Matt DiBenedetto and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane team are headed to New Hampshire Motor Speedway hoping to put some recent bad luck behind them in Sunday’s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301.
DiBenedetto and the No. 21 team ran in the top 10 – and often in the top five – throughout the month of July but the overall results of those four races don’t reflect that.
They did get a third-place finish at Kentucky Speedway but a wreck on the last lap at Indianapolis, contact with a driver trying to make a sudden move to pit road at Texas and being swept up in a multi-car crash at Kansas left DiBenedetto and the team thinking about what might have been had their luck been better.
DiBenedetto remains in contention to be one of the 16 drivers who start the Playoffs, which begin after seven more regular season races. That quest begins anew on Sunday at New Hampshire, where DiBenedetto finished fifth last year driving for his previous team.
Eddie Wood said he’s optimistic about the prospects for his family’s race team.
“We’ve had some unfortunate things happen the last couple of weeks,” he said. “We hope to turn that around beginning this weekend at Loudon.”
Wood said DiBenedetto and the team are in a good place when it comes to performance.
“They have speed, which is the most important thing,” he said. “Matt’s been doing a great job behind the wheel, especially on restarts where he really stands out.
“Greg [Erwin] has been making good calls from the pit box, and the crew has been solid on pit road.
“We just need to get to the end of these races, and we’ll wind up where we need to be in points.”
DiBenedetto is 13th in the points standings and 15th in the Playoff standings heading into Sunday’s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301, which is set to get the green flag just after 3 p.m. Eastern Time with TV coverage on NBCSN.
WBR PR
