NASCAR Buy or Sell: Matt Kenseth returning in 2018?

Erik Jones is set to take over Matt Kenseth’s ride at Joe Gibbs Racing in 2018. Will Kenseth be back in the NASCAR Cup Series at all next season?

As of this very moment, Matt Kenseth, 45, does not have a full-time ride in the NASCAR Cup Series next season. Erik Jones is set to move on from his current role as the driver of the #77 Furniture Row Racing Toyota to take over Kenseth’s current ride in the #20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in 2018.

Kenseth currently sits in 8th place in the Cup Series championship standings. However, because he has not yet won a race this season, he currently sits 15th out of 16 drivers in the current playoff picture.

Since 2009, Kenseth has never missed the playoffs, and he has missed them just once in their 13-year existence. But a first-time race winner in 2017 could severely damage his chances at making this year’s playoffs.

Even at 45 years of ago, Kenseth has still shown he has what it takes to compete up front. While he has not won a race yet this season, he has finished in the top 5 seven times through 24 races with a season-high finish of 2nd place at Watkins Glen. So will he be back next season?

Matt Kenseth returning full-time in 2018: BUY

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Sure, Matt Kenseth is 45 years old, which more than half the age of the four ages combined of the drivers that have recently been signed by top-tier organizations for next season, including William Byron, 19, Erik Jones, 21, Ryan Blaney, 23, and Alex Bowman, 24.

And I did recently say I believed that Kasey Kahne, 37, would not have a full-time ride next season partly due to his age.

But Kenseth is still competing on an extremely high level. While he may not end up with a top-tier team in the 2018 season given the direction that most of those teams seem to be taking with the much younger drivers, there are plenty of other smaller teams out there that could use a serious upgrade, and Kenseth, given the fact that he is still performing well, would not essentially be signing up to run in 25th or 30th place each race by signing with a smaller team, either.

Next: 10 drivers who deserve better Cup Series ride

Do you think Matt Kenseth will be a full-time driver in the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to follow along with Beyond the Flag for the latest news, opinions and analysis stemming from a number of different motorsports series. You don’t want to miss any of it. Also be sure to follow Beyond the Flag on both Instagram and Twitter.

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