26 Days 'Til Daytona - Today's Featured Driver: Matt DiBenedetto

In case you missed it, StatChat is counting down the days ‘til the 2021 Daytona 500.  Every two days, we will have a new article featuring one of the Top 30 Drivers of 2020. 

 

13th Place –Matt DiBenedetto – 2249 pts

 

By the Numbers:

 

14.75 Average Finish – Fan favorite Matt DiBenedetto put together his best average finish of his career in 2020.  DiBenedetto’s first year with Wood Brothers Racing was 3.56 spots better than his 2nd best year, 2019.  In fact, his average finish has gotten better in every one of his six seasons as a Cup Series driver.  Can he break through and get his first career win in 2021?

 

11 Top 10s – Eclipsing his 7 Top 10s in 2019, Matt DiBenedetto earned 11 in 2020. Not only was it a career high, but it also matched the number of Top 10s he’d scored in the previous 5 seasons, bringing his career total up to 22. 

 

1 DNF in 2020 – With his only DNF (Did Not Finish) coming at the first Kansas race in July, Matt DiBenedetto did a great job of keeping his car clean – he completed 98.5% of all laps (4th best of all drivers).  Including that 36th place finish, there were only three times all season where Matt finished below the Top 25.

 

-38 Pass Differential – Despite a career year, there is room for improvement for Matt DiBenedetto.  A -38 Pass Differential (meaning Matt was passed 38 more times than he passed other drivers) isn’t all that bad, considering that works out to just over -1 pass per race.  There were many others with much worse Pass Differentials.  But when eventual Cup Champ Chase Elliott has a +307, or 2nd place driver Brad Keselowski finished with +224, DiBenedetto will have to be better in that department if he’d like to compete for a championship himself.

 

103 Fastest Laps – Something that makes Matt DiBenedetto’s 13thplace finish in 2020 a bit more impressive is how he managed to do it without one of the fastest cars in the field.  Of the 9,914 laps run in 2020, DiBenedetto was the fastest on the track for only 103, or about 1% of them.  Seven drivers who finished below him in the standings had a higher number of Fastest Laps. 

 

There was speculation that Wood Brothers Racing was going to be making room for up-and-comer Austin Cindric, and that DiBenedetto would be moving on at the end of 2020.  However, it was announced in October that DiBenedetto would stay on for one final year in their No. 21 Ford, and that Cindric would stay in the Xfinity Series before taking it over in 2022.

 

Coming up in two days – Clint Bowyer

 

Follow us on Twitter @StatChat_RR

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Letter From The Editor - ''My Personal Story, and Racing Refresh's Commitment to Motorsports Diversity."

Image
I have been a true student of motorsports since year 2000 when my uncle moved to Columbus, OH and introduced me to Big and Little E . Prior to my pursuit of racing knowledge, I have distinct memories of watching Dennis Anderson's monstrous Grave Digger, or King Kenny Bernstein's iconic Budweiser livery win countless races. I remember the rainbow assortment of Pontiac Trans-Ams race in the prestigious IROC events. I sat in amazement as the greatest racer that ever lived, Michael Schumacher won what felt like every start of his career. I always enjoyed motorsports, but it was the off-season of 2000-01 that made me crave and live for more each day.  My uncle had diecast cars that sat on shelves, each with their own story. While they were a wonderful collection, I think I assumed price tags in the millions of dollars as a child. Earnhardt's K2 , old Chevy hot rods, Busch Series this, Winston Cup Series that, he had a wonderful collection. There was one driver he highlighted to
Read more

30 Second Read: Larson Sweeps in Wine Country

Image
                              (Kyle Larson celebrates in victory lane at Sonoma Raceway)       https://twitter.com/TheLTFiles/status/1401690984358944770?s=20      Kyle Larson has found a hot streak! after his stage and race sweep of the Coca Cola 600 last weekend, the Elk Grove, California native doubles down at his home track pulling off another sensational race winning every stage plus the race win in the Toyota Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway. This marks his third win of the year and thus putting him in 1st in playoff seeding. This is not only Hendrick Motorsports fourth consecutive win but fourth in a row of finishing both first and second, which no team has accomplished since the 1950's. Is Larson a new favourite at road courses? with an average finish of 15.2 over 17 career starts on these types of race tracks is almost twice the average finish of teammate Chase Elliott of 8.3 who finished second to Larson. It is not far fetched to say he is a favourite given how he has excel
Read more