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NASCAR CUP SERIES: QUAKER STATE 400 presented by WALMARTJuly 12, 2020Matt DiBenedettoSparta, Kentucky THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with today's Quaker State 400 post‑race press conference. We are joined by Matt DiBenedetto. Matt, take us through your run at the end. MATT DIBENEDETTO: Oh, man. There was no lack of excitement (smiling). This was a big race for us, driving the Menards and Quaker State Ford Mustang. Obviously as you can see it was the Quaker State 400. It was pretty important. We had a really, really fast car all day. I mean, it was flying. We just made tiny adjustments. The way the pit cycle stuff worked out at the end, us and some others got trapped a lap down. Then we got jammed up behind the 96. It wasn't his fault, just the way the restart worked out. I think if I'm correct we went from 18th to third in the last, like, seven laps. We made a monstrous restart. My spotter Doug Campbell deserves a lot of credit for helping me. We went around most of the field on the outside, made a power move. Credit to him, the team, Wood Brothers for giving me a super fast car. Thank goodness we came back to third because I was in a really bad mood about seven laps to go. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up to questions. Q. I assume you probably haven't raced with Cole all that much since you haven't been in the Xfinity Series for a few years. Did you know what he was able to do, what he was going to do on the last few laps? MATT DIBENEDETTO: Yeah, you know, Cole is always a smart racer. He's one of those guys, even though he's a rookie, he doesn't make silly moves. He puts himself usually in pretty good spots. When we restarted, we made a pretty big power move on the restart before that. I got a good restart. I was curious basically what he was going to do. When he pulled to the top, I was like, Yeah, that was a good move right there. I just decided to shove him since I couldn't go around him on the outside. Time to push the heck out of him, see how far we can shove him up there. Helped him to get to the win. I joked with him and told me he owes me a hundred bucks (laughter). No, he did a great job. Really proud of him. Q. Everybody in the lead group was wadding it up. MATT DIBENEDETTO: Man, it was one of those situations where you just hope and pray for the best, and hang on. The good thing is, I was in such a bad mood because we had lost all our track position, we had such a fast car, we were back in all the mess. I was so mad. Sometimes it pays off to be that angry when you're coming down to the last restarts. You see how insanely wild the restarts are. When you're really pissed off, they kind of work out sometimes where you're like, Screw it, I'm sending it off in there. When Cole Custer is in front of me, he better hang on for dear life. I'm shoving him. And he did. I'm in a better mood now. Glad we finished third and got the team the run they deserved for how great for how great of a racecar we had. It was really fast. Q. I have to wonder, with today being one of the first races in many years at Kentucky run during the day, how different was today's race, the way the track changed, compared to last year's night race? MATT DIBENEDETTO: I personally like the day race. I'm a little bit better just because when it's a little warmer, you have a little sun on the track, it kind of makes it where you have to lift out of the gas a little bit more. Not much. We're on the gas most of the way around here, not lifting a whole lot. The dirty air situation is tough. Yeah, I like the day race better just for that sake. This track is getting a little more character each year we come back here. Obviously the weather can be harsh on the surface, which is good. That's what we like as drivers. Q. Kentucky wasn't one of your best tracks. How much of a momentum boost can a third‑place finish be as you traverse through the second half of the regular season? MATT DIBENEDETTO: Yeah, the way that I look at it is we had a lot to work on as a team. We're a new group working together this year. We've been building. We've had a lot of speed most everywhere we've went. Have to work on our execution, communication, things like that. Pocono both races we were fast up front all day. Indy we were fast up front all day, executing. We come here to this track, which historically hasn't been good for me results‑wise, but nothing as far as driving the track that I had any concerns about, I just never had a racecar that was as insanely fast as our Mustang was today. That's really all it was. It's all the team, my crew chief Greg. Our engineers really are the ones that deserve the credit for us going so fast today, having that good of a car. Think of it, no practice, nothing, all we adjusted today was tiny, tiny air pressure adjustments. When you start that close, have that good of a racecar and team around you, it makes my job a lot easier. Q. This Wednesday's All‑Star Race, you have shown a lot of speed this season, how much are you looking forward to the opportunity to try to race your way in? What do you expect in general? Do you have any idea what to expect with an All‑Star Race at Bristol? MATT DIBENEDETTO: Obviously I'm pretty glad that it's at Bristol. I think it's cool, a cool change. I'm a little biased, though. I love Bristol so much. One of my favorite tracks. I think it's cool. I'm excited to have the opportunity to race our way in. I know the fan vote is important, too. People have been voting, which we appreciate a lot as a team. You guys see how fast our cars are. It makes it so fun driving these things. We're really getting in a groove as a team now. I finally feel it clicking real well. I'm looking forward to going to the All‑Star Race. Obviously having it at Bristol, one of my best and favorite tracks. We had a pretty good car there when we raced there not long ago. We get a good starting spot, have a good track position, I feel like we can race our way in and be fast. Q. On your performance so far this season, has your confidence ever been higher running as well as you have in fast cars? MATT DIBENEDETTO: No, never. I've never been this comfortable and this confident. What does that, though, is my team. Driving this 21 car for the Wood Brothers, having such a good team, great people around you. Firing off the race with no practice, yeah, it's pretty good, don't really touch it. Tiny air pressure. That's amazing to have that good of people here. Having our alliance with Team Penske, support from them. All the support from Ford. That is what does it. That's what makes my confidence so high because I'm so confident in my guys. Q. Cole came into this race 25th in points. Him winning today kind of takes away one Playoff spot from a driver on points. You're one of those guys fighting. Your assessment of that? MATT DIBENEDETTO: Yeah, I mean, it's awesome for him. He deserves it. As far as our situation, where it puts us, I'm not too terribly concerned about it just because, I don't know where we're at in points, but we were 12th coming into here. We were disappointed with most of the first part of our season because we were really working on it, making some mistakes, working on a lot of things. Now we're getting in our groove. We're disappointed if we're not in the top 10. I think we'll just keep continuing to climb up in the points. I really think we can be contenders all the way down through it now we're getting in a groove. We're building that team where it needs to be. We have great people. Good for Cole. I'm sure a relief for him. For us, I think we'll be just fine. Q. You mentioned you're pretty confident with how the season has gone so far. Where are you looking at heading into this next part of the season to build on? MATT DIBENEDETTO: So to kind of assess it, I'd say the start of the year‑‑ I could look at every racetrack we've been to, every single one, we've had a lot of car speed other than Darlington. The only track where I was disappointed with our racecar. Really we just had to work on working together and meshing as a team because we just didn't execute real well at some races, made some mistakes, were kind of comers and goers, this and that. Lately we've really gotten our communication on track, working together. You have to communicate a lot during the week. Not like we have this practice weekends. We're having to do different things. It's really meshed. Looking forward to the rest of the season, consistency is going to be key. That's what we're having lately, is consistent runs from start to finish. We've gotten stage points in all the last six stages or something like that of these last handful of races. That shows the strength of our team moving forward for the rest of the year. THE MODERATOR: Thanks for joining us today. Congratulations on the run. MATT DIBENEDETTO: Thank you, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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