Matt Kenseth leaving Roush Racing

Matt Kenseth, driver of the #17 Ford EcoBoost Ford, walks on the grid during qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma on June 22, 2012 in Sonoma, California. (Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Matt Kenseth, driver of the #17 Ford EcoBoost Ford, walks on the grid during qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma on June 22, 2012 in Sonoma, California. (Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Matt Kenseth is leaving Roush-Fenway Racing at the end of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Fellow Roush driver and defending NASCAR Nationwide Series champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will take over the No. 17 Ford Kenseth now races.

“Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has more than proved his abilities on the race track,” said team co-owner Jack Roush. “We feel that he is not only a key piece of our team’s future, but a key piece of the future of the sport. Roush Fenway is an organization with a wonderful past and present, as well as an extremely promising future, and I can’t think of a better candidate than Ricky to usher in the next era of success for the team.”

The 2003 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion has spent the last 13 seasons with Roush, 12 of those fulltime in the Sprint Cup Series. MORE>>>

Greg Engle
About Greg Engle 7421 Articles
Greg is a published award winning sportswriter who spent 23 years combined active and active reserve military service, much of that in and around the Special Operations community. Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.