CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Wednesday morning, Roush Fenway Racing confirmed the bombshell announcement that was leaked Monday night which shook up the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series garage: Matt Kenseth is coming back.
Announced in a press conference at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Kenseth is returning to the team that launched his Cup Series career and will compete in the team’s flagship No. 6 Ford on a part-time basis for the remainder of the season.
Kenseth will share the seat with current pilot Trevor Bayne, who has driven the car since 2015 with the support of anchor partner AdvoCare. The number of races each driver will be behind the wheel of the No. 6 Ford was not specified.
Wednesday’s announcement adds another chapter to Kenseth’s roller-coaster saga over the past year. The Cambridge, Wis., native was sidelined following the conclusion of the 2017 season, when Erik Jones took over the seat of the No. 20 Toyota that Kenseth had been driving at Joe Gibbs Racing.
With no quality rides available, Kenseth elected to go on hiatus from driving, but he never used the word retirement and left the door open for a possible comeback if the timing and opportunity was right.
Kenseth confirmed that, in this case, both of those factors rang true.
“It’s not like I didn’t have any opportunities to go and drive race cars. I certainly could have gone and done that at some different places, but none of it tempted me or interested me like this did,” said Kenseth. “This was the right deal at the right time.
“If this had come up a couple of months ago, I probably wouldn’t have done it. I certainly had a really good time the last six months with being away from the race track and having time off. I’ve been very happy and very content. You worry more about leaving that.”
Kenseth joined forces with Roush Fenway Racing in 1999 on a part-time basis and raced for the team from his second-career Cup Series start all the way until the end of the 2012 season, when he left the No. 17 team and went to Joe Gibbs Racing for a five-year tenure with that organization.
The 46-year-old scored 24 of his 39 career Cup wins with RFR, including two Daytona 500 wins in 2009 and 2012, as well as a Coca-Cola 600 win in 2000 – Kenseth’s first-career victory.
Kenseth also drove to the Cup championship in 2003 with RFR and the No. 17 Ford, locking up the title with one race to spare and amassing 25 top-10 finishes in 36 races – alongside one win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and an average finish of 10.2 – to secure his only premier series title.
