Matt Kenseth to Return to NASCAR Cup After Release from Joe Gibbs Racing

Although Matt Kenseth previously decided to step away from racing in 2018, the 46-year-old will return to NASCAR to participate in a handful of events throughout the season.

It was announced on Wednesday that Kenseth would be rejoining the Roush Fenway Racing, where he won the NASCAR Cup championship back in 2003:

Kenseth will share the No. 6 with Trevor Bayne. NASCAR provided a look at his car:

The veteran driver had a message for fans, via Roush Fenway Racing:

The team celebrated the occasion by giving fans a trip down memory lane:

When he initially announced he did not anticipate racing in 2018, via NASCAR.com's Holly Cain, he made it clear that "retiring" was not the appropriate way to describe his situation. 

"I'm not looking at anything for 2018, the retirement word doesn't really make a lot of sense in this sport really because you don’t officially retire and get a pension. Mostly, that's for people like Junior, when you have to fill a seat and find a sponsor. For me it's different, I didn't really have that option. My seat got filled before I had that option."

As it turns out, he is not done racing just yet.

"It's not like I didn't have any opportunities to go drive race cars," Kenseth said, via ESPN's Bob Pockrass. "I certainly could have done that at some different places, different things [but] none of it tempted me or interested me like this did."

While his full schedule was not announced, it was revealed that Kenseth's return would happen on May 12 at Kansas Speedway.