Posts Tagged ‘Matt DiBenedetto’

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

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

It’s getting more exciting every day in Pizza Ranch Racing land.  The JGR team had another great week winning both the Sprint Cup & Nationwide Series down in Texas.  The #20 team also had a great week winning the pole and coming home in 2nd place in the Nationwide Series.

Latest updates…

1) We are just days away from unveiling the #20 Pizza Ranch Show Car Tour Dates/Locations.

2) #20 Pizza Ranch Racing/Matt D. Merchandise will also be available at participating Pizza Ranch locations in early Summer.  We will be selling officially licensed #20 hats, t-shirts, decals and 1/24th diecast cars.  And if you can’t get the gear at your local ranch we plan to make it available to you via a new online merchandise store.

3) And to thank you for continuing to visit www.pizzaranchracing.com we are going to be rolling out a new Pizza Ranch Racing giveaway promotion via this website before anywhere else in the next week… so please come back.

Thanks to our great guests and fans!

It’s only 5 races into the 2010 the NASCAR Nationwide season and the No. 20 team has been running well. Although the No. 20 team has yet to go to victory lane there have been some early results for No. 20 fans to be excited about: 2 poles; 2 races with most laps led; 3 top 5 finishes; tied for 5th in owners points (5 races in).

The amazing thing about racing is that despite having the best car and driver there are so many other variables that can determine how you finish the race.  I guess that’s what makes NASCAR so interesting to watch… “there are so many ways to win.”  Go 20 go!!!

Matt DiBenedetto came out to the Midwest this week for a look behind-the-scenes at Pizza Ranch.  As part of the visit Matt visited Pizza Ranch’s Restaurant Support Center to meet with company officials and franchisees to discuss racing and the year ahead.  Matt also got the full Pizza Ranch experience from taking the Pizza Ranch menu for a test drive to making his own pizza.  Matt said that the Cheesy Ranch Stix were incredible and the “Bronco” pizza was his favorite.

You can drive... but can you make a pizza Matt?

Add the toppings.

Ready for the oven.

Matt with the OC Ranchers.