DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – In his first ride with Go Fas Racing, Matt DiBenedetto recovered from being involved in a Lap 128 crash to earn a ninth-place finish in Sunday’s Daytona 500 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.
Showing consistency with his superspeedway car during this past Thursday night’s qualifying races at Daytona, DiBenedetto started “The Great American” race from 25th and patiently maneuvered himself through the field.
Despite finding himself a victim in a 17-car crash in Turn 3 when seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson and Trevor Bayne collided, the Go FAS Racing crew made repairs, allowing the Grass Valley, Calif. native to continue.
While several of the leaders ran out of fuel on the last lap, DiBenedetto had fumes in his No. 32 EJ Wade Construction Ford to earn his second career top-10 finish in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competition.
“That’s a heck of a way to start the year,” said DiBenedetto. “Holy cow. We survived. We got in that one crash and we hit pretty hard. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s gonna be a long day,’ but the guys did a great job patching it up. It still ran fine. I had good speed.
“The motor ran great all day, so it was cool. We have the E.J. Wade Foundation on the car for the first time here and it’s awesome to get them a top-10 in their first outing, so it’s a great cause for what they do. I’m excited to be back racing and thankful to have a ride.”
After a mediocre season, last year with BK Racing, DiBenedetto and several of his BK crew members opted to switch to Archie St. Hilaire’s Cup team – where they worked throughout the winter to improve equipment in hopes of better on-track performances.
That work, which included a new superspeedway car to their fleet paid off with the team’s first career top-10 Cup Series finish.
“What a great way to start the season,” said St. Hilaire. “I knew Matt and the whole crew would be good but never thought we would start the season with a top-10. “Really happy for all our sponsors and a special thanks to the EJ Wade to come on board with Can-Am for the weekend.”
DiBenedetto showed equal appreciation.
“We’ve taken the team and brought in some really good people,” sounded DiBenedetto. I’m so lucky to have my crew chief, Gene Nead, who came in and assembled some of the best guys we could possibly get, so we have some real quality people, some of the folks that were at BK with me.
“It’s amazing to have that tight of a group, where they are so dedicated to follow me and Gene wherever we go. That’s special. You don’t find that often, so we have such a great relationship and I think that’s where we’re gonna turn a lot of heads this year and surprise everybody.
“You’re only as good as the people around you and we have really good people. I’m fortunate to have them. We’re gonna turn some heads. We have 15 employees total versus some people who have 400-500, but we have 15 good, quality people and our goal is to over achieve all year.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
