Matt Kenseth made it clear when asked this week about coming back to NASCAR for the first time since 2018 — he never said that he was retired. Kenseth, was just forced out of his last couple of Cup Series opportunities.

See, Kenseth was the odd man out of the Joe Gibbs Racing equation in 2017. JGR wasn’t going to cut ties with Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch or Daniel Suarez. They needed to bring Erik Jones over to their camp. With Kenseth a free agent, he was the one left out in the game of musical chairs.

Everyone thought that maybe Kenseth was done. There were no top rides left. The problem was, he may not have had an offer. Then, his old team at Roush Fenway Racing came calling for help. RFR had been down in recent years and needed help in deciding if it was the car or driver or a combo of both.

Kenseth, ran 15 races in 2018 to find out. He made them some what relevant again in wrapping up 2018 with two top seven finishes over the final two races of the year. The team cut ties with the former driver of the No. 6 (Trevor Bayne), kept Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and paired him with Ryan Newman.

Kenseth, was pushed aside again.

Then, Kyle Larson said a racial slur back on April 12 and opened a ride up with Chip Ganassi Racing. In an unexpected move, CGR brought Kenseth in as the replacement.

The first race back though? Kenseth, 48, had to race at arguably NASCAR’s hardest track on the circuit, in near 90 degree temps, without any practice or qualifying. The Wisconsin native had never driven for CGR before, nor worked with crew chief Chad Johnston or his spotter prior to this weekend. On top of that, he’s never raced this car with this racing package before.

Forgive him if he was a little rusty.

Instead, Kenseth was 13th in Stage 1, 12th in Stage 2 and moved to finish 10th in his No. 42 Chevrolet in the end. A top 10 finish in his first race back under those circumstances proves that Kenseth should have never left.

Race winner Kevin Harvick says they have to watch out for Kenseth now.

“Here’s the think about Matt Kenseth, he should have never quit,” Harvick says. “He was winning races when he left. He’s going to be an asset to Chip Ganassi Racing and he’s going to be a big part of what they’re building for the future over there. Experience and skill goes a long way in our sport. If you have those two things like Matt does, you’re going to be successful. You don’t just forget how to do that.”

Kenseth’ former RFR teammate but new teammate at Ganassi Kurt Busch says this is typical Matt Kenseth.

“That’s what he will do everyday, Busch said following a third place result in Sunday’s race himself. “That’s Matt. That’s what he does. So for him to balance out with Chad Johnston, Ganassi and everybody first day out to get a top 10, that’s huge. That sets a big tone.”

Now that Kenseth has a full race under his belt and will be starting with track position again on Wednesday night, is he a top 10 factor?