With its current crop of three NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers averaging just 23 years old, it’s no secret the value that Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) places on finding young talented race car drivers. Seventeen-year-old Matt DiBenedetto has certainly made his impression on the organization having recently signed to JGR’s driver development program.
It hasn’t taken him long to make an impression with a victory in just his second race for JGR in NASCAR’s Camping World Series East.
Matt moved to North Carolina from Northern California at the age of 13 to pursue a career as a race car driver and over the past four years has established himself as one to watch.
Matt has made impact at each level of his racing career including winning just his third Late Model race in March 2007. He was named United Auto Racing Association Stars Tour Rookie of the Year in November 2007 after posting two feature wins and finishing fourth in championship points that year. Last May, Matt entered the record books as the youngest driver to win at Bristol Motor Speedway when he captured the UARA Stars Late Model Tour race.
Born and raised in Northern California, Matt’s interest in racing started at a very young age when his father was flipping through the channels on television and he caught a glimpse of a NASCAR race. He made his father go back to the race and sat focused on the television fascinated by what he saw.
Matt received a four-wheeler on his fifth birthday that he immediately started to drive as fast as it would go. Unfortunately for Matt that wasn’t fast enough.
When he was six years old his father was handing out trophies to his Little League baseball team and introduced his son as his “little Jeff Gordon who likes baseball but loves racing”. One of the other fathers in attendance approached them afterward and mentioned that his son was into racing as well and invited him out to mini sprint car race. Matt was immediately hooked. His father bought him an older used go-kart at first to make sure Matt was serious about racing. Once that become obvious his father invested in a new kart and Matt responded by winning his first race in his new ride. From there it was on to the dirt tracks and Outlaw Karts where he captured five championships before making the move east and adding two more championships on the asphalt tracks in North Carolina.
The current plan calls for Matt to test in JGR’s NASCAR’s Camping World East Series program and run in yet to be determined number of races beginning this spring. In addition, Matt will continue to drive in other series to assist in his development.
Matt is an avid football fan and currently resides in Hickory, NC.
