Matt Kenseth might be retiring after the 2017 season, even if he’s not saying it

He might not want to use the r-word, but it sure sounds like Matt Kenseth will be retiring from NASCAR in just a few weeks.

With the notable exception of Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR drivers don’t officially retire any more, they just kind of aren’t around. At the end of the 2016 season, it happened to Carl Edwards, who walked away from the sport, and Greg Biffle, whose car went away and so did he. Now it seems Matt Kenseth is next.

Though he intentionally framed his comments in a way that intentionally avoided the actual word “retirement,” that’s more or less what Kenseth told NBC Sports this weekend. He’s accepted the fact that he won’t be driving full time in the Cup Series in 2018.

He may or may not be back at some point down the road.

"“I’ve put a lot of thought into it and pretty much decided after Martinsville, which I kind of already knew anyway, but we decided to take some time off. I don’t know what that means. I don’t know if that’s forever. I don’t know if that’s a month or I don’t know if that’s five months. I don’t know if that’s two years. Most likely when you’re gone, you don’t get the opportunity again. I just don’t really feel it’s in the cards.”"

That last part is the most important, and the most telling. Kenseth is, above all else, a pragmatist. He would like to keep racing at the sport’s top level. It’s not going to happen next season, and he realizes that even if he intends to just “take some time off,” this is more likely the end of his career.

Kenseth’s name was thrown around for just about every open seat with a competitive Cup Series team this Silly Season, but it was one in particular that he named as a disappointment — the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy that will be driven next season by William Byron (though it will be the 24 after some number swapping).

"“Probably my biggest clue is when Rick put William in the 5 car, and I didn’t get that opportunity. That was one I thought maybe I would get and hopefully go over there and get that car running better. I felt like I could really do that and maybe mentor some of the young drivers coming along, and that didn’t work out, either.”"

It has to be a bitter pill to swallow in some ways for Kenseth, who’s been watching while his contemporary Earnhardt Jr. leaves to a great deal of fanfare. In almost every measurable way, Kenseth has had the superior career — in just 20 more races, he has 12 more wins and 65 more top-10 finishes, plus the Cup Series title that Junior has never achieved. Yet Junior got to retire on his own terms, and Kenseth is simply fading into the background.

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In some ways, that seems fitting for the relatively unassuming Kenseth. But it always stinks when anyone is forced to retire from a job they love before they’re ready, and that definitely feels like the case here.