NASCAR: Can Matt DiBenedetto make playoffs, win a race in 2020?

By Asher Fair | Sep 12, 2019

DARLINGTON, SOUTH CAROLINA - SEPTEMBER 01: Matt DiBenedetto, driver of the #95 IMSA GTO Throwback Toyota, walks on stage during driver intros for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Bojangles' Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on September 01, 2019 in Darlington, South Carolina. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images) /

Matt DiBenedetto is set to move from Leavine Family Racing to Wood Brothers Racing for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season. Can he qualify for the playoffs and perhaps win a race for the first time in his career?

Not even one month after he revealed that Leavine Family Racing would not be renewing his contract for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season despite the success that he has had in his first season driving for the team, Matt DiBenedetto has been confirmed at Wood Brothers Racing for the 2021 season.

The 28-year-old Grass Valley, California native is set to take over behind the wheel of the #21 Ford, as Paul Menard, who was previously reported to have been slated to return to the team for the third consecutive season next year, announced that he will be retiring once the 2019 season comes to a close.

Leavine Family Racing switched manufacturers from Chevrolet to Toyota before the season, and they formed a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing. As a result, Joe Gibbs Racing Xfinity Series superstar Christopher Bell has been tipped to replace him.

More from NASCAR Cup Series

As great as DiBenedetto’s opportunity to drive the #95 Toyota for the Joe Gibbs Racing-affiliated one-car team has proven to be, especially as of late, the opportunity he landed by way of not only Menard announcing his impending retirement but by him telling Wood Brothers Racing to sign DiBenedetto as his replacement is even better.

Wood Brothers Racing also have a technical alliance, and with Team Penske, and the #21 Ford has been to victory lane — and almost to the Championship 4 — since this alliance began.

Ryan Blaney, in his second full season driving the #21 Ford back in 2017, won the June race at Pocono Raceway to qualify for the playoffs. He advanced to the round of 8 and took the pole position for the round of 8 finale at ISM Raceway, putting himself in a position to win his way into the Championship 4, but he ultimately came up short. He ended up finishing in ninth place in the championship standings.

Menard hasn’t had the success that Blaney had behind the wheel of the #21 Ford, but Blaney is also a better driver who has won twice as many races in the last two-plus years as Menard has throughout his entire 16-year career.

Will DiBenedetto experience success at Wood Brothers Racing to the point where he clinches his first playoff berth and perhaps earns his first victory in doing so?

Of course, there is still a chance that he wins a race before the 2019 season ends, but a victory in one of the season’s remaining 10 playoffs won’t do anything for him as it pertains to the playoffs. He sits in 22nd place in the championship standings and was in a must-win situation to advance to the playoffs for much of the second half of the regular season, and he couldn’t lock himself in.

Additionally, there don’t appear to be any tracks left on this year’s schedule that would particularly scream upset possibility for DiBenedetto, even with his and Leavine Family Racing’s improved form over the last few months.

Given the success that DiBenedetto has shown as of late driving the #95 Toyota, he appears to be a great candidate to secure his first victory next year.

After opening up the 2019 season with a top finish of 12th place and an average finish of 24.47 in the first 15 races, he has recorded six top eight finishes, including the first three top five finishes of his career, and an average finish of 11.91 over the next 11 races.

He even nearly won the August race at Bristol Motor Speedway to secure not only his first victory but his first playoff berth, but after leading late, he got caught up in lapped traffic and damaged his #95 Toyota trying to pass Roush Fenway Racing’s Ryan Newman.

As a result, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, who truly felt terrible about doing it, passed him with just 12 of the race’s 500 laps remaining before going on to win ahead of pseudo teammate DiBenedetto, whose career he had helped get back on the right track at the beginning of the 2018 season, in a career-high second place.

Next. Top 10 NASCAR drivers of all-time. dark

Will Matt DiBenedetto qualify for the playoffs, perhaps even by earning his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory, for the first time in his career in his first season driving for Wood Brothers Racing next year?

As great as his opportunity with Leavine Family Racing has been this season, especially as of late, the opportunity that he has landed with Wood Brothers Racing for the 2020 season is the best opportunity of his career, and if he can capitalize on it like he has done driving for Leavine Family Racing, he should be in victory lane at some point next year to lock himself into the playoffs.

Home/NASCAR Cup Series