NEWTON, Iowa: Matt DiBenedetto capitalized on the speed of his No. 38 Viking Motorsports Ford Mustang to earn his second NASCAR Xfinity Series top-10 finish of the season in Saturday afternoon’s Hy-Vee Perks 250.
In the Xfinity Series’ first visit to Iowa Speedway since the 2019 season, DiBenedetto and his team, with guidance from RSS Racing, took advantage of a long practice session to dial in his race car in anticipation of the 250-lap race.
Unfortunately, the team wasn’t able to showcase the speed in qualifying as Mother Nature soaked the race track moments before time trials were set to begin.
Eventually, qualifying was canceled with the lineup sent per the rule book with DiBenedetto landing 24th on the starting grid.
Amidst the race, the Viking Motorsports team encountered a series of challenges. They managed to steer clear of tire troubles, with the Goodyear tires blowing on the race track between 25 and 40 laps after a run.
Luckily, DiBenedetto was able to avoid the tire headaches but through a green-flag pit stop in Stage 3 found the Grass Valley, Calif. native found himself a lap down to the leaders.
Fortunately, through a combination of attrition and a series of yellow flags, DiBenedetto managed to regain his position on the lead lap. This was made possible by the free pass, a strategic move that placed the veteran NASCAR driver back on the lead lap following the penultimate caution of the race.
Safely inside the top 20, DiBenedetto gained significant track position after the final yellow flag of the day was waved on Lap 246, allowing him to line up at the tail end of the lead lap cars.
Once the green flag in NASCAR overtime, DiBendetto was able to pick off several competitors over the final two laps to finish seventh and best his previous effort in Xfinity Series competition with an eighth at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
“It was a good run, a good car,” said DiBenedetto after the race. “It was fast all week and we knew in practice that the old No. 38 Recycle Materials Association Ford Mustang had some good ponies under the hood from the get-go.
“We had really good speed. The car felt good, and the engines are always good, thanks to Roush Yates and Ford. Right from the get-go in practice I was like, ‘Man, this thing has speed,’ and it really drove good and then in the race it handled good.”
The former NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series winner described how his race car was at it best on a long run, despite picking up several positions in the two-lap NASCAR overtime finish.
“We were good on long runs,” he explained. “We kind of played the long game, where I’d have to sacrifice on the short run and be free, and then to be good in the long run and we really didn’t want to blow a right-front, so that played into our favor.”
DiBendetto said an adjustment in the closing laps of the race allowed him the opportunity to take advantage to earn his third career top-10 Xfinity Series finish.
“Then we did have to pit under green once and lost two laps, but came back from that, and my spotter, Doug (Campbell), did a good job. My crew chief, Kevin (Johnson), did a good job tightening it up when we took tires so we could take off faster in the short run, which we knew we’d need at the end there for the restart and then, sure enough, we made the most of those and drove by a bunch of them and were really aggressive and ended up seventh.”
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