STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway
No. 95 Toyota Express Maintenance Toyota Camry Notes:
· DIBENEDETTO BY THE NUMBERS: In eight Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career starts at Martinsville, Matt DiBenedetto has an average start of 31.8 and an average finish of 33.0 and he’s completed 3,497 of 4,005 (87.3 percent) career laps at the half-mile Virginia track.
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· RACE INFO: The STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway (0.526-mile) begins at 2:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 24th. The race will be broadcast live on FOX, Sirius XM Channel 90 and MRN Radio.
DiBenedetto’s Career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Stats at Martinsville:
Date Event: S F Laps Status
03/29/15 STP 500 43 31 494/500 Running
11/01/15 Goody’s Headache Relief 500 36 30 492/500 Running
04/03/16 STP 500 35 29 495/500 Running
10/30/16 Goody’s Fast Relief 500 27 32 489/500 Running
04/02/17 STP 500 28 35 401/500 Crash
10/29/17 First Data 500 28 39 187/505 Electrical
03/26/18 STP 500 31 32 488/500 Running
10/28/18 First Data 500 26 36 451/500 Running
Races Wins Top 5s Top 10s Poles
Cumulative 8 0 0 0 0
DiBenedetto’s 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Season Stats:
Starts Wins Top-5’s Top-10’s Poles Laps Led Avg. Start Avg. Finish
5 0 0 0 0 49 20.8 24.2
DiBenedetto’s Career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Stats:
Starts Wins Top-5’s Top-10’s Poles Laps Led Avg. Start Avg. Finish
145 0 0 4 0 72 30.8 28.8
From the Driver’s Seat:
Matt DiBenedetto: “This year’s new package will still come into play a little bit this weekend at Martinsville, but not nearly as much as other tracks that we’ve been to so far. This new package affects your braking getting in to the corner from the downforce, so it’ll actually give us more stability in entry and can change the approach to our car setup. Having the big spoiler in the back and having a little more grip when you’re at the end of the straightaways is what we’re going to see this weekend. We’ll have to adapt to how our Camry will change over the course of the run, so there will be some differences as to what we see on track. This weekend will still involve us having to adapt at the race track, which is something that we’ve had to do all year, but it should be to a lesser degree. We’ll be learning as we go since no one really has a lot of data yet. Patience is the key to having a good run at Martinsville. Picking your battles wisely is also a focus because Martinsville is always a big mental game. For me, I’ve had to learn better patience over the years in not using the bumper too much early and picking my battles. Martinsville is about focusing on your race, letting other people make mistakes, being patient and just executing your race while being good in traffic, good on restarts, good on pit road, and all the things you can do to position yourself to be in a position to run well and be up front at the end of it.”
From the Pit Box:
Mike Wheeler: “This weekend at Martinsville, even with the new package, it will change Martinsville just a little bit compared to years past. You will notice some of the downforce gains on the straightaways and entries/exits, but it shouldn’t change the center too much. With all those small changes on entries and exits though, it’ll affect the racing per say. You may end up fighting less forward drive issues as compared to years past, as well as less wheel-hop issues with the added downforce, however if you do have more straightaway speed, you’ll have more braking as well. Ultimately, we’ll approach practice this weekend like we would have last year in the fact that you’ll want to make sure that you can turn center and get off the corner well for forward drive. It’s supposed to be nice and warm this weekend and sunny which means that the track will take some rubber, so it’ll have some of the same characteristics as Martinsville usually does, however the balance of center turn versus forward drive might be separated a bit compared to past years and that’s where we need to see what happens first in practice before we put it all together for the race.”
No. 95 Toyota Express Maintenance Toyota Camry Team:
Driver: Matt DiBenedetto Crew Chief: Mike Wheeler
Car Chief: Greg Emmer Spotter: Doug Campbell
Engineer: J.R. Houston Engineer: Etienne Cliche
Mechanic: Bill Mares Mechanic: Matt Kimball
Shock Specialist: Tim Lambert Mechanic: Ryan Dextraze
Tire Specialist: Tony Ramirez Jackman: Bailey Walker
Fueler: Ryan Dextraze Rear Changer: Deven Youker
Front Changer: Adam Hartman Tire Carrier: Chris Hall
Hauler Driver: Damon Lopez
About Toyota:
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