Matt DiBenedetto will embark on his maiden NASCAR Nationwide Series voyage for Joe Gibbs Racing this weekend when he pilots the team's No. 20 Toyota Saturday at Memphis Motorsports Park.
DiBenedetto will pilot the Pizza Ranch sponsored entry in Saturday's Kroger 'On Track for a Cure' 250.
Pizza Ranch announced this week that they have signed on to sponsor four NASCAR Nationwide Series races with Joe Gibbs Racing and DiBenedetto beginning this week with the race in Memphis. In addition, Pizza Ranch and DiBenedetto will team up at three Nationwide races in 2010 including Milwaukee, Wis. (6/19/10); St. Louis, Mo. (7/17/10) and at Newton, Iowa (7/31/10).
Since coming over to JGR's driver development program, DiBenedetto has made quite an impression.
It took just two races in NASCAR's Camping World Series East to find victory lane, winning at Tri-County Raceway on April 25. In June, he made his first appearance ever on a road course at Watkins Glen and showed no signs of intimidation, winning the pole and finishing fifth. Then, on June 26 he went to New Hampshire and led off a weekend that proved to a be a JGR sweep in Loudon by winning the Camping World Series East race on Friday (teammate Kyle Busch would win the Nationwide Series race on Saturday and Joey Logano captured the Sprint Cup Series win on Sunday).
"I'm really excited," DiBenedetto said about his chance to move to NASCAR's number two division. "To have an organization like Joe Gibbs Racing give me an opportunity like this is awesome. Hopefully driving in top notch equipment like this will make the learning curve a lot easier on me."
The young driver has set some specific goals for himself this weekend when he climbs behind the wheel for the first time in the Nationwide Series.
"I don't want to go in with too high of expectations, but I'm looking for a solid race and a good clean race," he said. "Hopefully I can go out and earn the respect of the other drivers and get a good finish."
Figuring out the tricky Memphis track will be one of his biggest challenges of the weekend.
"I've never been on it, but I'm trying to learn as much as I can about it," he said. "Sounds like a typical short track and shouldn't be a huge change from what I'm used to."
