NASCAR: Was Matt DiBenedetto’s departure a done deal last year?

Matt DiBenedetto recently confirmed that he will not return to Leavine Family Racing for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season. But was this a done deal last year?

With 13 races remaining in his first NASCAR Cup Series season driving for Leavine Family Racing, Matt DiBenedetto confirmed Thursday that he will not return to the team next season.

This news comes despite the fact that over the course of the season, he and the team have utilized their first-year alignment with Toyota and their first-year technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing to take the next step and go from effectively a backmarker to a mid-pack contender.

In the 36-race season’s first 15 races, the 28-year-old Grass Valley, California native finished no higher than 12th place, and his average finish was a lackluster 24.47.

More from NASCAR Cup Series

• NASCAR Cup Series: New team set to compete in 2024
• NASCAR: Surprising name continuously linked to new seat
• NASCAR driver at risk of missing the Daytona 500?
• NASCAR set for rare appearance last seen 13 years ago
• NASCAR team adds third car, names driver for 2024 Daytona 500

But in the most recent eight races, DiBenedetto has recorded four top eight finishes, including the first two top five finishes of his career with a career-high fourth place finish in the race at Sonoma Raceway and a fifth place finish in the race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. His average finish during this eight-race span is 12.88.

Yet in a way, his departure was expected. Erik Jones has been tipped to re-sign with Joe Gibbs Racing, so Joe Gibbs Racing do not have any room at the Cup Series level for Xfinity Series superstar Christopher Bell next season. But they still want to promote Bell to the Cup Series after he re-signed with the team in late June.

As a result, Bell has been tipped to replace DiBenedetto at Leavine Family Racing, effectively on loan from Joe Gibbs Racing, much like Jones was in the 2017 season when he drove for the Joe Gibbs Racing-affiliated Furniture Row Racing.

Meanwhile, DiBenedetto ended up with a raw deal given his impending departure from the team.

But with all things considered, it seems that Joe Gibbs Racing team owner Joe Gibbs planned it this way, and before DiBenedetto was even in the picture.

Bell could have been promoted to the Cup Series to drive for Leavine Family Racing through Joe Gibbs Racing’s alliance with the team this season, but he wasn’t. He stated last August that he was ready to make the jump to the Cup Series, and hardly anybody disagreed with him.

Leavine Family Racing announced their manufacturer switch from Chevrolet to Toyota last October before confirming their new technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing.

The stage was set for Bell to join the Cup Series.

Then that didn’t happen.

They signed DiBenedetto, resulting in Bell returning Joe Gibbs Racing for a second season in the Xfinity Series.

Was this all a part of Gibbs’s master plan?

Meanwhile, DiBenedetto and Leavine Family Racing have worked through their growing pains in the team’s first season with Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing, and they have turned the team into a serious mid-pack team. With 13 races remaining on the 36-race 2019 schedule, they may not stop there.

DiBenedetto’s average finish in the last eight races is the 10th best among all drivers, and only five other drivers have finished in the top eight in more races than he has during this span. Neither he nor the team can be considered pretenders any longer.

Yet now he’s out after 2019.

Gibbs has effectively manufactured a situation that his young prodigy can walk right into and be able to compete for solid results on a regular basis right away. That would not have been the case this season.

Gibbs will effectively legally have five full-time drivers, one above the maximum allowable total of four, next season, and he will have Bell in a situation where he can move him into one of his four primary cars whenever either Jones, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin or Martin Truex Jr. leave the team.

DiBenedetto, or really whoever Leavine Family Racing signed ahead of the 2019 season, never had a chance to return to the team for a second year, and DiBenedetto’s statistics, particularly how they have improved, prove it.

Matt DiBenedetto announced his impending departure from Leavine Family Racing on Thursday, but was this departure really a done deal before he even arrived at the team ahead of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season? Everything about and everyone involved in this situation points in that direction.