Official: Matt Kenseth to drive No. 6 car for 7 points races

Nick Bromberg
·College football and motorsports writer
Matt Kenseth won the 2012 Daytona 500 for Roush Fenway Racing. He left the team at the end of that season for Joe Gibbs Racing. (AP Photo/Terry Renna, File)
Matt Kenseth won the 2012 Daytona 500 for Roush Fenway Racing. He left the team at the end of that season for Joe Gibbs Racing. (AP Photo/Terry Renna, File)

UPDATED Thursday, May 10

Roush Fenway Racing announced Thursday that Matt Kenseth would drive seven points races for the team in 2018.

Kenseth is replacing Trevor Bayne in the No. 6 car and his first race is Saturday night at Kansas Speedway. In addition to seven points races, Kenseth will drive in the All-Star Race. The No. 6 car wasn’t eligible for the All-Star Race with Bayne in the cockpit but is eligible with Kenseth because Kenseth is a former Cup Series champion.

Here are Kenseth’s scheduled races for Roush:

May 12: Kansas Speedway
May 19: All-Star Race
May 27: Coca-Cola 600 (Charlotte)
June 10: Michigan
Sept. 9: Indianapolis
Oct. 7: Dover
Nov. 11: Phoenix
Nov. 18: Homestead
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After being absent from the Cup Series for the first 11 races of the season, Matt Kenseth is going to become a familiar face.

According to NBC Sports, Kenseth is scheduled to run the next five races including the All-Star Race in the Roush Fenway No. 6 car. Roush has yet to publicly reveal the schedule for Kenseth — other than saying he was set to start at Kansas and run in the non-points All-Star Race on May 19.

The following three points races are the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte and races at Pocono and Michigan. Per NBC, Bayne will be in the car at Sonoma on June 24. Not-so-coincidentally, the No. 6 car will be sponsored by AdvoCare in that race. It’s widely expected that Bayne will run all AdvoCare-sponsored races the rest of the season.

Bayne is 29th in the points standings, ahead of only Michael McDowell, Matt DiBenedetto and Gray Gaulding among drivers who have run the full season so far. Bayne has scored fewer than five points in four races in 2018.

Roush announced that Kenseth would ride-share with Bayne for the rest of 2018 on April 25. The 2003 Cup Series champion didn’t find a team to drive for in 2018 after his contract with Joe Gibbs Racing expired at the end of the 2017 season. Kenseth had moved to JGR from Roush at the end of the 2012 season.

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

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