NASCAR: Could Matt Kenseth really become a school bus driver in 2018?

By Asher Fair | Oct 14, 2017

TALLADEGA, AL - OCTOBER 13: Matt Kenseth, driver of the #20 DEWALT FLEXVOLT Toyota, sits in the garage area during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Alabama 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 13, 2017 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Sarah Crabill/Getty Images) /

Matt Kenseth’s future in the NASCAR Cup Series is getting to be more and more in doubt. Will he become a school bus driver in 2018?

Matt Kenseth, 45, has been driving in the NASCAR Cup Series as a full-time driver since the 2000 season. He has won 38 races throughout his career and even won the 2003 series championship in the final Cup Series season during which playoffs were not implemented. Since the playoff era began in the 2004 season, he has failed to qualify for the playoffs just once in 14 seasons.

While he has not won a race yet this season and is on a 47-race winless streak dating back to the regular season race at New Hampshire last year, Kenseth is still alive in the championship hunt as the series heads to the second of three races of the Round of 12 at Talladega tomorrow, Sunday, October 15th, 2017.

However, Kenseth will not be returning to drive the #20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in the 2018 season, as the team has hired 21-year-old Erik Jones, who currently drives the #77 Toyota for Furniture Row Racing, the team with which Joe Gibbs Racing has a technical alliance, to take over the driving duties of the #20 car.

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While the likelihood that Kenseth ends up back in the Cup Series as a full-time driver next season is small and seems to get smaller and smaller each and every day, one thing that has been rather consistent throughout his Cup Series career with Roush Fenway Racing (originally Roush Racing) and Joe Gibbs Racing may actually remain the same in 2018.

Kenseth may end up behind the wheel of a bright yellow vehicle. And it may very well be a vehicle numbered #17 or #20, his two numbers over the course of his full-time Cup Series career driving for Roush Fenway Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing, respectively.

How? Well, because Kenseth recently joked (but was it really joking?) about potentially going from a NASCAR Cup Series driver to a school bus driver in 2018. Here is what he had to say about the subject.

"“You know, I was thinking about maybe driving a school bus. I thought it would be fun. I drive the kids to school every morning. I enjoy that. I thought it would be fun to drive them home, too…The school bus thing is appealing.”"

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While the 45-year-old is more focused on winning this year’s championship than anything, including getting a full-time ride in the NASCAR Cup Series next season, he certainly hasn’t lost his sense of humor. But who knows? Maybe Matt Kenseth will actually go from driver of the #20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in the Cup Series to driver of a #20 school bus.