Matt DiBenedetto in Tears after Career Best Finish in Bristol - Speedway Digest

Matt DiBenedetto set a couple career milestones on Sunday at Bristol for himself and his race team, BK Racing when he took the checkered flag in the sixth position.

DiBenedetto is currently in his second full-time season at the helm of the No. 83 Toyota. While beginning the 500-lap event from the 30^th position, it looked like it was just going to be an average day for the second-year driver.

That was until roughly 400 laps into the race.

The California native continued to move up the leader board as the laps ticked away in Bristol. Being that there were 15 cautions, it gave DiBenedetto and crew chief Gene Nead the opportunity to get off strategy.

“I’m sorry, I’m so speechless,” DiBenedetto said post-race. “I’m just so thankful for everybody on this team at BK Racing. These guys man… That is unbelievable for a team like us to grow so much and for us to get a sixth-place run.”

The team earned the victory. Although they were a bit off strategy, during the last two green flag stints of the race DiBenedetto went from 10^th to sixth. The 24-year-old found himself racing and passing drivers among the “power four” teams, such as Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano.

Restarting in the outside line helped, but this finish will likely be a monumental shift of momentum for BK Racing.

Before the beginning of 2016 BK Racing purchased more than a dozen racecars from Michael Waltrip Racing, which closed its doors at the end of last year. As well as getting the cars they also acquired some of the former crew members from the team, hoping to better the performance from one year ago.

Toyota Racing Development has also chipped in and now supporting the young organization more than they had in the previous four years of existence.

“That is like a win for us,” DiBenedetto said. “I’m so excited. This is incredible and I’m just so blessed to be here.”

Prior to Sunday BK Racing’s best career finish was eighth at Talladega in 2012, led by Travis Kvapil. DiBenedetto’s best career finish also came at Talladega last spring when he piloted his Toyota to an 18^th-place finish.

Author
Recent Posts

Dustin Albino

Dustin is a 20-year-old, currently studying journalism at Ithaca College. Albino has always wanted to report on NASCAR and beginning at the end of 2014 that is exactly what he did with Speedway Digest. Since that time he has become well-known around the garage area and is looking to attend even more races than he did in 2015. Twitter: @DustinAlbinoInstagram: @dustin_albino