NASCAR CUP SERIES
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2020
MATT DIBENEDETTO MEDIA TELECONFERENCE
Ford Performance NASCAR Cup Series driver Matt DiBenedetto met with members of the media today via Zoom to discuss the upcoming race weekend at Richmond and the 2020 NASCAR Playoffs.
MATT DIBENEDETTO, No. 21 Motorcraft Quick Lane Ford Mustang — HOW DOES YOUR GAME PLAN CHANGE FOR THE NEXT TWO RACES AFTER DARLINGTON? “We have to really perform at our very best for the next two races. We put ourselves behind the eight ball at Darlington. We had a big struggle of a race and it didn’t show but we finally got our car actually driving okay at the end of that thing and could have salvaged a decent finish and okay day but a poorly timed caution really hurt us there points-wise. It just put us behind but luckily we have two short tracks coming up and we will have to perform at our very best and hope we can stay up front all day long.”
HOW MUCH DO YOU FEEL LIKE GOING TO A NEW TEAM WITH A NEW CREW CHIEF THIS YEAR HAS HURT YOU OR IS IT IMPORTANT TO HAVE HAD THOSE RELATIONSHIPS BUILT WITH THE WAY YOU GUYS HAVE TO DO RACING RIGHT NOW? “I think that we have had a lot to work on together this year to get better. Being a new group working together and with the variables that 2020 has thrown into the mix it definitely hasn’t made it any easier. We have had to work really hard on our communication to maximize what we have. I would say it is tough not having practice and your normal weekend routine and things like that. We have grown as a team and just had to work through those types of things but it does make it pretty difficult.”
HOW IS THE TEAM FEELING ON PREPARATION OF THE CAR THIS WEEKEND CONSIDERING UNDER NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES YOU WOULD HAVE ONE RACE TO BASE IT OFF OF? “Yeah, this is one that I am kind of anxious to get to and interested to see how it goes because we are in the playoffs and this is the first time that we are running at Richmond when otherwise we would normally have had a race under our belt and that would allow you to know without practice where we need to roughly be because we would have learned it at the first race. We don’t have that. I think it is interesting. I actually talked with my crew chief and engineer to kind of see what the strategy is and how they come up with their starting setup. Man, it makes my head hurt all the information that they look through to try to get a close or what they think will be a close starting setup for the race. The 2019 stuff is so different because of the high downforce there and the tire was way different. They take a whole bunch of different equations and aero stuff and all that to take their best guess. To answer your question, they do a good job taking every bit of information that we have to kind of jumble it all up and put it in simulation and hope it spits out a close setup. But man, there are a lot of variables and nobody is really going to hit it perfect right off the truck. We will have to see how it goes and we will have to be really good on pit stops, adjustments and communication with the team. Also, we haven’t run this tire before at Richmond, so that is a big change. This tire has been really good. This has been my favorite tire we have ran on this year because it has a lot more wear and fall-off. Goodyear did a good job with this one. Hopefully it makes for a good race.”
WOOD BROTHERS HAS EXPRESSED THEY ARE VERY HAPPY WITH YOU THIS YEAR. HAVE THERE BEEN ANY DISCUSSIONS ON WHAT NEXT YEAR HOLDS? “Not yet. Not much. I am glad we made the playoffs and we want a lot more than that for sure. I think we have a long way to go. We still have a lot more potential. Our goal is to be up there contending for wins and running up front weekly. We still have things to clean up and work on. We are growing together as a team. When I came to the team, everyone involved expressed that they wanted it to be a long term relationship that we build for a long term to come. My contract is a multi-year opportunity and those options have to be picked up on the team side. We haven’t really talked about it much. I want to stick around here and call this home for a long time to come so hopefully we will find out here soon.”
CAN YOU DESCRIBE HOW SEVERE THE TIRE FALLOFF IS AT RICHMOND? “Yeah, Richmond is a big one where the falloff is huge. I think with this tire this weekend being my favorite tire we have ran on, I think you are going to see a drastic amount of falloff. I will be curious to see. I think the fans will enjoy watching that. The tire makes a big difference in how the race plays out, more than anything at Richmond. So, Richmond is up at the top of the list and people may not know that but it is way up there. If you have a guy, and I am predicting with this tire that it will be more drastic than ever, but if you have a guy that comes in and bolts on a set of tires and everyone else is on old tires, they will drive by everyone like they are in reverse. It is that drastic and that much falloff. I am really anxious to see how this tire races here. I am really appreciative of Goodyear and NASCAR that they went to work on this tire to actually have some wear and lay down rubber and to wear out because that makes for so much better stock car racing, especially at places like Richmond.”
WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY RECONFIGURING TO A SHORT TRACK IN 2022? “Good question. Auto Club has been a cool place for a bigger track. Short tracks are my favorite thing to do, by far. Short track racing is the best. That and road courses, those are awesome. But for a bigger race track I don’t typically prefer them. I wish we could run almost all short tracks and road courses. Auto Club has been a great race track but the fact that they are doing that, I am in full support of it. Not that the 2-mile track wasn’t cool because it does have a lot of character and is one of the better big tracks we go to by far. Still, the fact that it is going to be turned into a half-mile high-banked short track that looks like a hybrid of Martinsville and Bristol is pretty cool. I can’t really argue with that. The more and more and more short tracks that we can implement in the future the better. There is just nothing like stock cars putting on a heck of a show at short tracks. I am 100-percent for it but in that same statement I would say that the 2-mile track at Auto Club is a very unique place that has also been really cool. Short track racing is the best though and I hope to see the schedule filled with a whole bunch more in the years to come.”
HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU WITH YOUR NOTES FOR THIS NEW LOW DOWNFORCE PACKAGE AND TIRE COMBINATION FOR FLAT SHORT TRACKS AND HOW MUCH OF THIS RACE CAN YOU APPLY TO PHOENIX LATER IN THE YEAR GIVEN THE SAME PAIRING? “The good thing is that every time we have run on this tire at the short tracks, Phoenix, Martinsville and Loudon, we have been really fast. We didn’t execute real well at Phoenix but we did have an incredibly fast car. I think that tires are a big common ground there. We have raced Phoenix before, so going back there will feel good about where we know we need to start. Richmond we just don’t really know where we need to start. Moreso, we are taking the data off some of those other tracks and how this tire reacted and things like that to hopefully come up with some good starting points. We are factoring that stuff in as well as 2018 notes that our team has because that is more similar to the low downforce. Then they factor in the changes of the Mustang bodies and how this downforce is. There are so many equations it makes my head hurt. We have ran really well on this tire and it has been my favorite and short tracks seem to be our strength as a team and I feel confident it will take all the resources we have to compile a close starting setup and show our strength as a team on the short tracks which have been our best.”
WITH HOW STRONG YOU HAVE BEEN ON THE SHORT TRACKS, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR CHANCES IN ADVANCING IN THE PLAYOFFS? “Darlington was really rough on us. The fact that we were going to recover and get a decent finish or at least an okay finish but then that caution killed us. That made it harder. How I feel about our chances, I would say that I am still pretty optimistic because I know these next two race tracks, while Darlington was a weak one for us, these next two I feel really good about. I think if we can go out there and continue the momentum of races we had through the middle of the season when we were in the top-five and top-10 on a weekly basis, if we can do that at a couple tracks that are great strengths for us, we need to rack up some points. I feel really optimistic that we can do it. This weekend will be a big teller. The next two races will have to be very strong for us. It can’t just be one good one and one mediocre or bad one. They will both have to be really good.”
