Matt Kenseth returning to NASCAR

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Roush Fenway Racing wants to be among NASCAR’S elite again and recognized it needed help for its ongoing rebuild.

The organization called on Matt Kenseth, one of its cornerstone former drivers, and asked him to come back. When Kenseth took the call from team owner Jack Roush, he had just one question: What took the team owner so long to reach out?

“What took so long is there was a rawness from him leaving me,” Roush said Wednesday at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Kenseth launched his Cup career with Roush in 1998 and he won a Cup championship and two Daytona 500s driving for the once-storied team. But he moved in 2013 to Joe Gibbs Racing, where he won 15 of his 39 career Cup victories, and it took Roush some time to get over the betrayal.

In the time Kenseth was gone, Carl Edwards also moved to Gibbs and a stumbling sponsorship problem in NASCAR forced Roush to gradually downsize from five cars to the two Cup entries he’s fielding this year. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won two races last year and made NASCAR’S playoffs, but the organization has struggled to build consistency and get Stenhouse and former Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne running equally.

“We see a potential for Matt being involved with the company and race team past his driving,” Roush said. “We certainly feel like he’s come home to us. He’s a significant part of the history and legacy. It’s a chance to look at our cars and find out if there’s something glaring that Matt will see from his experience.”