· JOIN THE PROCORE CREW: With a new car, new driver, and a new season ahead of us, now’s your chance to join our Procore crew. Become a member of the No. 95 Crew today to get your free, collectible Matt DiBenedetto 95 hero card. Plus, you can enter to win exclusive Procore No. 95 Car merchandise throughout the season. Visit www.procore.com/95crew to enroll today.
· DIBENEDETTO BY THE NUMBERS: In four Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career starts at Auto Club Speedway, Matt DiBenedetto has an average start of 32.8 and an average finish of 32.2. He’s completed 804 of 816 (98.5 percent) career laps at the 2.0-mile track in Fontana, California.
· CALIFORNIA LOVE: Several members of the No. 95 Procore team originally hail from “The Golden State” of California. Driver Matt DiBenedetto was born and spent his early childhood in Grass Valley, CA. Hauler driver Damon Lopez’s hometown is Ontario, CA, while tire specialist Tony Ramirez is originally from Hollister, CA, and mechanic Matt Kimball is from Mission Viejo, CA. The team’s primary sponsor, Procore, also boasts California roots with the company’s headquarters located in Carpinteria, CA.
· RACE INFO: The Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway (2.0-mile) begins at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 17th. The race will be broadcast live on FOX, Sirius XM Channel 90 and MRN Radio.
DiBenedetto’s Career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Stats at Fontana:
Date Event S F Laps Status
03/22/15 Auto Club 400 42 42 203/209 Running
03/20/16 Auto Club 400 33 27 205/205 Running
03/26/17 Auto Club 400 38 29 200/202 Running
03/18/18 Auto Club 400 18 31 196/200 Running
DiBenedetto’s Career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Stats at Fontana:
Races Wins Top 5s Top 10s Poles
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
4 0 0 0 0 49 20.0 25.8
DiBenedetto’s Career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Stats:
Starts Wins Top-5’s Top-10’s Poles Laps Led Avg. Start Avg. Finish
144 0 0 4 0 72 30.8 28.8
From the Driver’s Seat:
Matt DiBenedetto: “I think that this weekend at Fontana will be one of the better races with this new rules package. We complain so much about ‘dirty air’ this year already with the cars punching huge wholes in the air, but at Fontana, you can go into the corner and run about ten different lanes, so I don’t think that we’ll have that problem. We’ll be able to go and get the clean air in the corners and then draft on the straightaways, so I think it will work this weekend where we can actually pass quite a bit, unlike at some other tracks so far. With this new package, you have to run your car looser and it has to be turning in order to carry your momentum now, so they’re more momentum cars. Before when we’d go to Fontana, you’d be out of the gas a lot and sliding all over the place searching for grip, but now our cars just need to turn really well and carry a lot of momentum. Looking ahead to a plan for this weekend, we’ll probably take what we learned at Atlanta since that will probably be fairly useful since they’re both bigger and faster tracks, even though they’re still different from each other. Vegas will be another track that we’ll look over what we learned. The goal will be to make sure that our Procore Camry has plenty of speed since the track is so big, we’ll need a lot of speed on the straightaways since our horsepower is lower and the cars are pretty ‘draggy’. We’ll take all those things as well as what I need as a driver, like having the car on the free side so that we can carry momentum and apply that all for this weekend so that we are building our notebook on this aero package.”
From the Pit Box:
Mike Wheeler: “This weekend at Fontana with the new rules package, I think that it will more likely look like the racing we saw in Atlanta a few weeks ago. At Fontana, you have some tire falloff, we have a wider race track to race around, however the top speed with this package is still the same speed that we’re going at other tracks. Cornering won’t be as difficult as what you would have seen at Fontana last year, because you’re still going to be wide open through the corners and then being trimmed out to go as fast as you can down the straightaways. Ultimately though, that top speed in the 170’s will still be that same top speed no matter what track we go to. California, unlike Michigan and Texas, can wear tires out so that could also become more of a factor this weekend. The plan will be to trim out our Procore Camry to the best of our ability yet keeping it driving and handling well so that we can stay in the throttle. California could be a nicer track for this new aero package because you can have different lines that you’re running in the corners in order to pass someone or make moves, but you’ll still be trying to draft on the straightaways all you can to reduce drag there and find clean air to keep the car stuck in the corner better the best that you can. California definitely has a few wider lanes to actually use for that advantage.”
Leavine Family Racing PR
