single season. In 2016, the No. 32 Can-Am team saw eight different drivers in the seat with a best finish of 19th by former series champion Bobby Labonte at Talladega Superspeedway last May.
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