Matt DiBenedetto will pilot the No. 38 Ford Mustang in several NASCAR Xfinity Series races during the 2024 season beginning with next weekend’s event at Richmond Raceway. DiBenedetto confirmed the initial report from Frontstretch.com with a post on his X account on Wednesday afternoon.
I’m going Xfinity Series racing! Thank you Viking Motorsports for the opportunity and I look forward to kicking it off at Richmond ??
•#NASCAR #Xfinityseries #VikingMotorsports #mattdracing #ford #fordperformance #Richmondraceway pic.twitter.com/kGlYd1VlHh— Matt DiBenedetto (@mattdracing) March 20, 2024
In the photo, DiBenedetto is posing with the No. 38 Ford Mustang, which has the Viking Motorsports logo on the hood. DiBendetto is giving a thumbs up in the photo.
DiBenedetto, 32, is a long-time NASCAR National Series competitor, who made the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoffs a season ago with the Rackley WAR team. Following his entrance to the Playoffs, DiBenedetto shocked the world when he announced he would depart the team at the end of the season.
After DiBenedetto was knocked out of the Playoffs in the opening round, he was released early from his ride at Rackley WAR.
The driver, who said he had decided to leave the team without having another ride in place, had yet to find a ride for the 2024 season — until this announcement on Wednesday. Viking Motorsports is owned by Don Sackett, the CEO of SciAps. In an interview with Frontstretch, Sackett stated that after the No. 38 failed to qualify in two of the first four races of the 2024 season with CJ McLaughlin behind the wheel, he felt it was time to make a change.
“We started the season with CJ, but he had trouble qualifying two of the four races, so we had to make a change,” Sackett said in the Frontstretch story. “And it turned out that Matt DiBenedetto was available, and we called him up. He wanted to get back into racing, he didn’t have anything lined up. So we decided to try to work together the rest of the season with him.”
According to the report from Frontstretch, there is hope that DiBenedetto will run the remainder of the No. 38 team’s planned starts this season, but at the very least, they have secured DiBenedetto for the next five oval races, beginning with next weekend at Richmond.
