Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Ford Zoom Media Availability | Tuesday, April 20, 2021
Matt DiBenedetto, driver of the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang in the NASCAR Cup Series for the Wood Brothers, is coming off his first top-10 finish of the 2021 season after a ninth-place run at Richmond Raceway on Sunday. DiBenedetto spent some time with the media earlier this afternoon as part of Ford’s weekly Zoom call.
MATT DIBENDETTO, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang — “It was really good for all of us and long overdue. A top-10, solid run and a pretty smooth day was very long overdue. That is the best way I can describe it. Circumstances just weren’t going our way in a lot of races. Just like Vegas is a perfect example where we were running top-five and top-10 all day long and then had an air gun break on a pit stop and finished 16th. We haven’t been able to show where we are at as a team. This is the first run I would consider fairly smooth. We are at least climbing back up in the point where we belong and it is good for the team. Everyone deserved this.”
KNOWING THAT SUPERSPEEDWAYS HAVEN’T ALWAYS YIELDED THE BEST RESULTS FOR YOU, HOW MUCH CONFIDENCE DID YOU GAIN FROM BEING ABLE TO HOLD YOU OWN AND FIGHT FOR THE WIN LAST FALL? “Yeah, there is a lot of luck involved and a lot of skill involved in your decision making and studying for making the right moves when it comes down to the line and you have a shot to win. Me and my spotter, Doug Campbell, I give him a lot of credit because we spend a lot of extra time on the superspeedways as far as the craft. That was encouraging and it showed the things that we work so hard on translated directly to the race track and we had a shot to win. We got lucky to survive and then when we were there at the end we were making the right moves to have a good shot at it. Leading coming off turn four, but those races are frustrating. It is hard. There is so much out of your control and you have to figure out the right strategy. Sometimes I feel like if I ride around in the back that will be the one race we finish 25th. Then the ones you race and are up front you get tangled and caught up in something. Things just have to go your way.”
HOW DO YOU BALANCE THE AGGRESSION OF TRYING TO GET A WIN AND STAGE POINTS WITH KNOWING WHEN TO MINIMIZE RISK TO NOT FALL INTO A DEEPER POINTS HOLE? “I heard myself described one time as this, and I felt it was a very good description, my style is patiently aggressive. That is a good way to describe me and how I approach every race, no matter what, no matter what is on the line, I never change that. You have to race smart. The guys that are kind of my role models, would be guys like Kevin Harvick or Martin Truex Jr. and lots of guys where they just always put their races together smart and you don’t see them making stupid mistakes, running into people or doing things like that or getting into confrontations on the race track. Earn the respect of your competitors and racing smart and racing really hard when it is appropriate. Knowing the speed we have and the capability and that we can continue to climb in the points standings, all we need to do is continue to race like I always do and do our jobs and put our races together smart and smooth.”
YOU HAVE HAD A STRING OF SIX TO-16 FINISHES STARTING WITH LAS VEGAS. WITH THE MOMENTUM YOU HAVE AND THE PARODY THIS SEASON, DO YOU FEEL LIKE IT IS YOUR BEST OPPORTUNITY TO FINALLY GRAB THAT WIN THAT HAS ELUDED YOU FOR SO LONG? “Yeah, man we have been so close multiple times now. That part can easily get you down. You just have to remember that our day will come. I know Chase Elliott had a lot of second place finishes before he started clicking off a bunch of wins. I think it is just a matter of time for us, especially the more experience we have together as a team. We have improved on a lot of things and we continue to get better as a team. I feel like we are ready this year. This year has been crazy with a lot of different winners and first-time winners and different stuff that has happened this year. You can look at it that way, as a great opportunity, or you can look at it as being tough because you still have guys like Denny (Hamlin) and (Kevin) Harvick and Brad (Keselowski) that haven’t won races yet and are overdue as well.”
HAVE YOU GUYS IN THE PENSKE CAMP MET YET TO TALK ABOUT WHAT IS APPROPRIATE AT TALLADEGA AS FAR AS HELPING EACH OTHER? IS IT AWKWARD AT ALL WITH WHAT HAPPENED WITH BRAD AND JOEY AT THE END OF THE DAYTONA 500? “No, we haven’t talked about it yet but we will. We have great communication between us and our alliance with Team Penske. My relationship with the drivers, that is all very good. We group text quite a bit and everything and try to build that chemistry. Brad and Joey get along excellent, it is just a racing situation that happens, unfortunately. I think our group does an incredible job. The whole Ford group in general and then the Penske folks and our alliance with them. I feel like we do an excellent job working together when it is appropriate in races. Our group study is pretty hardcore at the race track for these things. We have a very dedicated group of people and the Ford camp is awesome to be a part of when we go to Talladega. It gives you confidence, you just need a little luck on your side as well.”
DID YOU EVER GET AN ANSWER LAST YEAR AT TALLADEGA ABOUT FORCING SOMEONE BELOW THE YELLOW LINE? “That was just a tough deal. Honestly, I didn’t even ask or say anything about it because I was just so bummed. I didn’t even have words that could come out of my mouth after that race and for a couple of days following. I was pretty much a zombie. I went back and watched it and things happen so quickly. It is easier to look at it on TV and be like, ‘why did you do that?’ but that is a racing deal. At the end of the day, from behind the windshield, it all happened so fast. I knew it was a risk when I came down to try to block. I came down at the same time that his bumper was there and we made contact. It is just a judgment call that NASCAR has to make and it is superspeedway racing which is tough. I wouldn’t want to be in their position, to be honest. There are some tough judgment calls that fall on them that I wouldn’t want to make.”
DO YOU HAVE THOUGHTS OF REDEMPTION THIS WEEKEND? “You always want redemption and all of that but really I just look at it as approaching it just like any other superspeedway race. Although last year stung a lot, every race is pretty much a reset at these superspeedways. They are so wild and so crazy and so many things have to work out your way. Some things are within and some are out of your control. I look at it like a new day and starting completely fresh to do all we can to go out there and get that 100th win for the Wood Brothers no matter where that may fall, although we know that the Fords and our 21 car are very strong on the superspeedway, so that gives us confidence going into Talladega but a lot of things have to work out as well.”
HOW CLOSE DO YOU PAY ATTENTION TO THE POINTS RIGHT NOW? “Quite a bit. That is the first thing I look at after every race. I was excited to look at it after Richmond. We collected stage points and had a top-10 finish and we have been clipping off some decent finishes. Still not reflective of our strength. We haven’t had everything go smoothly, but yeah, every week and every race matters so much. I pay attention to it pretty hardcore every week. That is the goal of the season, to make the playoffs. That is everything. That is all. That is step number one and the first box you want to check, to make the playoffs and dig hard after that.”
LOOKING AT IT EVERY WEEK, HOW BIG OF A RELIEF IS IT TO SEE YOURSELF INCHING CLOSER TO THE PLAYOFFS? “Yeah, it is good. The encouraging part is that it is great knowing that we are collecting points and moving back up there to where we belong and digging out of that monstrous hole we were in. Us and Almirola, we had a rough start to the season. The encouraging part is that we are climbing up there and I still feel like we haven’t had some of the smooth races. We have still had a lot of hurdles and battles to overcome. Martinsville, another example. We ran that race with no sway bar and somehow fought back to 12th. We are doing this with a lot of adversity thrown at us. If we could just have a smooth run of races and do what we know we can do. Our strength of our team shows that, and I think we can climb up there even quicker. Hopefully, we can win a race because it will still be tough to point your way into this thing.”
WAS THERE A TURNING POINT THAT GOT YOU BACK ON THE RIGHT TRACK THIS SEASON? “I don’t know if there was any specific thing. What stood out to me is that we had a horrendous start and it would put me in a bad move. I wouldn’t want to be my wife some of the days just dealing with me being grumpy. This is my whole life and everything I live for. When we had the rough start it would bug me. As far as what you are talking about, I think that I am 29, almost 30-years-old and my experience level has paid off. Me keeping positive for my entire team and knowing that the stuff was out of our control and we could only focus on what was in our control. I felt like all of us were great leaders together. Nobody on the team got down because it was just crap luck. Nobody got down. I am glad that I have matured a lot because if this had happened to me a few years ago, I would have probably lost my cool a little more and maybe not been able to regroup as well and I have been thrown so much adversity in my career I just knew this was the next challenge in this chapter of my career. We had to dig out of the hole and find consistency and have good runs and climb back up there. My life and career has always been a fight and I am glad I have a team with a great positive attitude behind me.”
A QUARTER OF THE WAY THROUGH THE SEASON, WHERE IS THE 21 TEAM AT THIS POINT? “I think we are a team that can run much more consistently in the top-10 than what we have been able to show this first fourth of the season. I think we can be contenders consistently up in the top-10. I think we are still working through little things to get to be in race-winning contention as often as guys like the 11 a handful of guys that are really strong. We have a little work to do to get where some of those guys are but as a team I am 100-percent confident that when we put together some smooth races that we can be very consistent in the top-10 a lot and a threat to have a shot to win one of these soon and lock our way into the playoffs.”
DO YOU THINK WE WILL HAVE 16 WINNERS BY THE TIME WE GET TO RACE 26? “That is a good question. I think 16 winners would be a stretch although we are rattling off a whole bunch of different winners. I think we will have more than every but a couple or a few points spots and people that get in on points. It won’t be many though and not near as many as we have seen in years past. It is so competitive and the playing field is so level. I think there will be a couple of guys that can points their way in and hopefully I would like to be on the winner side on it and get in that way, that is the ultimate goal but however we get in, that is the important thing.”
AT WHAT POINT AT A PLACE LIKE TALLADEGA DOES IT TURN INTO EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF? “That is a good question. I don’t know. I don’t know how to answer that. If you find out, let me know. Talladega, it seems like it is so hard to do everything right. It is really difficult and a challenge to navigate. As much as it can be helpful to have a bunch of great Ford teammates it is also tough when you get to the end to make your selfish decision. I think you have to be patient. You have more benefits by working with guys. I have learned more patience and that is something that is a focus of mine going into Talladega, more patience. It is easy to say, ‘Oh my gosh, two laps to go!’ then you realize that is a long way around. You are still better off sticking with your teammates and your guys and being patient to make the move to try to win the race for your team.”
IS IT SURPRISING THAT THE START OF THIS SEASON HAS BEEN AS ROCKY AS IT WAS GIVEN WHAT YOU DID LAST YEAR? “Yeah, it is funny, or maybe funny isn’t the right word, but now I can laugh about it a little bit. Ending the season last year we had three straight top-10’s and consistency and all that. All I was talking about all offseason was about firing off with that momentum. Insert foot in mouth. We did the opposite of that. It wasn’t anything of our doing. It was just bad circumstances. I am a little bit surprised. If you would have shown me the standings after a handful of races and how rough the start was, I would be like, ‘Whoa, what the heck happened?’ It goes to things that were just out of our control. We are prepared for the challenge though.”
ANY UPDATE ON YOUR OPTIONS FOR 2022? “Everybody that knows me knows that I am straightforward and tell exactly what I know and right now I know nothing. Nothing bad, nothing good and nothing indifferent. Basically, there hasn’t been a single discussion about it. I think it is early and we are just going out and letting the performance do the speaking. That is the main focus. Again, talking about patience, that is another thing I have had to learn in these types of situations, to be patient. I am aggressive and always pushing and marketing myself and knowing that I have a great team behind me and a great car that I am sitting in, I can go out there and dedicate my life to doing this and performing. That is ultimately what builds my resume and will solidify me having a long and successful career in the Cup Series and winning a lot of races and hopefully championships. No, nothing, no talks or anything yet. Just doing our job and racing away and doing the best we can on the 21 car and letting it all be patient and unfold as we move further into the season.”
YOU MENTIONED PATIENCE AND SOME OF THE DRIVERS AND HOW THEY DRIVE, ARE THERE THINGS YOU SEE OUT OF THOSE DRIVERS THAT THEY ARE DOING AND THAT YOU ARE TRYING TO EMULATE IN CERTAIN WAYS? “I think it is racing smart. I don’t see those guys driving off in the corner. Stuff happens, nobody is perfect by any means, but you don’t generally see them ruining their days unnecessarily very often or driving off in the corner over their head and then running into people and having people flip them off and getting into confrontations. You don’t see that very often. Not just them, there are a lot of guys in the Cup Series I have learned that from and going back to guys like Mark Martin, I loved his style. Guys that race respectfully and I can reference right back to Richmond. If you want to talk about something that is really recent. Kyle Busch and I, I feel like we always race each other very well. We were stuck around each other a lot at Richmond and there were times where I would catch him and it was pretty early in the race. I would run him down and catch him and get under him and he wasn’t fighting it and laying on my door and having us waste a bunch of time and risk crashing each other. It was more like, ‘Alright, let’s swap positions, you are clearly a little better.’ Then there was a point later in the race where he was clearly faster than me, runs right to my bumper and instead of me screwing with him and us wasting time, we just exchanged again. We focused on our race instead of wasting time and driving silly or anything like that. That is just one example of racing smart and respectfully. Obviously, you aren’t going to do that when it is down to the wire with 10 or 20 to go. It is knowing how you can make the most of your day and be smart.”
IN REGARD TO THE TALLADEGA FINISH LAST YEAR. SOME DRIVERS VOICED THEIR OPINION THAT THERE STILL NEEDS TO BE A YELLOW LINE RULE. WOULD THERE EVER BE A CONSIDERATION FROM A DRIVERS POINT OF VIEW THAT THE RULE BE CHANGED OR ALTERED IN ANY WAY? “I am going to be honest with you. It is crazy for me to say this because I was in the situation where I got penalized for forcing the 24 below the line and it ruined our race and the win and all that stuff. You would think I would be strongly opinionated about it but honestly, I am not. I don’t know that there is a perfect solution. It is a tough call, a tough situation. If you say screw the yellow line and run wherever you may encounter other problems where people are way down the apron and it is just wild and makes the racing worse. I don’t really have a solution or a good answer. It is just kind of part of it and those are the rules. We just have to be aware of it. That was the risk I took last year when I went to make that block. It was a split-second, less than a quarter of a car length too late and I got penalized. It is out of my control and it just was what it was.”
IS IT STRESSFUL AT ALL IN THE HEAT OF THE MOMENT DECIDING WHAT DRIVERS YOU CAN GO WITH OR HELP? YOU HAVE DRIVEN FOR ALL THE MANUFACTURERS, HAVE YOU EVER HELPED THE WRONG PERSON BY MISTAKE BECAUSE YOU FORGOT YOUR MANUFACTURER WAS AT THE TIME? “Luckily, no. I haven’t made a mistake like that but none of it all works out perfectly. You can scope out all these plans and have all this organization and communication but when the green flag drops you can’t predict what lines are moving or what line you are stuck in. It is really freaking stressful. I work on myself mentally as well as physically and everything else. I think for these superspeedways I work really hard at preparing myself to have a mental attitude of focusing on what is in my control only. If I just sat there all week, which in my earlier years I would maybe worry a little more, but all you can do is focus your energy on what is in your control. If I sit there all week like, ‘Oh my gosh I want to work with our Ford teammates but what if this happens or I get shuffled or stuck in this line and am pushing this guy that is the wrong person to work with or whatever?’ You can work about that all day and it doesn’t do you any good. You just do the best you can with everything that presents itself that is in our control and make sure I have studied and as well prepared as humanly possible so that I also have the respect of our FOrd teammates to work well to get us to the end of the race.”
THE ALL-ELECTRIC MUSTANG MACH-E WILL PACE THE RACE AT TALLADEGA ON SUNDAY. YOU HAVE HAD A CHANCE TO DRIVE THAT CAR, WHAT DID YOU THINK AND HOW COOL WILL THAT BE TO HAVE THAT LEADING THE FIELD TO GREEN ON SUNDAY? “That is a good question. You are getting an answer from somebody who is probably one of the most die-hard car enthusiasts. I would put myself against anyone in the whole NASCAR industry as far as being a hardcore car guy. Loud cars. Cars with big cams. You name it, I mod them all. When I drove the Mustang Mach-E, an all-electric car, with technology how it is, I was like ‘Okay, let me try and see.’ Then I drove it and it was instant power. Also, you never have to go to the gas station ever. I was like, ‘Man, this is pretty cool and way better than I thought or expected.’ It was something that I 100-percent wanted to own one for myself or my wife. You hop in the car and it is quiet, it is nice, the throttle response is so instant. There are different addictive qualities about the Mach-E and the all-electric vehicles that I was really impressed with. Obviously driving the Mach-E 1400 is sort of its own animal because you have 1400 horsepower and God knows how much instant torque. that was like driving a life-sized RC car around the track. It really changed my perception. It was a blast.”
THE WOOD BROTHERS POSTED LEONARD’S LATEST PROJECT OF BUILDING A HALF-SCALE 427 ENGINE USING REALLY NO MODERN TECHNOLOGY. AS A CAR GUY, DO YOU EVER MARVEL AT THEIR INSTITUTIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND MECHANICAL ABILITY IN TERMS OF THE THINGS THEY COME UP WITH AND LEONARD AND EVERYONE AT THE WOOD BROTHERS? “Oh yeah. That is one of the craziest and coolest things to me. I will tell you a story that I just shared on Facebook this morning. I shared that post of Leonard and building that. When I was up there in Stewart (Va) and admitting some of the things he makes out of nothing, just out of a block of aluminum, and how he does everything by hand. It is unbelievable the artistic ability. I told him it was unbelievable and how I can’t even explain as a diehard car guy how much I appreciate the artistic ability. The hands-on mechanical and artistic ability. That is art, what he does. It is beyond just being a hands-on mechanic. I told him that. He said, ‘Matt, you would be surprised what you can do if you set your mind to it.’ I told him I have that same attitude. That is why I have been fortunate enough to get where I am. That is a level that I don’t’ think I could ever set my mind to and dedicate myself to and ever achieve. That is a God-given ability. I have a lot of appreciation for and have enjoyed so much spending time with Leonard and seeing how humble he and that whole family are. I mean, they are so humble and don’t even realize how amazing they are. That is one of the examples of the character of that family.”
