Matt Kenseth won’t race full-time in 2018, may not return to NASCAR

Matt Kenseth confirmed Saturday he will cease being a full-time NASCAR driver at the end of the 2017 season, telling NBC Sports that he’s open to continuing racing, but the lack of an opportunity with a competitive team essentially forced him to step away.

The 45-year-old Kenseth is the oldest full-time driver in the Monster Energy Cup Series, and he is losing his ride with Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of the current season. He had hoped to sign with another championship-caliber team, but an economic climate within the sport where veteran drivers are being asked to take pay cuts and many organizations lack substantial sponsorship prevented a worthy opportunity from materializing.

Kenseth told NBC Sports he wasn’t retiring, per se, merely choosing to put his career on hold. But the former premier series champion acknowledges that there is a good chance he won’t return.

“I don’t know if that’s forever,” Kenseth said. “I don’t know if that’s a month or I don’t know if that’s five months. I don’t know if that’s two years. Most likely when you’re gone, you don’t get the opportunity again. I just don’t really feel it’s in the cards.”

Kenseth told NBC Sports he had conversations with Hendrick Motorsports about replacing Kasey Kahne as driver of its No. 5 car, but ultimately the team elected to promote 19-year-old William Byron from the Xfinity Series. That decision mirrored the situation Kenseth faced at JGR where the team tabbed Erik Jones, 21, to fill his seat next year.

Kenseth joins a group of notable drivers who’ve retired over the past few years. Jeff Gordon retired after the 2015 season, while Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart each retired after the 2016 season. Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR’s most popular driver, announced in April he’ll stop racing full-time.

Kenseth admitted that he wasn’t able to go out on his own terms like his contemporaries rankled him, and that he thought he had earned the right to wrap his career how he best saw fit. In 648 starts in NASCAR’s top division, Kenseth won the 2003 series championship and 38 races, including two Daytona 500s.

“Sometimes you can’t make your own decisions, so people make them for you,” Kenseth said. “That’s unfortunate, because I wanted to make my own decisions. I felt like in a way I’ve earned that to be able to go out the way other drivers who had similar careers to dictate when your time is up. Anyway, I just came to the realization it’s probably time to go do something different.”