Matt DiBenedetto
Matthew Guido DiBenedetto is an American professional stock car racing driver. He last competed full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 99 Chevrolet SS for Viking Motorsports.
Prior to that, DiBenedetto competed full-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for two years, which included making the playoffs in 2023. He has previously competed in the NASCAR Cup Series, ARCA Menards Series, and ARCA Menards Series East, as well as late model stocks, and won the track championship at Hickory Motor Speedway in 2004.
Racing career
Early career
DiBenedetto first showed an interest in auto racing after receiving a Little League trophy around the age of eight. His father, Tony, who raced an Opel Manta in SCCA and IMSA in the late 1970s and early 1980s, noticed he preferred watching automobile racing on television over baseball. DiBenedetto's father knew that another player on his son's little league team was competing in mini-kart racing, so he bought him a used kart, which a young DiBenedetto drove to his first victory. He later moved up to the UARA-Stars series, racing late models. In 2007, DiBenedetto's family sold all their equipment due to financial stress, from then on starting in 2008, Dibenedetto drove for Fat Head Racing Driver Development Program in the UARA-Stars as a teammate to Darrell Wallace Jr., Brennan Poole, and FHR team owner Jamie Yelton. There, he caught the attention of Joe Gibbs Racing, and later ran in the NASCAR Camping World East Series for them.Xfinity Series
Joe Gibbs Racing: 2009–2010, 2019
DiBenedetto made his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut in 2009 at the Memphis Motorsports Park and drove the No. 20 Pizza Ranch-sponsored Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. DiBenedetto raced part-time in the No. 20 car in 2010.His first race of 2010 came at Nashville Speedway. DiBenedetto had a solid car and ran well all night. Eventually scoring a tenth-place finish. His next race came at Road America. While running eleventh, he had an axle problem due to running over the curbs too hard, and that led to him falling many laps down. DiBenedetto ran six races for Joe Gibbs in 2010, with two top-ten finishes.
Nine years after his last start in the series with JGR, he returned to the team in August 2019 for the Road America race. He led the most laps and was in second position when he spun off the track on the final lap at the final corner of the race.
Multiple teams: 2012–2016
After being forced out of K&N Pro Series East team X Team Racing due to lack of sponsorship, DiBenedetto then joined The Motorsports Group midway through 2012 and ran as a start and park driver for seven races, finishing 79th in points.In 2013, DiBenedetto joined Vision Racing to drive the No. 37 car part-time in the Nationwide Series and also started and parked the few races he was in. Dibenedetto later looked back at the start-and-park time as valuable for the seat time it gave him, which paid off later in his career.
During the 2014 season's Subway Firecracker 250 at Daytona, DiBenedetto replaced Jeffrey Earnhardt in the No. 4 JD Motorsports Chevy during the first caution due to Earnhardt suffering a fractured collarbone in a motorcycle accident during the week. For the second race he joined The Motorsports Group, where he start-and-parked the No. 46 Chevrolet for twelve races and raced the rest with the No. 40. He scored two top-fifteen place finishes at Road America and Mid-Ohio. DiBenedetto finished a career-high 21st in points.
In 2016, he made his return in the Xfinity Series, driving the No. 10 Camry for TriStar Motorsports at Fontana, where he started 33rd and finished 40th after starting and parking. DiBenedetto would compete as a start and park driver in various other races throughout the year. At the Fall Texas race, he crashed into the outside fourth turn wall, resulting in a concussion and not racing in the Cup race the following day.
RSS Racing/Viking Motorsports: 2024
On March 20, 2024, it was announced that DiBenedetto would drive for Viking Motorsports for five races through the No. 38 entry with RSS Racing, starting at Richmond Raceway. He would finish eighteenth at Richmond followed by a 21st place run at Martinsville, twentieth at Texas, and eighth at Talladega. On May 1, 2024, it was revealed that DiBenedetto would continue to be the team's primary driver for the remainder of the season. However, a few days later, it was announced that DiBenedetto would run the rest of the season with the team. DiBenedetto scored two more top-ten finishes both being seventh place runs at the 2024 Hy-Vee PERKS 250 at Iowa Speedway and the 2024 Cabo Wabo 250 at Michigan. He finished the season 26th in points.Viking Motorsports: 2025
On December 13, 2024, Viking Motorsports announced that they would be switching from Ford to Chevrolet, officially ending their partnership with RSS Racing. It was later announced that DiBenedetto would return to the team to drive the newly renumbered No. 99 full-time. DiBenedetto started season with back-to-back top-fifteens in the first two races at the 2025 United Rentals 300 and the 2025 Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250. DiBenedetto got his career best result in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at the 2025 Ag-Pro 300 at Talladega, finishing fifth. On October 13, 2025, Viking Motorsports announced they had parted ways with DiBenedetto, effective immediately, with Connor Mosack taking over the ride for the remainder of the season.Cup Series
BK Racing: 2015–2016
DiBenedetto moved up to the Sprint Cup Series in 2015. He was originally intended to drive the No. 83 Dustless Blasting and No. 93 Toyotas for BK Racing on a part-time basis; he split the No. 83 during the year with Camping World Truck Series driver Johnny Sauter. After Sauter drove the No. 83 in the Daytona 500, DiBenedetto failed to qualify in his first two attempts at Atlanta and Las Vegas before finally qualifying for his Sprint Cup debut at Phoenix. When Sauter eventually decided not to race at any other Cup race after the Daytona 500, DiBenedetto took over the No. 83 full-time and declared for ROTY contention.At Martinsville Speedway during a practice session, DiBenedetto was involved in an incident with three-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart. The incident occurred when DiBenedetto tried to merge on the track behind Carl Edwards and the gap closed ahead of him. With Stewart fast approaching down the backstretch, DiBenedetto moved up the track in turn three to let Stewart pass. "When I got to three I didn't want to hold him up, so I just pulled up high and let him go by," DiBenedetto told Foxsports.com. "I got completely out of his way, but that wasn't enough. He tried to wreck me a few times, brake-checking me and flipping me off around the whole track." After the incident, DiBenedetto called Stewart "an arrogant prick".
DiBenedetto returned full-time with BK Racing in 2016, though he ran the No. 93 for the Daytona 500 since Michael Waltrip was in the No. 83 for the race. At Daytona, DiBenedetto crashed with Chris Buescher on lap 92 in what Buescher called the "hardest hit of his career", though the two were not injured. In the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, DiBenedetto finished sixth, a career-best at the time, his first career top ten and the first for BK Racing since Travis Kvapil's eighth-place finish at the 2012 Good Sam Roadside Assistance 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. He returned to the No. 93 for the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond while Dylan Lupton drove the No. 83, while also driving the No. 93 at Talladega's Hellmann's 500 as Jeffrey Earnhardt was in the No. 83. DiBenedetto missed the AAA Texas 500 after suffering a concussion during the previous day's Xfinity Series race and was replaced by Earnhardt. He was cleared to return at the following race in Phoenix. For the season-ending Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead, he drove the No. 49 to promote the video game NASCAR Heat Evolution price change to $49.99.
On December 8, 2016, DiBenedetto announced he had parted ways with BK Racing. Two days later he announced that he would drive a single-car effort for Go Fas Racing in 2017. Go Fas is one of the charter teams and as a result, DiBenedetto would make every race in the No. 32 Go Fas Racing Ford Fusion.
Go Fas Racing: 2017–2018
In the 2017 Daytona 500, his first for Go Fas, DiBenedetto finished 9th for his second career top 10. Statistically, DiBenedetto has been Go Fas Racing's best driver since co-owner Frank Stoddard founded the team in 2011, with him picking up several top twenty and top thirty finishes. DiBenedetto had a great race in the 2017 Food City 500 when he picked up a top twenty finish, his best finish since Daytona. At the Monster Energy Open leading up to the All-Star Race, DiBenedetto drove a Reddit-sponsored car; he learned of the site when driver Josh Wise was voted into the 2014 All-Star Race by the community, who nearly voted DiBenedetto into the 2016 race. The community then repeated their near-feat by having another close call in the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race. After the campaign, DiBenedetto remained an active member of the community, interacting with its users in the NASCAR subreddit regularly.At the 2017 Brickyard 400, DiBenedetto qualified near the back of the field. Despite this, he managed to avoid the late-race melee to pick up another top-ten finish for the No. 32, finishing 8th. Soon after the race, DiBenedetto, crew chief Gene Nead, and Go Fas extended their contract to the 2018 season, allowing DiBenedetto to remain in the No. 32 for 2018. However, Nead left for personal reasons in late February.
Before the spring ISM race, DiBenedetto reached out on Twitter that his team had no sponsors for that race and needed a last-minute sponsor. Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Darrell Waltrip began to donate money to fund a sponsor, and the team later received Zynga Poker sponsorship. Go Fas eventually launched #TeamBurrito, a program that allows fans to encourage businesses to sponsor the No. 32 car in exchange for various rewards. Later that season, in July, at Daytona, DiBenedetto drove the No. 32 Zynga Poker Ford Fusion to another top ten finish, this time 7th, for the team's best finish.
On September 7, 2018, DiBenedetto announced that he would not be returning to Go Fas Racing in 2019. On October 10, it was announced that DiBenedetto signed a two-year contract with Leavine Family Racing to drive the No. 95 Toyota Camry starting in 2019. The deal, which was a one-year contract with a possible extension, came after LFR failed to extend Kasey Kahne and after a deal with Daniel Hemric fell through to drive the No. 95 car.