NASCAR Xfinity: Matt DiBenedetto in No. 18 at Road America

By AMANDA VINCENT

Matt DiBenedetto will be in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis., on Aug. 24, in place of Jeffrey Earnhardt. Earnhardt who was a part-time driver of the No. 18 this season has parted ways with sponsor iK9. As a result, he is not expected to return to the car this season.

GUESS WHAT?!?! I’m so dang excited to get an extra chance to do some road course racing next weekend for the @NASCAR_Xfinity race @RoadAmerica in the No.18 @iK9_Global Camry for @JoeGibbsRacing!!” DiBenedetto (@MattDRacing) tweeted.

The Road America race will be the third since Earnhardt announced his departure from iK9 sponsorship. Jack Hawksworth made his stock car racing debut as Earnhardt’s fill-in at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Park in Lexington on Aug. 10. Earnhardt was not scheduled to drive the No. 18 in Friday night’s race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. Instead, Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Busch is on the schedule for that race.

DiBenedetto, a Cup Series regular, last raced in the Xfinity Series in 2016. He has 68-career starts in the series, resulting in two top-10s at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway and Iowa Speedway in Newton, both in 2010. He has three Xfinity Series starts at Road America, resulting in a best finish of 11th in 2014.

Earnhardt also was scheduled to drive the No. 18 at ISM (formerly Phoenix International) Raceway and Homestead-Miami Speedway in November. JGR has yet to name replacements for those races.

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Posted by ard2012 on August 15, 2019. Filed under Breaking News,Featured,NASCAR,NASCAR Xfinity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry