Less than a week after deciding not to return to BK Racing next season, Matt DiBenedetto will join GO FAS Racing in the NASCAR Premier Series (NPS) for the 2017 season.
DiBenedetto will drive Archie St. Hilaire’s No. 32 Can-Am Ford in his third year at the sport’s elite level. In two seasons for Ron Devine’s BK team, the 24-year-old has 68 career Premier Series starts with a career-best sixth place finish this past April at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“I am very excited to join Go Fas Racing for the 2017 season,” said DiBenedetto. “We have a great group of people that I am very excited to work with this season. I am thankful for the opportunity and I look forward to representing the team and sponsors to the best of my ability.”
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.
A native of Grass Valley, Calif., DiBenedetto made his NASCAR XFINITY Series debut in 2009 at Memphis Motorsports Park for Joe Gibbs Racing. He continued to drive for JGR in a partial schedule through the 2010 season. When sponsorship fizzled out, DiBenedetto moved to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East in 2011, before moving back to XFINITY driving for The Motorsports Group halfway through the 2012 season.
Amidst tough economic times, DiBenedetto maintained a presence in the sport with lower funded XFINITY Series operations, until Devine approached him to drive the No. 83 Toyota for the 2015 season starting in the season’s fourth race at Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway.
Known for his charismatic demeanor at the race track and on social media, DiBenedetto vented his frustration for being sidelined for the AAA Texas 500 Premier Series race by NASCAR for concussion protocol in November at Texas Motor Speedway following an XFINITY Series race. He returned the next week at Phoenix.
The signing of DiBenedetto will mark the first time GO FAS won’t host a multiple of drivers since its inception in 2014. This year, 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 in May.
“Mason and I couldn’t be happier to have Matt joining us here here at GFR! This will be our first season in the Premier Series with one driver running the complete season for us. We believe Matt’s driving ability and a fleet of newer race equipment purchased this off season will elevate our program to new levels in 2017,” said St. Hilaire
In other team news, St. Hilare has leased its charter to Wood Bros Racing for the 2017 guaranteeing driver Ryan Blaney a starting position in all the races next season. Subsequently, Go Fas has leased the charter from the No. 44 team of Richard Petty Motorsports previously driven by Brian Scott to utilize in 2017. With that lease comes the acquiring of six RPM cars including one superspeedway Ford to be driven by DiBenedetto.
The team is expected to make even further announcements regarding their 2017 season in the coming weeks.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
