Archive for the ‘Racing’ Category

Check out this article by Ashley McCubbin about this Saturday’s race at ORP for JGR:
speedwaymedia.com

In our third sit down with Matt, he comments on the effects of having Cup Drivers in the Nationwide Series and getting advice from his JGR teammates.

A promising finish disappears for Matt and the No. 20 Pizza Ranch Toyota in the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250, at Gateway International Raceway.  DiBenedetto started the night from the 18th position and steadily worked his way forward over the next 150 laps, reaching a high of 8th place.  In fact, Matt’s race was going so well that ESPN pit reporter Shannon Spake took to shortening Matt’s name to “Matty D.” because she had to call out the forward progress of the No. 20 Pizza Ranch Toyota and its driver so often.

After a relatively caution free first three quarters of the race, the action on the track started getting out of control.  Two laps after a restart on lap 148, Matt’s car got loose in the corner and tagged the outside wall creating heavy damage to the rear of the car.  Matt was able to hold the car together for a lap, but then the car shot down the track and collected JGR teammate Brad Coleman.  Both drivers and cars took big blows from the crash.  Matt and Brad were each treated and released from the infield care center.

The No. 20 Pizza Ranch Toyota would limp back out on the track with rookie driver, Ryan Truex replacing Matt in the driver seat.  Truex was making his Nationwide Series debut for Michael Waltrip Racing and got loose on lap 178 while also running in 10th place.  Truex’s No. 00 sustained heavy damage and would not return, freeing him up to help the No. 20 team try to salvage some owners points.

At the end of the race , Carl Edwards turned Brad Keselowski into the outside wall while going down the homestretch to take the checkered flag during a green-white checkered finish.  This was Edward’s second win of the 2010 season.

We are thankful that all of the drivers were ok.

Check out the video highlights of the wreck between Matt & Brad.

Checkout this cool virtual lap around Gateway International Raceway home to the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 this Saturday.

Click here: Gateway Virtual Lap

In our second sit down with Matt, he talks about his next 3 races and the challenges of racing at night.

Check out this video of the No. 20 car getting wrapped for an upcoming race.

Check out our first installment of videos featuring Matt talking about driving in the NASCAR Nationwide series.

Part Failure Leads to 29th-Place Finish For Matt DiBenedetto

Broken Lower Control Arm Leave No. 20 Pizza Ranch Toyota Six Laps Off The Pace

A day which began with great promise for the No. 20 Pizza Ranch Toyota ended with disappointment as a broken lower control arm resulted in a 29^th-place finish for Joe Gibbs Racing rookie Matt DiBenedetto.  It was the first NASCAR Nationwide Series ever at Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI and DiBenedetto continued to show an affinity to road course racing following two impressive outings a year ago in the K&N Pro Series East.

DiBenedetto qualified in the 14^th position and was improving through the first third of the race. The JGR rookie raced his way up to the 12^th position when the first caution came out on lap 12. With several cars making a decision to remain on the track, crew chief Kevin Kidd made the call to come to pit road for four tires and fuel. When DiBenedetto returned to the track he was in the 21^st position, but quickly began to gain spots moving his way into 14^th by lap 18 and battling current Series point leader Brad Keselowski for the 13^th position on lap 20. But just as it appeared that he would take yet another spot on the track, DiBenedetto called into his crew that something had broken on the right front side of the car. A quick diagnosis on pit road determined that the lower control arm had broken and the No. 20 Pizza Ranch Toyota was called to the garage for repairs. The Pizza Ranch crew did an amazing job to make repairs and get the car back on the track but when he returned the team found itself six laps off the pace and in the 36^th position.

DiBenedetto managed to stay out of trouble the rest of the way and came home with a 29th-place finish. He will step out of the No. 20 Pizza Ranch Toyota for a few weeks, but will return at Gateway on July 17.

The next NASCAR Nationwide Series race is scheduled for next Saturday, June 26 at New Hampshire Speedway. Joey Logano will return to pilot the No. 20 Toyota. The race starts at 3:30 PM EDT with live coverage provided by ESPN2 beginning with its pre-race show at 2:30 PM.

Nationwide Insurance featured Matt DiBenedetto as their “Driver of the Week” and also provided an in car camera of Matt during the race on ESPN2.  Check out the Nascar Nationwide page at NASCAR.com for interviews and articles featuring Matt from this past week.

Pizza Ranch Racing will roll off for the first time in 2010 with driver Matt DiBenedetto piloting the No. 20 Pizza Ranch Toyota at the Road America 200 in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on June 19.  The Road America 200 is also the first road-course race for the NASCAR Nationwide Series this season.

The historic Road America course features 14 turns in its 4 miles of track. Even though Road America will be Matt’s first Nationwide Series road-course race ever, Matt has shown strong potential with this style of racing.  Matt took right to road course racing last year in the NASCAR K&N East Series where he captured the pole in both of his road course appearances while also running strong in those races.

“Matt is a solid young man and represents Pizza Ranch very well,” said Pizza Ranch president and co-founder, Adrie Groeneweg.  “Add to that Matt’s talent behind the wheel along with the consistently fast No. 20 Toyotas of Joe Gibbs Racing, and Pizza Ranch has a lot to look forward to this Saturday,” said Groeneweg.

“It’s really cool to have Pizza Ranch back on the car this week with me,” said DiBenedetto. “They have been great to work with and a perfect match for me since I love pizza. I just got to spend a couple days with a bunch of their franchise owners last week and had a great time. I really appreciate their support and hopefully we’ll give them a strong run Saturday at Road America to make them proud.”

Joe Gibbs Racing continued to set the pace in the NASCAR Nationwide Series by scoring another victory this past Saturday when the series stopped off at Kentucky Speedway.  The Kentucky win marked the 2nd win of the 2010 season for the No. 20 team and the 40th combined win for Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 & 18 teams in the NASCAR Nationwide Series since the start of the 2008 season.  JGR’s No. 20 & 18 teams have combined to win 48% of all Nationwide Series races during that time.

The Road America race will be broadcast to a national audience on ESPN2 at 2 PM CST with prerace coverage starting at 1:30 pm.

NASCAR.com has a couple features on Pizza Ranch Racing driver,  Matt DiBenedetto. Check out the feature article on Matt and what’s it’s like handling the pressure of being a rookie in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.  The NASCAR Nationwide Series All Access Video shows Matt’s self made video of his trip last week to Pizza Ranch’s Annual Franchisee Meeting in Wisconsin.  Also be sure to take a virtual lap around the Road America course.

NASCAR.COM Article with Matt DiBenedetto

http://nationwide.nascar.com/nationwide-series/2010/news/headlines/bg/06/16/driver.of.the.week.mdibenedetto/

NASCAR.COM/Nationwide All Access Video

http://www.nascar.com/video/nationwide-series/2010/all_access/06/16/nns_wis_allaccess_dibendetto.nascar/index.html

NASCAR.COM/Nationwide Virtual Lap of Road America

http://www.nascar.com/video/nationwide-series/2010/preview/virtual_lap/06/15/nns_wis_virtual_lap.nascar/index.html