Pit Stop Radio News

Although Matt DiBenedetto does not like to consider himself a “superspeedway specialist”, his runs at those tracks this year are getting a lot of attention. With a ninth-place run to open the season at the Daytona 500, a 18th-place finish at Talladega in the spring, and a 13th-place result in the July race at Daytona, the bar is set very high for the Go Fas Racing team at Talladega this weekend for the final superspeedway race of the year. Can-Am, Kappa, and Cyclops Gear will all be featured on Matt’s familiar yellow and black scheme that has already raced eight times this year.

DiBenedetto credits much of his superspeedway success to luck, but Crew Chief Gene Nead and DiBenedetto have run a very intelligent strategy at the plate-tracks this year. When the team is not running at the front at the end of stages, the team will typically lay back with a few other cars and wait for “the big one”, a crash with multiple cars. After a few accidents involving other cars, DiBenedetto will push towards the front. Usually a few more crashes will still occur, and Matt will do his best to navigate through without damage. In the few races that the team has incurred damage, the pit crew has been phenomenal at repairing the car enough to stay in the draft. Put together, all of this has led to the team’s success at these special racetracks this year.

DiBenedetto and the No.32 E.J. Wade Foundation team started in the 29th position last Sunday. Crew Chief Gene Nead made adjustments to help Matt find a balance he liked on the racecar, and the pit crew had several clutch pitstops late in the race to help the No.32 team pick up a few spots on the racetrack. Together, Nead and the crew put DiBenedetto in position to be the beneficiary on timely cautions, and kept him on the lead lap until the checkered flag. On the final restart, a stack up in front of DiBenedetto lost the team a few spots, but the team still brought home a very strong result, finishing 23rd.

“Normally, I’m not a fan of the superspeedways, but this year it’s been a different story. We’ve had great runs all year and now the bar is set so high. I don’t know too many other teams that can say they’ve ran the same chassis at every superspeedway race this year, but we’ve been lucky enough to be able to say that. Obviously, our goal is to bring the car back in one piece and miss the big wrecks, but sometimes that’s even out of my hands. I’m sure this race will have a little more ‘crazy’ mixed in with it being the playoffs, so maybe the crash-factor will go up another notch. We’ll do our best to avoid the “big one” and be there at the end. If we can do that, I’m confident we’ll bring home another top-20 or top-15 which would be huge for the points standings.”

Chassis Info: Crew Chief Gene Nead will be bringing chassis GFR-961 to serve as the primary car this weekend. This car has ran every super speedway race this year for the team, averaging a 13th place finish.