LOUDON, N.H. – On June 26, 2009 Matt DiBenedetto got his second career K&N Pro Series East victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Sunday, just a smidge over 10 years later, DiBenedetto added another day to remember on the 1.058-mile oval in Loudon.
DiBenedetto’s Leavine Family Racing team is considered outside of the realm of the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series big players, but on Sunday in Loudon carried the flag for the not so primetime organizations to the top-five.
DiBenedetto finished fifth in the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. It was the second top-five in the last five races for DiBenedetto, who also has an eighth place finish during that span.
“I’m just proud for my team even more than myself,” DiBenedetto said. “Just everyone that has sunk everything into me and believed in me, all I want to do is do a good job for them. … These are all small victories for us. Top-five’s are great. Our goals are top-15’s are solid days. Top-10’s are our good goal, if we get a top-10 we come out of the weekend with our heads held high. Top-five is great for a team that’s still relatively growing like ours. That’s all we can ask for.”
DiBenedetto, who has 160 career Monster Energy Cup Series starts since 2015, got his first series top-five finish on June 23 on the road course at Sonoma Raceway.
“Any of the tracks where you left off the gas and use the brake pedal this year, when you have off throttle time it’s better for us as a team and for me as a driver,” DiBenedetto said. “We can all do more and flex our muscle and show a little bit more.”
He also an eighth place on July 7 at Daytona International Speedway.
“The first part of the year I was so discouraged because I knew we had speed in our cars but we had really horrific luck,” DiBenedetto said. “It can just go that way sometimes. I was discouraged by that, but I knew we had the speed and when things would just kind of go our way we’d be able to show what we can do and that’s what we’ve done. We had just things just kind of go our way. Smooth races, executed well. And then we get three top-10’s in the last five races. It just shows what we can do when things fall our way and we have good speed.
“… You always want more. It’s a great run for the team. You always want to get more, but we’re growing as a team. This just shows our strength. These types of tracks are kind of in our wheelhouse and this just shows how good of people we have. It’s not just me driving the car. It’s all these guys. I’m nothing without them. Younger team that’s showing our strength and what we’re here to do.”
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