Matt DiBenedetto answers fan questions in Reddit AMA

Matt DiBenedetto, driver of the #32 Go Fas Racing Ford and popular user among Reddit’s NASCAR community, participated in an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session hours prior to Saturday’s KC Masterpiece 400 at Kansas Speedway. It is his fifth organized AMA on Reddit and fourth on the /r/NASCAR subreddit.

Throughout the AMA, DiBenedetto highlighted the performance disparity between smaller teams like his with the giants of the sport. After eleven races in 2018, he sits thirty-first in points and has an average finish of 24.5; when asked how he would be able to improve into the top fifteen range, he commented the team would need $10 million in funding. Compared to other teams, DiBenedetto explained Go Fas operates on a $25 million deficit.

“We’re barebones as far as the amount of people we have and the cars we have we buy old and then race a lot,” he added. “So we’d really have to invest in buying newer cars and hiring a few more shop people to help build those cars and turn them around. We’d probably buy another set of parts – we really only have three of everything (one for the race car, one for the spare, and one for the car getting built back at the shop). If we had another set of everything we could get ahead easier instead of waiting on parts to come off the racecar.”

“We have maxed out everything we can do as a small team so really we just need more money for EVERYTHING – newer cars, more people, etc.”

Credit: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

When asked about how he would like to see NASCAR improve parity, DiBenedetto pointed to Kevin Harvick. When news surfaced of the France family potentially selling its stake in NASCAR, Harvick suggested the ability for teams to receive a split of the TV revenue, which would allow teams to not rely on sponsors to fund their operations as heavily as now. DiBenedetto also remarked that if he could change one thing about NASCAR, it would be to “have less rules”.

In addition to answering questions, DiBenedetto announced a Reddit sticker will be placed on his car’s lower rear quarter panel for the Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race weekend. DiBenedetto drove a Reddit-themed car for the 2017 race. “It’s really cool that [sponsor] Zynga [Poker] is so open to working with Reddit and wants to grow that relationship,” he wrote.

Other questions included who his favorite driver was (Jeff Burton), what he would do if he won the Daytona 500 (“Cry like a little girl”), which drivers he would hire to race for him (Harvick, Carl Edwards, and Tony Stewart), his favorite tracks (Bristol Motor Speedway, ISM Raceway, Darlington Raceway) and which he would like to see the Monster Energy Cup Series race at (Hickory Motor Speedway), and the importance of iRacing for training (mostly useful for practice for road course races).