MATT DIBENEDETTO, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang — ARE YOU PLAYING WITH HOUSE MONEY RIGHT NOW? “The way I look at it is I was pumped that we made it in and wanted it bad for the whole team because we know that we could be a playoff contender, not just making it and being there. I would say the most stressful part was making it in the playoffs. Now I feel like we are the most put together as a team and most prepared and ready to go and execute to make some hay and pick some guys off and try to make it through and do a really good job. I would say it is less stressful now and more exciting that it is a clean slate where we are all grouped together in points and can show the strength of our team now.”
NOW THAT YOU HAVE MADE THE PLAYOFFS AND DONE WHAT YOU EXPECTED TO DO, DO YOU START BUGGING PENSKE TO GET NEXT YEAR DONE? “Yeah, it is funny, we have talked about that. I hadn’t even brought it up or talked about it because the focus was so much of just making the playoffs which I am so glad we did for the team. Obviously I love driving for the Wood Brothers and our alliance with Team Penske is incredible and a place I want to call home for many years to come. I am sure we will get to that. My contract has options built in for multiple years and they expressed that they wanted this to be a relationship for many years to come so I would expect to have those talks here pretty soon to hopefully do what I assume should be continuing to drive this 21 car.”
ASIDE FROM YOURSELF, WHO DO YOU THINK IS A DARKHORSE OR POSSIBLE SURPRISE THAT COULD MAKE A RUN IN THE PLAYOFFS? “I think there are a lot of tough contenders but if I was picking somebody — we were talking last night and I was watching some of the picks that NBC and FOX and everyone was making for the Championship 4 and I thought that my pick might be Chase Elliott. I think he could be a good contender that might make his way into that final four and have a shot to win a championship. There are a lot of good contenders, so it is tough to pick.”
YOU CAME EXTREMELY CLOSE TO WINNING BRISTOL LAST FALL AND NOW BRISTOL IS THE FINAL RACE IN THE FIRST ROUND OF THE PLAYOFFS. HOW DO YOU VIEW BRISTOL GOING INTO THE PLAYOFF RACE? DO YOU THINK IT MAY BE YOUR BEST SHOT FOR A VICTORY IN THE FIRST ROUND? “Yeah, I love Bristol, everybody knows that. Our team is strong there. We haven’t gotten to show it. We had some unfortunate circumstances both times we raced there but we had fast cars. I would say that would be one that is circled as a great opportunity for us to get a win. I don’t put too much emphasis on winning because there are a lot of things that have to work out for you to win a race on top of being really good throughout the day. But that is one we definitely have circled off. Really this whole first round is great race tracks. Darlington is a lot of fun. Richmond could be a great track for us. I love short tracks and our cars seem to be really fast on them. There and Bristol as the cutoff race is pretty exciting.”
WHAT IS IT LIKE RACING FOR THE WOOD BROTHERS RIGHT NOW AND WHAT WAS IT LIKE PUNCHING THAT TICKET TO GET THAT TEAM INTO THE PLAYOFFS? “It made it extra special making the playoffs driving the 21 car and doing it for the Wood Brothers because they have so much passion for what they do and it was so special too because to give it a glimpse of what it is like driving for the Wood Brothers, during that week last week it was one of the most stressful weeks ever. My wife was crying and I got a phone call from Len Wood, Eddie Wood, Jon Wood, Nancy is texting me, the whole family. It is just so special driving for that family. They are so supportive and have your back. They just told me to do my job and that either way they were happy and had my back either way, that it wasn’t the end of the world if we don’t make it, but if we do they would be really excited but I should worry about it, just go do my thing and have fun. Things like that are so special. That is the kind of family that I am lucky enough to drive for wheeling this 21 car. That is one of the dynamics that makes it so special driving for the Wood Brothers. It is really heartwarming and it really makes a bigger impact than they think and even Nancy was texting my wife to help calm her down. Things that really make a big impact and are special to us.”
DO YOU VISUALIZE YOURSELF WINNING AS PART OF YOUR PREPARATION? “You know, I think the reason that I say I don’t put too much emphasis on winning is that my goal is absolutely that we want to win. That is a given. I know we can win, for sure and we will. That has been my goal my entire career. As far as execution, the reason I say it is that I feel like you can get too caught up in focusing your race on how to win. It isn’t always the best car that wins. My focus is on how to make the most of our race car and the most of that day and not get too caught up in guys pulling away or how to get to them but focusing on yourself, your car and your team. Make the most of it. Maximize your day. Hopefully that puts you in position to have a shot at winning at the end of the race. Everyone prepares differently mentally but that is how I prepare to go into a race and I have learned over time, and even this year, to make sure I stay focused on this because it makes us better as a team.”
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE RUNNING AT DARLINGTON? “I would say Darlington is a little unique in the sense that you have to focus on racing the track and not quite as much racing other people. You focus on minimizing your mistakes and racing the track and making good adjustments. It is a long race to keep up with and get your car handling well. You are focused on yourself and your team and not smacking the wall and things like that.”
WHAT DOES A SUCCESSFUL PLAYOFFS LOOK LIKE FOR YOU? “Clicking off a win would be great. That is a great goal. When I say that I don’t focus too much on winning that is more when I am on the track and in the car. From a goal standpoint we would absolutely love to get that 100th win for the Wood Brothers. That would be an amazing goal to accomplish. I would say that now that we are in the playoffs we are focusing on executing and making the most of what we have and make it through a round or a couple rounds. We are competing for a championship. This is the time to shine and hopefully make it down to the end. I would say if I come out of it knowing that we made the most of our race cars and executed well and continue to grow as a team, win a race, that would be an amazing end of the season. To really pick off a lot of positions and points, this is a great opportunity for us to capitalize on now that we are closed in points wise and are the most prepared as a team to go out there and pick off a lot of guys. That is the most exciting thing that I could check off the rest of the season and what we would call a success.”
HAVE YOU HAD A CHANCE TO REFLECT ON HOW FAR YOU HAVE COME TO THIS POINT IN YOUR CAREER? “Yeah, that is what contributes to a lot of the emotion and appreciation that people see when I say things like my wife crying because we made the playoffs and all the accomplishments that goes back to. It is because of my past and my path to get here. I have gone so far and gotten so lucky. To fight and claw from start and parking a car to being in underfunded equipment and trying to show that I can make the most of a race car to fastforwarding to now and being in way beyond my dream opportunity of driving the 21 car and making the playoffs driving for the Wood Brothers. It is pretty surreal to have that opportunity to drive. All those things make me and my whole entire family appreciate it on a completely different level that we wouldn’t be able to without those experiences.”
CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT THIS WEEK HAS BEEN LIKE AS A VETERAN DRIVER IN THE PLAYOFFS FOR THE FIRST TIME? “I would say that this week has been a release. It was so stressful and kept getting more stressful leading up to Daytona and the points closed in and we lost the gap that we had and all that. I would call this week exciting and we got to celebrate with some friends out on the lake Sunday and have a good time but come Monday it was time to shift focus and we still have a lot of racing left and a lot to accomplish. It was a relief and exciting moving forward now instead of stressful. Exciting knowing that we have an opportunity to really put a good end to our season and cap it off and have a lot more success. I am pretty pumped up about that and I am appreciative to be doing it for the Wood Brothers.”
YOU HAD A GREAT START TO THE YEAR BUT HAVE BEEN ON A BIT OF A SLIDE THROUGH THE SUMMER, WHAT CAN YOU AND THE 21 TEAM DO TO CORRECT THOSE INCONSISTENCIES? “Yeah, that is a good question because I feel like we started the year – to summarize our season, we started the year and we had fast cars but we didn’t execute well. We had a lot to work on. We were a new group working together so we didn’t maximize our races and that is frustrating if you don’t maximize what you have to make the best of your day. We got to work communicating and figuring out what we needed to do. During 2020 it is crazy times, but we really worked on communicating. In the mid stretch we got to the point we were running up front weekly and we got stage points like eight stages in a row and we were running top-five and top-10 and right up front. That was great. Then we got into a bit of a slump where not all of them were execution. We went to Texas and we were running fourth and got wiped out by a lap car. That hurt us really bad points wise. At Kansas we got our car really good and thought we could run top-five or top-10 at worst but got wiped out on the restart. Bristol we got wiped out from a crash. Then we went to Dover and just flat out struggled. Some of the circumstances were just not really great luck. Some of the things we can improve on as a team. Now, we are in the playoffs thank goodness and have a lot of race tracks that are big strengths for us and we are prepared as a team to go out and execute.”
HOW DO YOU ANTICIPATE THINGS WILL ELEVATE ON THE TRACK IN THE PLAYOFFS? AS A PLAYOFF ROOKIE, WHAT DO YOU ANTICIPATE IT MIGHT BE LIKE AND HOW WILL YOU HAVE TO REACT OR CHANGE? “I think there is just a little bit more desperation in the playoffs because there is so much on the line and every race matters so much. You just don’t have margin for error. During the regular season you have a little more margin for error and it is a long season and you are trying to rack up stage points and things like that. Now, there is just really no margin for error. As far as how I would approach it in the playoffs. I have been doing this awhile, my sixth year full time, but as a playoff rookie. From the experiences I have had I have learned to only focus on what is in my control and to drive the race car and approach the race just like I would any other race which is to make the most of what we have for that day. I really don’t change my approach personally. That takes discipline to do with so much on the line. I am lucky that as I have gotten older, I am 29 now and been doing this awhile, that I feel more disciplined and mentally mature and ready than ever on those things that really affect my execution of my race with my team.”
CLINT BOWYER, No. 14 PEAK Throwback Ford Mustang — GREG ZIPADELLI SAID HE POTENTIALLY COULD HAVE THE SAME LINEUP AS LAST YEAR. HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU ABOUT RETURNING TO SHR? “They’re working on that on the future and what that looks like. If it’s a part of this sport in any way shape or form I’m excited about it. We’ll work on that and really go to that. For right now it’s still about the playoffs. It’s new life. I’ve been so frustrated this summer. I mean, this pandemic sucks. I’m frustrated for our sport. I’m frustrated for our fans. Twenty thousand people we got to bring back. It’s slowly starting to come back and see life. That’s awesome to see. You could hear them. You could see them. There was a damn crowd there last weekend and that’s a shot in the arm for our sport, a breath of fresh air for everybody involved — competitors, fans, everything. I was across the street at Bass Pro Shop and it was full of race fans it was like, ‘Yes, we’re back.’ This is getting close to what normalcy is and I’m excited about that and I’m excited about these first three races within the playoffs. I’m excited about Darlington. We ran well there in Darlington 2, won a couple stages and, again, it was the same old Darlington for me. We ran well doing the things we needed to do. We pit, the caution comes out and you’re a lap down. Boom. Next thing you know you’re trying to dig yourself out of a hole and put it in a hole I shouldn’t have been in and hit the wall and the rest is history. It’s just that fast it can get away from you and, oh, by the way, now it’s for all the marbles and a championship. People ask you all the time these playoffs, what does it mean to be in the playoffs? Yes, it’s an elite group or whatever, but that doesn’t matter. You’re in the playoffs for one reason — to compete for a championship and that’s Phoenix. The only way you can do that is to go through these rounds. We don’t have very many points. We’ve got to earn stage points. We’ve got to race under our capabilities and moreover for our 14 car we’ve got to minimize mistakes. That’s how we go rounds in this thing and compete for a championship. The capability is there, we’ve got to clean up the mistakes.”
WHAT WILL BRISTOL BE LIKE AS A CUTOFF RACE? “It’s gonna be more of the same. I don’t know. It’s like they were just wanting to — how can we make this as nerve-wracking as possible. I mean, we’re talking like ulcer level nerve-wracking situations and they found it. The Roval, Bristol, Daytona, I mean it can’t get anymore nerve-wracking than that. Going into this thing, I don’t have a lot of playoff points. We’ve got to get these stage points established right off the bat. We’re starting relatively up front. From the way I’ve started all summer long, a ninth-place start is way up front. I’m super-pumped about a top 10 starting spot and going after this thing. We’ve got a new rabbit you’re chasing. That thing gets a little bit wore out as you’re going through those summer months and we’ve got a new one out there in front of the hood and, by God, I’m gonna chase it.”
WHO IS A DARKHORSE TEAM IN YOUR VIEW? “That’s an interesting question. I don’t know. I think everybody knows everybody’s strength and weaknesses. Again, I don’t know who is the darkhorse. William Byron, I guess. If you look at him — momentum is something, confidence is something, winning your first race is worth something, having a crew chief like Chad Knaus is worth something — trust me. That all is building at the right time. I came into the playoffs before and won New Hampshire right off the bat and rode that off into a second place finish and a shot at a title. That’s real. Look at Tony Stewart, his last championship. They sucked all year. All of a sudden, boom, here they come running and get on that wave, found the right wave and rode that damn thing off into the sunset down there at Homestead and a championship. It can happen. It can happen with any race team, but you’ve got to, for us, again, going back to how it’s gonna happen for me and that’s minimizing mistakes. We’ve got to clean up the mistakes that we’ve made. If we can do that, I’m telling you we’re capable of going rounds in this thing.”
WHAT PRECAUTIONS DO YOU HAVE TO TAKE TO PROTEC YOURSELF IN THE PLAYOFFS TO PREVENT A POSITIVE COVID TEST? “Gas mask. Same precautions you have. I mean, it’s the same thing . It’s COVID. I mean, it sucks. It’s pretty crazy to me that we’re this far along and we still really don’t know a whole lot more than where we’re at. I mean, it’s crazy times, but, nonetheless, you’ve got to take care of yourself. I’m probably not gonna go to college and hit up a keg stand. I’m probably not going to do that. I would say that would be a good opportunity to find yourself pointless.”
IS IT ANY MORE SERIOUS FOR YOU NOW WITH THE CHAMPIONSHIP ON THE LINE THAN IT WAS THE FIRST 26 WEEKS? “No, it can’t be. The seriousness comes if you have COVID you can’t race. That sucks. Honestly, the thing that sucks even worse than that is I’ve talked to both of them that had it and probably had worse hangovers and couldn’t race. You know what I mean? It is what it is and that’s the foul. It’s not a judgemental call. When the ref calls a foul in a basketball game you don’t get a chance to go plead your case and get it overturned. It is what it is and it’s done. It’s very unfortunate that Jimmie Johnson didn’t get in the playoffs because he had COVID. It was completely out of his control. Honestly, you can do all of the things — you might get it opening your car door. There’s a lot of precautionary things you can do, but there are a lot of things out of your control, in my opinion. Eventually, we’ve got to put this thing back in gear. Your kid’s gotta go to school. They’re gonna be around people. I mean, there’s a lot of things that are real, but you’ve got to pray that it doesn’t happen to you and do everything you possibly can to stay away from it.”
AT WHAT POINT, IF RETURNING TO SHR ISN’T AN OPTION, DO YOU START TALKING TO OTHER TEAMS? “Man, again, we’re working on all of that with the future. Hey man, I said it to Bob, if it’s being a part of this sport in any way shape or form I’m excited about it. I’m more excited about the playoffs right now. We have an opportunity to win a championship. You see that right there? (Picture of the trophy) I don’t have one of those. If you get me one of those, I’ll have way different opinions on strategies and what I’m gonna do, whether I’m staying or whatever. I want one of those and right now that’s the only thing that matters.”
HOW HAS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH JOHNNY KLAUSMEIER EVOLVED THIS YEAR? “I really like Johnny. I think a lot of him. His demeanor is certainly not like mine, and I think that’s a really positive thing. I don’t know how many times the old driver in me, I don’t know how many times I’ve got out of the car and got home and your wife is like, ‘What in the hell is wrong with you today?’ You’re like, ‘What are you talking about.’ You’re like, ‘God, you were an a-hole.’ ‘I don’t even know what you’re talking about. I thought it was a pretty good day.’ She’s like, ‘Man, you were pretty hard on it.’ That’s just part of I guess the competitive nature of me and how I go about business, but, all kidding aside, the thing I do like about him is when you’re whining about something all you get is a 10-4 and he goes back to work. He listens and he tries to make the car better for you and nine times out of 10 he does. A lot of unknowns with the way that this season has been since the pandemic and not having a lot of things to fall back on, and it’s been tricky watching him. It seems like it’s really tricky because in 2018 we kind of had this package going — the aero package — obviously a lot of things have evolved since then, but they had a lot of success in 2018, run up through the playoffs and had some fast race cars. I’ve seen it be confusing trying to land because you’re guessing at it anyway. At the end of the day you’re guessing at it, especially with no notebook with the driver, with no recent experiences with this aero package. I mean, not going to no practice — nothing. He’s throwing darts at it and a best guesstimate, and a lot of times he hit it and sometimes we didn’t. The thing that’s good about our relationship is we’ve got that behind us. Now, we’re finally going back to these tracks for the second time and we have that notebook. It’s established. We won’t make the mistakes that we’ve made. We learned from those mistakes and don’t make them again. Now, yes, that’s obvious and every other team is doing the same thing, but I feel like that’s gonna go rounds for us. That’s gonna be how we go rounds within these playoffs is just clean up the mistakes. We’ve shown our capabilities. We’ve run up front. We’ve won stages. We’ve led laps, probably more laps this year than I had last year, maybe, but, nonetheless, we’ve been up front but we’ve made mistakes. Now, we have a notebook of what not to do and we’ve got to put it to good use within these playoffs.”
WERE YOU WORRIED ABOUT THIS WHOLE THING BLOWING UP THE FIRST TIME YOU CAME TO DARLINGTON WITH COVID AND WE WOULDN’T EVEN GET TO THE POINT WE ARE NOW? “I’m not gonna lie, I was really confused. I don’t know. I’m as confused now as I’ve ever been. I remember Darlington well. I remember passing a drag strip that was packed, packed to the gills with people in the pit area and fans in the stands and everything else. The beach is going crazy and you could walk across the street and walk into a diner and eat, but you couldn’t bring my wife to the motorhome. There was just a lot of confusion, but there’s so much that we’ve learned from then that the regulations that the state put in, the guidelines that they hold you to as a sport so you can even come into the state and put on the show to begin with. You’re playing by their rules. It’s the house rules and it’s not the same, it’s not uniform across the country. You go to this state and it’s one thing. You go to the next state and his mind set on another opinion of guidelines, so they’ve done a good job of bobbing and weaving as we go throughout this endeavor of pandemic and, honestly, we’re still standing. I think it proves that you can do things safely. Again, looking back at last weekend 20,000 fans that’s nothing to miss. That was a gain, in my opinion a huge step in the right direction of getting back to normalcy. Do they have to wear masks? Do we all have to wear masks? Yes. That’s part of it, but if it’s making somebody somewhere safe, I don’t care. That’s fine. If that’s what I have to do to go race, then that’s what we’re gonna do. That’s human nature. Racers more than anything, and I will say this, it’s been this way my whole life. I’ve experienced it and I’ve watched it time and time again with racers and still do, whether it’s at a grassroots entry level of racing or the elite division of Cup — racers find a way and they always find a way before the next guy. That’s the competition of racing. I remember time and time again watching a guy roll into the racetrack, flip his car, total it down and out. The dude is working three jobs, wife is working, it’s time and time again you’re like, ‘Well, he ain’t gonna be back for a month or so.’ Nope, here they are probably the first ones sitting in line at the guard shack to come in the gates. I mean, that’s what racers do and it didn’t surprise me in the least that we were able to figure it out before other sports.”
IS LAUGHING HOW YOU HANDLE PRESSURE OR DO YOU EVEN FEEL ANY PRESSURE OF THE PLAYOFFS? “If this looks like fun, you’ve got to get out of that library or whatever you’re in. This is going on three-and-a-half hours of sitting in my office on a Zoom meeting. Zoom meetings suck. If there’s anything that I hate of the pandemic, it’s Zoom meetings and backdrops and Zoom meetings. I think everybody ought to have a free pass at Zoom when we’re all done with this crap. It’s all I can do to remember my password to turn on the damn computer and you’ve got me clicking Zooms and unmuting and muting and videos. Oh my God, but you’ve got to have fun with it. We all love this. If we didn’t love it, hey, it don’t pay that damn good. You know what I mean? This is a lot of work for everybody — you guys covering this sport, us. You’re gone from your families a lot, doing the things that we love to do. I mean, it’s what we do. We’re racers. I’ve been to dirt tracks and watching my dirt guys, I mean, it’s just what you do and I love this sport. I really do enjoy being a part of it on the racetrack. I love selling it to a new fan, interacting within it of this sport, whether it’s in the infield or a coffee shop somewhere. There’s nothing that makes me more proud to be a part of something when you walk in and they’re like, ‘Damn, that race was good last night,’ and sparked up a conversation of old boys somewhere at a Lowe’s or somewhere or a gas station. That’s cool to be a part of something that so many eyes are on and enjoy.”
SO DO YOU FEEL PRESSURE OR NOT? “Hell yeah, you feel pressure. Yeah. I’m gonna postpone that pressure until I get in that damn car Saturday night. I’m just gonna wait for then. I’m not gonna go ahead and feel pressure right now. I’ve chosen not to experience pressure today, Wednesday. Saturday, it’s a different day. I will feel the pressure. That’s just the way it is. I can tell you this, there’s nothing that lasts longer than a bad run. I’m bad about it. You ask my wife, she’ll say, ‘God, will you please get back to the racetrack and try to fix whatever this is’ because you come home as a race car driver and you are super-pissed and not much fun to be around for a couple days after a bad run.”
IS IT AN ADVANTAGE TO HAVE ALL FOUR SHR CARS IN THE PLAYOFFS OR MORE COMPETITION? “It could be both. It is both. There’s no question that it’s both. I’m super-proud of everybody, all the men and women at Stewart-Haas Racing. What an accomplishment. All four cars. All five cars. That car is gonna be racing for a championship too, that XFINITY car. A group of pretty special people. I’m gonna tell you, Stewart-Haas runs as lean as I’ve ever been a part of with any organization and arguably as lean as anybody we race against, and certainly as lean as anybody that’s sharing four cars in the chase, I can promise you that. I’m proud of that. That means that you’ve got the right people put in place and they’re all pulling on the rope in the same direction. That’s how we got here. We cannot lose sight of that, but, make no mistake, there’s probably gonna be a time within probably this first round you may have to be fighting one of your own for a position to go onto the next round within these playoffs. There’s real life scenarios that are gonna be there as well.”
