A 10th place finish in his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut last month and some “straight line” testing at NASA's Kennedy Space Center top an interesting summer for former Grass Valley native Matt DiBenedetto.

It's all part of the learning process for DiBenedetto, 19, who now competes for Joe Gibbs Racing and makes his home in Hickory, N.C.

He finished 10th on June 5 at the Nashville SuperSpeedway, but has run into bad luck in more recent races.

“It's all right; we'll bounce back,” DiBenedetto said.

Two weeks after the Nashville race, DiBenedetto was racing well at Road America in Wisconsin before a broken right-front lower control arm ended his race day. On July 17, he was T-boned by teammate Brad Coleman and again, the accident meant he did not finish his race at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill.

Earlier this month, DiBenedetto completed testing on his car's aerodynamics at NASA's Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility.

“It was neat to see the place,” DiBenedetto said. “The testing plan was pretty simple. It was a great place to learn.

But the learning wasn't for him.

“The engineers learned the most,” DiBenedetto said. “Those guys learned quite a bit.”

DiBenedetto simply drove his car straight and the testing was focused on the aerodynamics during the coast-down phase from 205 to 150 mph, according to the NASA Kennedy Space Center website.

With a couple more Nationwide Series races scheduled, he wants to keep building on what he's started.

“I took it conservative (my first race in Nashville),” DiBenedetto said. “I'm going for some real strong finishes now.”

“A top five finish definitely would be nice,” he added.

He finished 31st last Saturday at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis.

For more information on DiBenedetto, visit the websites www.guidoracing.com and www.mattdracing.com.

Contact Sports Writer Greg Moberly via e-mail at gmoberly@theunion.com or by phone at 477-4234.