A lot of things seemed to suit Matt DiBenedetto well about Pizza Ranch’s home track, Iowa Speedway.  Those good vibes culminated with a Nationwide series career best, top-ten finish.  Despite racing at Iowa Speedway for the first time, Matt took right to it and posted the fastest time in Saturday morning’s delayed practice.  Although none of the double-duty drivers practiced, it was a good sign that Matt was ready to rebound after back-to-back frustrating outings.

Matt started ninth in front of a sold out crowd of over 50,000, including 400+ Pizza Ranch friends.  Matt battled hard all night with cup and nationwide series regulars to keep the Pizza Ranch No. 20 Toyota solidly in the top ten and as high as 7th.  With 47 laps to go, and in 8th place, a caution came out that shook up the top ten.  Matt dropped back to 14th, after a handful of cars made a position grab going with just 2 tires.  Matt steadily worked back into the top-ten and went door-to-door with Justin Allgaier for the last 20 laps of the race and settled out in ninth place.  Matt’s next race will be Gateway’s curtain closer on October 23.

Congratulations to JGR’s Kyle Busch and the No. 18 crew with their ninth win of the year.  Pizza Ranch victory lane was excited to have Kyle back since his victory last year in the K&N East-West All Star Race.

Friday’s practiced got washed out at Iowa Speedway with persistent showers all day.  Matt and the No. 20 Pizza Ranch Toyota will get 1 hour of practice Saturday morning (instead of the 2 hours of practice scheduled for Friday).  It’s Saturday and it’s sunny… “Let’s go racin’ boys!”

Please check out Matt’s brand new website at: www.guidoracing.com.

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (July 27, 2010) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Matt DiBenedetto is hoping to make a special home delivery Saturday on behalf of Pizza Ranch.

Although DiBenedetto was born in Northern California and currently resides in North Carolina, his sponsor is headquartered in Iowa and will be on board of JGR’s No. 20 Nationwide Series Toyota for this Saturday’s U.S. Cellular 250 at Iowa Speedway. Pizza Ranch has supported DiBenedetto throughout his Nationwide Series career with JGR and this will be the third time they’ve appeared on the car this season.

Although he has yet to race on the track at Iowa Speedway, DiBenedetto has been able attend a race in person and will watch the broadcast of last year’s race to further help familiarize himself with the track. One thing is for sure this week however for DiBenedetto and the No. 20 Pizza Ranch crew, there will be no shortage of home cooking with the opportunity to dine all week at one of several Pizza Ranch locations in the area.

Pizza Ranch specializes in pizza and chicken and has grown steadily with franchises currently in nine states. Pizza Ranch offers a host of dining options to include a pizza/chicken/salad bar buffet, carry-out pizza, or delivery of chicken and pizza to the home. Pizza Ranch puts the customer first with extraordinary hospitality and service that has helped them become the largest regional pizza restaurant chain in Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakotaand South Dakota.

This will be a very special week for DiBenedetto, who not only has the opportunity to race at his sponsor’s home track, but also celebrated his 19^thbirthday on Tuesday, July 27.

This will be the fifth Nationwide Series race of the season for DiBenedetto and just the sixth of his young career. He is looking forward to getting back on the track following a disappointing outing a week ago at O’Reilly Raceway Park in which he was one of several cars to receive major damage upon the drop of the green flag when the outside lane bunched up creating an accordion effect and resulting in significant damage to both the front and rear of several cars. What made it more disappointing is that DiBenedetto appeared set for a strong night at ORP as he showed comfort on the short track with the fastest lap time among cars in race trim during the day’s final practice and then a 10^th-place qualifying effort.

The race from Iowa Speedway will be televised by ESPN2 on Saturday, July 31 with coverage starting at 7 PM ET (race starts at 7:30 PM ET).

Matt DiBenedetto, No. 20 Pizza Ranch NASCAR Nationwide Series Toyota Camry at Iowa Speedway

What have you been able to learn about Iowa Speedway?

“It is a really nice facility and it is a pretty good momentum track. It should suit my driving style pretty well because I’m not hard on the brakes and prefer a sweeping momentum track like Iowa appears to be.

Are you looking forward to racing in Iowa for Pizza Ranch ?

“It will be awesome to represent Pizza Ranch in their home state and have all the folks from Pizza Ranch come and enjoy the race. They have been very supportive of me and I’m looking forward to getting out there a little early and having the opportunity to get out in the local community. Hopefully we can put on a good show for everyone and put their car up front where it belongs. I know their excited and I am too.”

Car  Information

Chassis No. 2093: This will be the second race of 2010 for Chassis No. 2093. It previously ran at Nashville on April 3 with Joey Logano qualifying on the pole before finishing eighth. It ran in five races in 2009 with a victory at the first race in Nashville serving as its top finish. Chassis No. 2099 will be the backup car for the race.

Meet the No. 20 Pizza Ranch Toyota  Joe Gibbs Racing Team

Primary Team Members:

Driver: Matt DiBenedetto	Crew Chief: Kevin Kidd
Car Chief: Tony Hamm	Engine Builder: Mark Cronquist
Engine Tuner: Dan Bajak	Spotter: Joey Civali
Shock Specialist: Joel Weidman	Engineer: Mike Lorusso

Over-The-Wall Crew Members:

Gas Man: Chris Webb	Front Tire Changer: Terry Spalding
Catch Can Man: Brian “Shaggy” Larson	Front Tire Carrier: Aaron Shields
Windshield: Nate Bellows	Rear Tire Changer: Chris McMullen
Jack Man: T.J. Ford	Rear Tire Carrier: Matt Tyrell

Road Crew Members:

Truck Driver: George Hoult	Tire Specialist: Ryan Martin
Mechanic: Matt Aschbrenner	Mechanic: Ben Chase

Matt DiBenedetto’s NASCAR Nationwide Series Career

Year	Track	Start	Finish	Status/Laps	Laps Led	Earnings
2009	Memphis Motorsports Park	4	14th	Running 254/254	0	$26,543
2010	Nashville Superspeedway	15	10	Running, 225/225	0	$21,518
2010	Road America	14	24	Running, 44/50	0	$20,653
2010	Gateway	18	29	Running, 163/200	0	$27,883
2010	ORP	10	31	Accident, 137/201	0	$18,553

Do you want to see what Matt and the other drivers will be facing at Iowa Speedway this weekend?  Check out this virtual lap around the track.  Click this link – Virtual Lap

Check out this new commercial from ESPN that beautifully illustrates NASCAR rivalry.

JGR drivers Matt DiBenedetto and Brad Coleman take the sport of “drifting” to a whole new level.  I wonder if this will become a new “X-Games” sport anytime soon?

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.