NASCAR: The irony of Chip Ganassi Racing’s decision

There is plenty of irony when it comes to Chip Ganassi Racing’s decision to sign Matt Kenseth for the remainder of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season.

For the second time in the last three seasons, 2003 NASCAR Cup Series champion Matt Kenseth has un-retired and returning to NASCAR’s highest level, this time with Chip Ganassi Racing.

The 48-year-old Cambridge, Wisconsin native was hired to replace Kyle Larson behind the wheel of the #42 Chevrolet for the remainder of the 2020 season after Larson was fired to cap off a sequence of events that began when he used the N-word during a race on iRacing that was being live streamed on multiple Twitch channels.

Nobody expected Chip Ganassi Racing to turn to the veteran driver, who immediately becomes the oldest driver in the Cup Series by over three years, to replace the 27-year-old Elk Grove, California native.

More from NASCAR Cup Series

• NASCAR Cup Series: New team set to compete in 2024
• NASCAR: Surprising name continuously linked to new seat
• NASCAR driver at risk of missing the Daytona 500?
• NASCAR set for rare appearance last seen 13 years ago
• NASCAR team adds third car, names driver for 2024 Daytona 500

But that’s exactly what happened, and there is plenty of irony here.

First of all, all eyes turned to Ross Chastain when Larson was fired. Chastain has been tied to Ganassi for the last several seasons and had been slated to drive full-time for their Xfinity Series team in 2019 .

He made three starts for the team in 2018 and impressed in each one. He dominated two, of which one he won, and placed second in the third. Unfortunately due to sponsorship issues, the team ended up shutting down following the 2018 season.

Where has Chastain been after competing for Spire Motorsports through a partnership with Chip Ganassi Racing to open up the 2020 season at Daytona International Speedway?

Roush Fenway Racing, where Kenseth debuted — and most recently competed in 2018.

The 27-year-old Alva, Florida native has been serving as the replacement for the injured Ryan Newman after Newman was injured in a last-lap crash in the Daytona 500 while leading coming to the checkered flag.

Ironically, when Kenseth drove for Roush Fenway Racing, he was a teammate to Kurt Busch for five-plus seasons. Guess who is slated to be his teammate is set to be at Chip Ganassi Racing?

Yes, Kurt Busch.

Meanwhile, Newman has remained positive about his recovery process, and he confirmed that his goal is to return to competitive action when NASCAR returns from its absence due to the coronavirus pandemic. That date has since been confirmed as Sunday, May 17.

Who did Newman replace when he got to Roush Fenway Racing last year?

Kenseth, who was hired by the team in 2018 as a part-time driver to try to improve them and land the #6 team their first playoff appearance since Mark Martin in 2006. It worked, as Newman advanced to the playoffs in his first year with the team last year.

In fact, it was when Newman announced that he was ready to return when talks of Chastain replacing Larson really heated up, as Chastain would no longer have a seat in the Cup Series and would be free for Ganassi to bring in without leaving any kind of vacancy with the #6 team.

But the day NASCAR cleared Newman to return is the day Chip Ganassi Racing confirmed Kenseth as their replacement for Larson.

The following day, both drivers were granted playoff waivers, albeit for completely different circumstances.

So try to follow this.

Instead of replacing Larson with Chastain, the most likely candidate, alongside Busch, Ganassi went with Kenseth. Kenseth most recently drove the car Chastain had been driving as the replacement for Newman, who replaced Kenseth.

By returning for a second time, Kenseth gets to reunite with Busch, who was one of his teammates during his first stint driving for the team where Newman replaced him when he retired for the second time.

He had been a teammate to Martin at this team during his first stint there as well, and Martin was the last driver to take the #6 team to the playoffs prior to Kenseth’s improvement-focused stint with the organization, on which Newman capitalized last year.

The returns of Kenseth and Newman were both confirmed on the same day, and their championship eligibility confirmations followed suit the on the next day.

But the list of connections stops there, at least for this scenario.

For this to be any more ironic, the 61-year-old Martin would have to come out of retirement and join Chip Ganassi Racing to reunite with Busch and Kenseth, and that isn’t happening.

Tune in to Fox at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 17 for the live broadcast of the first race back, featuring Matt Kenseth making his debut driving for Chip Ganassi Racing at Darlington Raceway.