Matt Kenseth has added a race to his 2022 schedule at a track that helped launch his NASCAR Hall of Fame career
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Matt Kenseth, whose Hall of Fame career was launched from the short tracks of Wisconsin, will return to race again in one of the most prestigious events in the state at one of the first places he won a championship.
The 2003 NASCAR champion and two-time Daytona 500 winner from Cambridge is scheduled to compete in the ARCA Midwest Tour Gandrud 250 on Aug. 2 at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna.
Kenseth won the 1994 and ’95 track titles at WIR.
News of his addition to the field came to light in fliers passed out at the track during its weekly program Thursday.
Retired from NASCAR and elected this spring as one of five members of the 2023 NASCAR Hall of Fame, Kenseth is racing a limited schedule of short track events this season. He competed in super late models with the Midwest Tour at Madison International Speedway and in the Slinger Nationals at Slinger Speedway and is racing half of the six-race, made-for-television Superstar Racing Experience including the finale Saturday in Hartford, Ohio.
Kenseth, who will be making his first start at WIR in 15 years, will drive a car fielded by Shafer Motorsports, the team that won the race last year with Paul Shafer Jr.
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The Aug. 2 race is the longest race in Wisconsin for super late models and with a $15,000 top prize also one of the richest.
In addition to some WIR regulars, top visiting Wisconsin drivers entered include two-time winners Ty Majeski and Johnny Sauter, both of whom compete in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series; Casey Johnson, who won Midwest Tour stops at Madison and the Milwaukee Mile; Luke Fenhaus, the 2022 Kulwicki Driver Development Program winner; and John DeAngelis Jr., who dominated last year before being eliminated by a mechanical failure.
Out-of-area drivers set for the race include NASCAR driver Erik Jones, a teammate of Kenseth’s for a time at Joe Gibbs Racing; Camping World Truck Series regular Carson Hocevar; and Stephen Nasse, a super late model barnstormer from Florida.
Johnson, a two-time Midwest Tour champion, leads Gabe Sommers atop standings through five races, heading into the Larry Detjens Memorial scheduled for Saturday night at State Park Speedway in Wausau.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: NASCAR's Matt Kenseth to race 250 at Wisconsin International Raceway
