Matt Kenseth is still winning races, despite the fact that he hasn’t competed in the NASCAR Cup Series since November and hasn’t been full time since 2017.
The 47-year-old 2003 Cup Series champ was behind the wheel for the 40th SUPERSEAL Slinger Nationals, a 200-lap super late model short-track race in Wisconsin, and took the checkered flag Tuesday. Kenseth made an aggressive last-lap pass around Ty Majeski, who’s only 24, in the final turn for the lead to win in his first race since the 2018 Cup Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
It was the only lap he led in the whole race.
Extending his own record, it was Kenseth’s eighth win in the super late model race, but he hadn’t competed in this race since 2016, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
Kenseth’s famously dry sense of humor is clearly still intact, along with his racing skills.
Here’s a look at the last few laps around the Wisconsin short track:
Kenseth’s son, Ross, and current Cup Series driver Chase Elliott approve.
More via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
“It’s short-track racing,” said Kenseth, the 2003 NASCAR champion and a two-time Daytona 500 winner from Cambridge.
“On the restarts I’d be on the outside and he’d get me way wide going into 3 and take off and I’d have to lift to get behind him because I didn’t have any room either. So he could get the lead and get going, that’s what you do as the leader.
“You’re not going to go dump a guy. I had several, several chances to run in the back of him and didn’t, and he was really smart and he was really patient. When I did get in there a foot or so, he’d move up and give me the room.
“I thought it was a great race. Of course, we won, but even if we hadn’t won, I’d still think it was a great race.”
