What’s Happening?

After a turbulent off-season and multiple ugly exits from previous race teams, Matt DiBenedetto has found a home with Viking Motorsports in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. With the series amid a three-week summer break, let’s check in and see how DiBenedetto has done so far this season.

• Late last summer, Matt DiBenedetto abruptly announced that he would leave his full-time ride at Rackley W.A.R. in the Craftsman Truck Series at the end of the season. However, Rackley W.A.R. dropped DiBenedetto with three races remaining for unknown reasons.
• DiBenedetto spent the off-season searching for new rides, and he teased in December that he had signed something after he posted a “Pen” emoji on social media. However, that signing fell through, and he later explained the situation, claiming that he had signed a deal with a sponsor that he later had to back out of because “They lied.” This left him without a ride to start 2024.
• However, he found a new home at Viking Motorsports, an RSS Racing-affiliated team owned by Don Sackett. Viking struggled early in the season, but DiBenedetto joined the team in the spring and eventually signed on for the rest of the season.

How Has He Performed So Far This Year?

DiBenedetto’s 2024 season has been fairly nondescript, but not in a bad way. He’s remained fairly quiet throughout the season while producing consistently solid results in 15 starts.

Those are far from amazing numbers, but they’re solid overall. He’s not overextending his equipment, consistently completing all of the laps, and keeping the car out of trouble. For a new race team, that’s a great starting point.

He also sits 26th in points, five points ahead of Blaine Perkins. Why does this matter? Perkins drives full-time for RSS Racing, meaning he drives equipment similar to DiBenedetto. DiBenedetto is outperforming Perkins over a full season despite running five fewer races.

You can even compare DiBenedetto to the original driver at Viking Motorsports, C.J. McLaughlin. He failed to qualify at Daytona and Phoenix while finishing multiple laps down outside the top 30 at Atlanta and Las Vegas. DiBenedetto took over at Richmond after Viking Motorsports chose to skip COTA.

While his overall stats may not look impressive, DiBenedetto is doing a solid job. He’s outperforming drivers in similar equipment but not overextending the equipment. He’s keeping the car on the race track and completing all of the laps, which is a big deal to race teams in the middle of the pack. Too many wrecked race cars can spell disaster for smaller teams.

It will be interesting to see how he performs if he stays with this race team beyond 2024. Could he sneak a surprise win and compete for a Playoff spot? He’s done so in the Truck Series with Rackley W.A.R., that team has struggled this year since he left.

The bottom line is that DiBenedetto is continuing to improve the race teams around him. DiBenedetto outperformed his immediate predecessors at Leavine Family Racing, The Wood Brothers, and Rackley W.A.R. Obviously, some external factors go into that, but it’s still a good trend.

Overall, he’s having a nondescript yet solid season. We will see where it takes him from here.

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