FORT WORTH, Texas – 2003 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Matt Kenseth told NBC Sports in an exclusive podcast interview he has “decided to take some off” from his stock-car career following Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway in two weeks.
Kenseth, 45, has been in limbo for next season since announcing in July at Kentucky Speedway that he would not return to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2018.
Kenseth will be replaced by Erik Jones who was announced by the team as his official replacement a few days later.
Jones, a native of Byron, Mich. is currently in his rookie season with Furniture Row Racing.
Following NBC Sports’ report, Kenseth told members of the media he is not actively seeking a ride for next year.
“Yeah. That’s accurate. I mean I just – yeah that’s pretty accurate. I’m not committing to anything for 2018,” said Kenseth. “I’m just gonna – I don’t know, I mean the retirement word doesn’t really make a lot of sense in this sport really because there’s, it’s not like the NFL where you get a pension if you officially retire or you do any of that stuff.
“Mostly it’s for people like Jr. that got to fill the seat and have a sponsor and all that stuff. For me it’s just different because I didn’t really have that option, my seat got filled before, before any of that so there’s really no reason to talk about it.
“I’ll just take some time off, whatever that means. I don’t know if that’s a year, two years, three months, four months, I mean you never know what happens. Maybe something comes along that really makes you excited and it feels like it’s going to be a fit, you might go do. Certainly not gonna rule that out, but for now, I’m not making any plans for 2018. I just plan on having some time off.”
Kenseth is expecting his fourth child with wife Katie next month and the 38-time Cup winner says he is focused on spending time away from the track doing “normal family things.”
“I think it’ll be busier staying at home than going to the racetrack,” the two-time Daytona 500 champion said. “Right now it’s busy at home. It’s a fun busy, a great busy. I think it keeps you young. As much as I fought it and as much as I tried to deny it’s not time, it probably really is.
“Even though I feel I can still get it done on the racetrack, I just think it’s probably time, and I need to accept that and move on.”
Kenseth said he had hoped he was a potential candidate to replace Kasey Kahne in the No. 5 Chevrolet next season, but when Charlotte, N.C.-standout William Byron was named as the new driver at Hendrick Motorsports, he realized that his opportunities for next season had dried up.
Entering Sunday’s AAA 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, the Cambridge, Wisc. native has 647 starts, 20 poles, 38 wins, 179 top-five and 324 top-10 performances.
He has led over 11,600 laps in 20 years of Cup competition.
Kenseth will start 35th in Sunday’s race after his Joe Gibbs Racing team failed to get his car through pre-qualifying technical inspection Friday afternoon.
In 288 XFINITY Series starts, Kenseth has 28 wins and finished a career-best second in the championship standings in 1998 driving for Robby Reiser.
Kenseth is unsure about the length of his hiatus from competition.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knigther01.
