This could be Matt Kenseth's best chance at getting a ride for the 2018 racing season


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If rides were given out in the Cup Series base on a driver's career stats, then every team in NASCAR would be knocking on Matt Kenseth's door, begging him to drive their stock car.

In his decorated career, Kenseth won the Rookie of the Year Award in 2000, the Cup Series title in 2003, and has won 38 races, including two Daytona 500 victories.

Unfortunately, father time is beginning to catch up with the 45-year-old Kenseth -- at least in the eyes of team owner Joe Gibbs, who signed 21-year-old Erik Jones to replace Kenseth in the No. 20 Toyota for 2018. That's even though Kenseth has 15 top-10 finishes this year and was in the playoff hunt until an unfortunate penalty at Kansas crushed his championship chances.

Now without a ride secured for 2018 and tired of answering questions on the subject, NASCAR fans are left to scour the internet in hopes of finding any news about Kenseth's plans for 2018.

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The latest update comes from Motorsport.com, where a recent article fielded a question from a fan asking about Kenseth's chances of finding a ride for 2018.

That's when co-author Lee Spencer answered with this interesting bit of news: "Hearing Kenseth might add late model races to his schedule next year."

Kenseth piloted late model cars before advancing to the NASCAR XFINITY Series in 1996. What's more, he's raced late model cars on the side throughout his Cup career and even won his seventh Slinger Nationals title last year after bumping Erik Jones out of the way to take the lead, according to NASCAR.com

While Jones lost that battle, it seems like he's won the war, especially since he was chosen to take over Kenseth's car at Joe Gibbs Racing.

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Video: Matt Kenseth & Erik Jones in Final Laps of 2016 Slinger Nationals