Advertisement

Report: Matt Kenseth to replace Trevor Bayne for Kansas race

Matt Kenseth won the 2003 title with Roush Fenway Racing. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga)
Matt Kenseth won the 2003 title with Roush Fenway Racing. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga)

Matt Kenseth is reportedly coming back to the Cup Series.

According to NASCAR writer Jordan Bianchi, the 2003 Cup Series champion will take over the No. 6 car for Trevor Bayne on May 12 at Kansas. Kenseth and Bayne will split duties in the Roush Fenway car for the remainder of the season and the plans will be announced on Wednesday per the report.

Kenseth, 45, hasn’t driven at all in 2018 after his contract with Joe Gibbs Racing expired at the end of the 2017 season. The team replaced him with Erik Jones and Kenseth found himself on the outside of the Cup Series looking in as teams like JGR and Hendrick Motorsports decided to utilize younger and cheaper drivers.

Kenseth drove for Roush Fenway Racing when he won his 2003 title, the final title before NASCAR moved to a playoff format in 2004. He spent the first 12 full years of his Cup career with the team before moving to JGR in 2013.

Twenty-four of Kenseth’s 39 Cup Series wins came with Roush Fenway and he’s likely being installed as a co-driver of the No. 6 to help with the team’s performance. Bayne is 26th in the points standings and hasn’t scored a top-10 finish in any of the first nine races of the season. His only career Cup win came in the 2011 Daytona 500 for the Wood Brothers and he hasn’t finished in the top 20 in the points standings in any of his first three seasons with Roush.

– – – – – – –

Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

More from Yahoo Sports:
49ers will cut star if domestic violence charges are true
Kevin Iole: Mir gets his dream fight — two decades too late
Taco joint says it was too busy to serve Giannis
Gronkowski out of Kentucky Derby due to infection