{"id":7276,"date":"2019-09-10T11:50:40","date_gmt":"2019-09-10T15:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonmotorsport.com\/?p=7276"},"modified":"2019-09-10T11:54:21","modified_gmt":"2019-09-10T15:54:21","slug":"menard-retiring-matt-dibenedetto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2019\/09\/10\/menard-retiring-matt-dibenedetto\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Menard Retiring, Matt DiBenedetto driving famed Wood Brothers 21"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been almost two months since NASCAR’s rising star Matt DiBenedetto\u00a0<\/strong>nearly pulled off an upset win at Bristol Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

He finished second to\u00a0Denny Hamlin<\/strong>, but got the loudest cheer after the race of any of the drivers present at the track.<\/p>\n

He’ll be a fan favorite soon, which just makes his move to the Wood Brothers No. 21 car all the more perfect.<\/p>\n

Paul Menard Retiring, Matt DiBenedetto driving famed Wood Brothers 21<\/strong><\/h2>\n

You read that right.<\/p>\n

At the end of the 2019 season, Paul Menard\u00a0<\/strong>will retire from full-time NASCAR competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve enjoyed every moment of my career racing in the NASCAR Cup Series, and I\u2019m so thankful for all the great memories and friendships I\u2019ve made through this sport,” Menard said in a release posted by NASCAR. “But, I\u2019m looking forward to spending more time at home with my wife, Jennifer, and our two young children while moving forward with the next chapter of my life. I\u2019m excited for what the future holds and I\u2019m looking forward to sharing the plans for 2020 and beyond in the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

This opened the door for DiBenedetto, who found out he was being pushed out of the No. 95 car for Xfinity Series power Christopher Bell<\/strong>, during the week leading up to the Bristol Night Race.<\/p>\n

It prompted DiBenedetto to take advantage of the personal entrance songs the track allows for driver introductions.<\/p>\n

\"Matt
BRISTOL, TENNESSEE – AUGUST 17: Matt DiBenedetto, driver of the #95 Toyota Express Maintenance Toyota, is introduced prior to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on August 17, 2019 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He came out wearing boxing attire and imitating the movie, Rocky. He wanted to show that he had nothing to lose and that he was going to fight his way to the front during that August Saturday night.<\/p>\n

DiBenedetto did just that, and Wood Brothers Racing noticed.<\/p>\n

The No. 21 car that DiBenedetto will get into next season has been driven by some of the all-time greats in\u00a0A.J. Foyt, Kyle Petty, Neil Bonnett\u00a0<\/strong>and more recently\u00a0Ryan Blaney\u00a0<\/strong>& Daytona 500 winner\u00a0Trevor Bayne<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

DiBenedetto sent out a tweet after the news went public. It read:<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t even have the words to describe how thankful I am!! Paul is such a great guy and I\u2019m lucky to call him a friend and I wish him the best! So excited to take over and drive for one of the most legendary teams in NASCAR next year! I have so many people to thank!!!!<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
DiBenedetto will race out the end of the season in the cup series in the 95 still, as the series starts its 2019 postseason on Sunday night.<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been almost two months since NASCAR’s rising star Matt DiBenedetto\u00a0nearly pulled off an upset win at Bristol Motor Speedway. He finished second to\u00a0Denny Hamlin, but got the loudest cheer after the race of any of the drivers present at the track. He’ll be a fan favorite soon, which just makes his move to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":315,"featured_media":7277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3],"tags":[311,14,1224,1225],"class_list":["post-7276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","category-news","tag-matt-dibenedetto","tag-nascar","tag-paul-menard","tag-wood-brothers-racing"],"modified_by":"Connor Ferguson","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/315"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}