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Matt DiBenedetto only 4 years ago was the lovable underdog of NASCAR, endearing him to just about every NASCAR fan. Fast forward to 2023 and he is out of a job right at the end of NASCAR silly season and was not exactly setting the field on fire in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series as well. So with that being said I want to look both back a bit at how his career has shaped up so far as well as where it could go from here. In this we will look back at and see why can't Matt DiBenedetto keep a ride for long?
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Outro Song:
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51 comments
What do you think 2024 holds for Matt DiBenedetto?
A rr tire blow
Hopefully a solid stable ride 🙁
Hopefully he gets one of the Kaulig Xfinity cars or even the JRM #8
A part time ride or bust.
Kaulig 16 in cup to get AJ back to Xfinity where he really enjoys running and got forced up to Cup to free up a ride.
I just think it’s sponsorship. He has decent talent and can compete for a win. But lack of sponsorship is just forcing him to go from ride to ride without much guarantee of keeping the ride.
We live in a fucked up economy.
That’s probably it. Even if Rackley-WAR is known for not having actual sponsorship, Matty D hasn’t had stability when it comes to sponsors.
Plus now nobody wants to be associated with someone who nearly ruined his own career.
There are plenty of drivers that shouldn’t have sponsorship yet do. It’s just a matter of how hard the teams marketing department is willing to work to get sponsorships.
He has very little, if any sponsorship support. And in my opinion people give him a bad rap for his run at the Wood Brothers. His stats were very comparable to Blaney, just didnt win.
@MICKEY LOGANODefinitely should have stuck with him instead of going with Harrison Burton.
@GatoradeCupSeriesX94Ryan Blaney did better than him when he drove the 21
This guy just can’t seem to catch a good break when he needs it. Just as the team was starting to look up, he decided to leave, only to get replaced three races before the end of the season. That really hurts. DiBenedetto’s obviously got the talent, so somebody has to hire and somewhere. I’d like to see him in the cup series Once Again, and maybe be in some very competitive equipment for many years to come.
Justice for Matty D I can’t believe that team threw him under the bus like that
He still ruined his own career.
@Run Rafa Run #THEBESTINTHEWORLD
Lol no
Getting demoted down to the truck series really hurt him. Just a couple years ago he had a solid ride with the wood brothers. Matt just seems to be that type of driver that can’t find a consistent team so he just jumps from car to car hoping for a competitive ride. A very strange case for him.
Not really his fault either. The wood brothers gave him one year and said bye
Odviously his year is gonna be worse
Wood Brothers is not really solid. Mid tier at best. Penske’s sloppy seconds.
@The Glocktopus and as usual Matty d made that team better. Put it in the playoffs. Haven’t done that since blaney in 2017
I don’t think Wood Brothers has been a solid ride in the last 20 years.
@Timechanger ! he was a Wood Brothers for 2 years, not 1
Man, and I thought his stint at the Wood Brothers ended on a sour note, what Rackley WAR did is a whole different level of disrespect.
Almost reminds me of when Turner Scott Dumped Reed Sorenson late in the 2011 Nationwide season when he was top three in points
It makes me wonder how the initial breakup went down behind the scenes. If he felt that he was better than the team and how he was around the garage may have factored in to letting him go after they were eliminated from the playoffs. It sucks but I think there is more to the story.
I wish he had won that Bristol night race.
I gotta say, your thumbnail game has really stepped up and I love it
It’s a shame how Matty D got kicked out of the ride. I think a full season Xfinity ride with Big Machine Racing could work or part-time in Cup
Good Driver, No sponsorship, it’s sucks that Dibenedetto can’t find a ride, I hope he can find something in the future.
He should look at IMSA. He’s a decent road racer, I’m sure there’s an LMP2 or GTD team that would love to have him.
If that doesn’t work, he could always try to get a TA2 ride.
I don’t know about his road course prowess, but maybe the problem stays with the relative lack of visibility of IMSA in comparison to NASCAR. GT racing and in general endurance racing relies heavily on pay drivers, maybe even more than NASCAR, and if the problem with MattyD is lack of sponsorship, I don’t think that going to these series will be his saving grace.
No matter the series, if you don’t have sponsors you’re screwed
SHR should put him in the 10. They got nothing to lose.
moveing to SHR is not an up move ieven if from the trucks
Or lose
unfortunately he doesn’t seem to have the sponsorship
What makes you think he deserves a cup ride
He definitely deserves a full time ride in the top 3 series.
He needs to win more races. Everyone talks this dude up, but the only thing he ever won was Talladega by a nose. If he’s that competitive and that good of a driver, he can take any car good or bad and put it in victory lane. He always puts it mid pack and is barely towards the front
Bruh, he got a top 6 in BK RACING!!!!!!! BK!!!! He got wood brothers to the playoffs almost won like 4 times in that car, almost won in LEVINE FAMILY RACING, and put RACKLEY IN THE PLAYOFFS
He won that race thanks to bad officiating.
@Devin HullCry about it
I want Matt DiBenedetto to succeed, he’s a good driver that rarely tears up equipment, he’s a great guy and he belong in the cup series more then a host of other that in the cup series. Pls if any top tier xfinity team or decent cup team need a driver, give this man a chance, he deserves it.
With how his splits have gone and his little tantum after losing his ride in the 21 I’m starting to think there’s something more to him as a person that makes him very unpleasant to work with. I think as well as Rackley wanting to get a jump on 2024 I think things may have crumbled behind the scenes after he said he wasn’t coming back. Maybe thinking he’s deserving of a “better” ride that he really isn’t deserving or worthy of? Like thinking he’s too good for Rackley? Things got really weird really quick with Rackley so I think there’s absolutely more to that story in particular
That’s what I’ve wondered, too.
Well, he does want a competitive ride
Whatever ride he’s able to get into, he’s gotta out perform the equipment than it did the previous season(s). This wasn’t the first time he left a team on his own without a seat for the next season. He did that with the 32 cup ride. Hope he can rebuild his career.
What really sad for me (a Matty D fan) is that he’s done so much better than the drivers before or after him in the teams he was in, but no one seems to realize it
How many chances should he get?
20 more years?
He needs to get out of the way and find a job to take care of his family…imo
I never understand why there is so much concern for him, and so many people making excuses for him. He never seemed to show any talent or potential or promise, just another so-so mid-pack at best, end of pack more often Maybe in person he is a super nice guy and that is why everyone is always pulling for him? There must be a lot of really nice people who can’t cut it competitively in a race car, that’s nothing to be sorry about.