NASCAR: Matt DiBenedetto’s one-year deal at Leavine a blessing for everyone

Matt DiBenedetto’s one-year contract with Leavine Family Racing turned out to be a blessing for all involved, even though there was never much of a chance that he would return to the team for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season.

When Joe Gibbs Racing and Leavine Family Racing announced a technical alliance for the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season late last year after Furniture Row Racing, which had a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing at the time, announced that they would be shutting down after the 2018 season ended, it was believed that this alliance would result in Joe Gibbs Racing Xfinity Series superstar Christopher Bell being promoted the Cup Series.

That did not happen; instead, Leavine Family Racing signed Matt DiBenedetto to drive the #95 Chevrolet-turned-Toyota, and Bell, despite the fact that he set a rookie wins record with seven victories in the 2018 Xfinity Series season, remained in the series in the 2019 season driving the #20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.

But rumors began to swirl over summer about DiBenedetto’s future with Leavine Family Racing, especially with Bell having a ton of Xfinity Series success; he is now the only driver to win more than seven races since the start of last season, and he has collected a whopping 14 victories during this time.

DiBenedetto and team owner Bob Leavine had not really discussed his future with the team for beyond the 2019 season before the rumors about it started to heat up.

But DiBenedetto believed that he deserved to retain his ride. Here is what he had to say back in late July, according to NBC Sports.

"“I’ve had to fight and claw so hard, now that I’m in a good, quality ride with a great team that I love, I’m just 100% focused on performing. That’s what we‘ve been doing. I know that anyone — not to sound arrogant — but they’d have to have their heads examined if they get rid of me. Because nobody will do a better job in my car than myself.”"

A few weeks later, the 28-year-old Grass Valley, California native confirmed that he would not be returning to the team for the 2020 season, putting him in a familiar position of fighting for his career.

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Bell had been rumored to replace Erik Jones at Joe Gibbs Racing in the Cup Series behind the wheel of the #20 Toyota next year, but with the seat of the #95 Toyota open and both Jones and team owner Joe Gibbs adamant that Jones would be staying put, Bell was tipped to replace DiBenedetto.

Indeed, that is what the 24-year-old Norman, Oklahoma native is set to do, and Joe Gibbs Racing’s technical alliance with Leavine Family Racing is set to be enhanced for the 2020 season to the point where it resembles the technical alliance between Joe Gibbs Racing and Furniture Row Racing, which lasted from the 2016 season through the 2018 season.

During these three seasons, Martin Truex Jr. won 16 races driving for Furniture Row Racing, second only to Kyle Busch’s 17 victories at Joe Gibbs Racing, and he also won the 2017 championship.

With all things considered, DiBenedetto never had a chance to return to Leavine Family Racing next year anyway whether he won 10 races or zero this year, so it’s not like his opportunity to drive for the team went out the window with the sudden emergence of Bell.

Bell was the guy all along, and the extra year for Toyota and these two teams to prepare this enhanced technical alliance was all DiBenedetto was ever going to get.

But this doesn’t change the fact that his one-year deal with the team was also a blessing for him.

Driving for Leavine Family Racing is by far the best opportunity that DiBenedetto has had in the Cup Series, as he drove for BK Racing in the 2015 and 2016 seasons and Go Fas Racing in the 2017 and 2018 seasons. In these four seasons, lead-lap finishes might as well have been victories for him; he secured 26 in 140 races.

Yes, his opportunity this season has been one for him to compete for solid results for once, but above everything else, it has served as a way for him to put himself in the spotlight for other teams to take notice.

And indeed, other teams — and drivers — took notice.

Wood Brothers Racing’s Paul Menard was believed to have a contract to return to Wood Brothers Racing next year. But he had been mulling the idea of retirement for much of the season, and when he eventually decided to make the 2019 season his last, he was asked by the team if he had anybody in mind as a potential replacement candidate behind the wheel of the #21 Ford.

His answer?

Matt DiBenedetto.

Now DiBenedetto is set to replace Menard at Wood Brothers Racing next season, and given Wood Brothers Racing’s technical alliance with Team Penske, DiBenedetto is slated to be even more competitive next year than he was this year.

So while team owners Bob Leavine and Joe Gibbs have taken and continue to take a ton of criticism, Leavine for “selling out” to Gibbs and Gibbs for being a “dirty businessman”, for the fact that Matt DiBenedetto’s ride behind the #95 Toyota was effectively a rental before moving Christopher Bell in to an enhanced situation for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season, they deserve a ton of credit for saving the career of the fan-favorite.

Leavine, Gibbs, DiBenedetto, Bell, Erik Jones, Wood Brothers Racing, Paul Menard, you name it. There isn’t anybody in this situation who DiBenedetto’s one-year Leavine Family Racing contract did not benefit.