DiBenedetto impressed from the moment he went behind the wheel of the Pizza Ranch entry on Saturday morning when he laid down the day's fourth-best qualifying effort. When the race started later that afternoon he quickly proved he belonged at the front of the field, taking the third position on the first lap. He would drift back to fifth by lap 21, but once again raced his way back to the front of the field and into the second position by lap 37. From there the No. 20 seemed to loose its handle on the slick Memphis track and he began to slide back just a bit. A round of pit stops on lap 64 gave the No. 20 Pizza Ranch crew an opportunity to make adjustments to the car, but contact with the No. 99 on his way off pit road would result in his first set back of the day. DiBenedetto was forced to bring the car back down to pit road to have the fender pulled out and suddenly found himself restarting the race all the way back in the 30th position.
The adversity didn't seem to affect the young driver making his first start in a national touring series and by the time the race was over it almost seemed as if he had the opportunity to gain a season worth of experience in one race. Now in the back in the field and fighting to find the proper handle again on the car, DiBenedetto would go a lap down to the leaders on lap 122. He fought hard to put himself in the "lucky dog" position and earn the free pass back to the lead lap which is granted to the first car one lap down. During that time the crew continued to work on the cars handling and the key pit stop seemed to come on lap 158 when crew chief Dave Rogers had the crew pull a spring rubber from the right rear of the car. DiBenedetto would restart 23rd on lap 162, but quickly dove into that lucky dog position and was rewarded on lap 165 when yet another caution came out to put him back on the lead lap.
When the race restarted he was in the 21st position. Another caution just a few laps later would have him restart 18th on lap 177 and that would begin an impressive display of driving by the 18-year-old driver as he began his ascent back to the front of the field. By lap 180, he was in the 15th position. By lap 185 he was in 12th. By lap 195 he had cracked the top 10, but he wasn't satisfied and moved into ninth by lap 207. DiBenedetto would climb all the way to sixth by lap 221 and appeared prime for at least a top-five finish with lap times consistent with the leaders when yet another caution flew on lap 228. The race's final round of pit stops would provide four fresh tires on the No. 20 and he would restart 11th. Unfortunately as the field came around turn four, Carl Edwards in the No. 60 would get spun and DiBenedetto came off the throttle to avoid the accident, but the No. 38 did not, and went into the back of his No. 20 Toyota which resulted in a spin of his own. The late incident forced him all the way back to 18th with just 12 laps to go and with two additional cautions it was difficult to make up too much ground. The rookie from Grass Valley, CA would have to settle for an eventful 14th place finish.
"It was probably the most eventful race I've had in my life," said DiBenedetto. "I feel like I passed like 100 cars in a 40 car field. We were okay in the beginning, drove it to second and then all of a sudden the car started falling off really bad. It was not like it was yesterday (at practice). I was really worried. We had a pit stop, pulling out I thought we had a clean spot to get out but Dave Rogers, the crew chief came over the radio and said ‘stop, stop,' but it was too late. We locked up and got into a little fender with the 99. That put us down to the tail of the field. We were stuck back there for a little bit. We pitted and they worked on it, put on tires and made a change and it absolutely came to life. We drove all the way from 20-something, way on back there to sixth and were running faster than the leaders consistently every lap and got turned around on the back straight away when Carl wrecked. Then we finished 14th - it was a long day.
"In the way I learned a lot, yeah (I was satisfied with the race)," added DiBenedetto. "I would have liked to finish up front, but I don't know if I'd change it because I learned so much information that nobody could tell me. It was a lot of experience that I will definitely keep in mind and store in the memory bank because it was really, really important."
DiBenedetto's JGR teammate would finish second just behind race winner Brad Keselowski.
Although Memphis marked the only race for DiBenedetto this season on the Nationwide Series circuit he will be back in 2010 for several additional races including three with sponsor Pizza Ranch. Pizza Ranch announced last week that they have signed on to sponsor three additional NASCAR Nationwide Series races with Joe Gibbs Racing and DiBenedetto beginning this week next season including Milwaukee, WI (6/19/10); St. Louis, MO (7/17/10) and at Newton, IA (7/31/10).
The NASCAR Nationwide Series heads to Texas on Saturday, November 7 with just three races remaining in the season and with JGR's Kyle Busch holding 215 point lead over Carl Edwards in the point standings in the race to the Championship.
