Ross Kenseth (born May 25, 1993) is an American

stock car racing Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing run on oval tracks and road courses measuring approximately . It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It ori ...

driver who currently competes part-time in the Blizzard Series. He is the son of 2003

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

Winston Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. ...

champion

Matt Kenseth Matthew Roy Kenseth (born March 10, 1972) is an American former professional stock car racing driver. He drives the No. 8 car in the Superstar Racing Experience. (SRX) Kenseth started racing on several short tracks in Wisconsin and won track cha ...

. He has competed part-time in the

Xfinity Series The NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) is a stock car racing series organized by NASCAR. It is promoted as NASCAR's second-tier circuit to the organization's top level Cup Series. NXS events are frequently held as a support race on the day prior to a ...

and

Camping World Truck Series The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, and is the only series in NASCAR to race production pickup truck based stock cars. The series is one of th ...

ARCA Midwest Tour The ASA Midwest Tour (until 2022: ARCA Midwest Tour) is a pavement Super Late Model auto racing series based in the Midwestern United States with its headquarters in Oregon, Wisconsin. It was a developmental series of the Automobile Racing Club ...

CRA Super Series The CRA Super Series is a super late model stock car racing series owned and operated by the Champion Racing Association. It is a touring series based in the Midwestern United States, which competes at paved short ovals. It was formerly known as ...

and

ARCA Racing Series The ARCA Menards Series is an American stock car series, the premier division of the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA). It is considered a minor, semi-professional league of stock car racing, used as a feeder series into the three national ...

Early life

Born in

Appleton, Wisconsin Appleton ( mez, Ahkōnemeh) is a city in Outagamie, Calumet, and Winnebago counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. One of the Fox Cities, it is situated on the Fox River, southwest of Green Bay and north of Milwaukee. Appleton is the c ...

, Kenseth attended college at

Clemson University Clemson University () is a public land-grant research university in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Clemson is the second-largest university in the student population in South Carolina. For the fall 2019 semester, the university enro ...

. He is the first child and only son of Matt Kenseth. He has four younger half-sisters from his father’s marriage. In late 2015, Kenseth announced his engagement to Amber Odom. After moving on from racing, Kenseth became an accountant, moved to

Miramar Beach, Florida Miramar Beach is a census-designated place (CDP) in Walton County, Florida, United States. The population was 6,146 at the 2010 census. Although many other coastal localities in Florida have appended "Beach" to their names to distinguish themselv ...

with Odom, and had a daughter with her.

Racing career

Kenseth raced primarily in his native Wisconsin and elsewhere in the Midwest early in his career. He began by racing for one season in a

legends car Legends car racing is a style of auto racing designed primarily to promote exciting racing and to keep costs down. The race car bodyshells are 5/8-scale replicas of American automobiles from the 1930s and 1940s, powered by Yamaha XJ1250, FJ1200 ...

before moved up into late models at Columbus 151 Speedway as a 14-year-old. He won the 2009

Big 8 Late Model Series Big or BIG may refer to: * Big, of great size or degree Film and television * ''Big'' (film), a 1988 fantasy-comedy film starring Tom Hanks * '' Big!'', a Discovery Channel television show * ''Richard Hammond's Big'', a television show present ...

championship by leading the entire final race at

LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway The La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway is a semi-banked asphalt oval racetrack in West Salem, Wisconsin. The outer track is 5/8 mile and the inner track is a 1/4 mile. The speedway has progressive banking in the corners, from 5 degrees on the bottom t ...

's Oktoberfest 48 race. The series tours Wisconsin and northern Illinois. It was his fifth race win that season and seventh overall in the series. Kenseth qualified the second fastest for the

Snowball Derby The Snowball Derby presented by Bayou Fox Hooters is a 300-lap super late model stock car race held annually at the Five Flags Speedway, a half-mile paved oval track in Pensacola, Florida, United States. The race has been contested every year s ...

in December 2009. In 2011, Kenseth finished first in the Red, White and Blue State Championship at

Wisconsin International Raceway The Wisconsin International Raceway (abbreviated WIR) is an asphalt stock car racing oval and dragstrip in the Town of Buchanan, in Outagamie County, just outside Kaukauna, Wisconsin, USA. History Wisconsin International Raceway originally o ...

. In 2012, Kenseth won the

Winchester 400 The Winchester 400 is a 400-lap short-track super late model stock car race held each fall at the Winchester Speedway, a half-mile long paved oval motor racetrack in Winchester, Indiana, United States. Held annually since 1970, the Winchester 400 ...

Winchester Speedway Winchester Speedway is a half-mile paved oval motor racetrack in White River Township, Randolph County, just outside Winchester, Indiana, approximately northeast of Indianapolis. It seats 4000 spectators. It is also known as the "World's Faste ...

and the

All American 400 The All American 400 is a 400-lap Super Late Model stock car race held annually at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, a half-mile paved oval track in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. The race has been contested every year since 1981 except f ...

Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway is a motorsport racetrack located at the Nashville Fairgrounds near downtown Nashville, Tennessee. The track is the second-oldest continually operating track in the United States. The track held NASCAR Grand Natio ...

.Spencer, Lee.
Kyle Busch hopes to sign Ross Kenseth
. November 2, 2012. SPEED Channel (Fox Sports). Accessed 2013-08-14. Before the start of the 2013 racing season,

Kyle Busch Kyle Thomas Busch (born May 2, 1985) is an American professional stock car racing driver and team owner. He currently competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 8 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Richard Childress Racing and part-t ...

offered Kenseth a ride in the

for that

year A year or annus is the orbital period of a planetary body, for example, the Earth, moving in its orbit around the Sun. Due to the Earth's axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons, marked by change in weather, the hou ...

, but no deal was reached. Kenseth made his debut in the

in August 2013, driving at

Madison International Speedway The Madison International Speedway (MIS) is a half-mile paved oval racetrack in the Town of Rutland near Oregon, Wisconsin, United States. With 18-degree banked turns, the track is billed as "The Track of Champions" and "Wisconsin's Fastest H ...

in a car owned by

Ken Schrader Kenneth Schrader (born May 29, 1955) is an American professional racing driver. He currently races on local dirt and asphalt tracks around the country while also competing part-time in the ARCA Menards Series, driving the No. 11 Ford for Fast Trac ...

. Kenseth won the pole for the event, and finished sixth in the race. Kenseth competed in the

in 2014, driving for Boyne Machine Racing; he took the year off from his studies at Clemson and moved to

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

to be closer to the team. In September Kenseth announced that he would make his superspeedway debut in the ARCA season finale at

Kansas Speedway Kansas Speedway is a tri-oval race track in the Village West area near Kansas City, Kansas, United States. It was built in 2001 and it currently hosts two annual NASCAR race weekends. The IndyCar Series also held races at the venue until 2011 ...

in October. On April 17, 2015,

Joe Gibbs Racing Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) is an American professional stock car racing organization owned and operated by former Washington Redskins (today the Washington Commanders) coach Joe Gibbs, which first started racing on the NASCAR circuit in 1991. His s ...

announced that Kenseth would make his NASCAR

debut at

Chicagoland Speedway Chicagoland Speedway is a tri-oval speedway in Joliet, Illinois, southwest of Chicago. The speedway opened in 2001 and actively hosted NASCAR racing including the NASCAR Cup Series until 2019. Until 2010, the speedway has also hosted the IndyC ...

on June 20. Rain forced the race to be postponed by one day; Kenseth qualified second-fastest, led the opening lap, and finished in sixth place in his first NASCAR-sanctioned event. On October 20, Kenseth joined

Hattori Racing Enterprises Hattori Racing Enterprises (HRE) is a Japanese-American professional stock car racing team that currently competes in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Owned by former NASCAR and open-wheel driver Shigeaki Hattori they compete with the No. 1 ...

for his

debut at

Martinsville Speedway Martinsville Speedway is a NASCAR-owned stock car racing short track in Ridgeway, Virginia, just south of Martinsville. At in length, it is the shortest track in the NASCAR Cup Series. The track was also one of the first paved oval tracks in s ...

. Kenseth got back behind the wheel in 2020, driving a Blizzard Series race at

Five Flags Speedway Five Flags Speedway is a half-mile (0.8 km) paved oval track racing, oval racetrack in Pensacola, Florida, United States. It opened in 1953 and is located on Pine Forest Road. It is christened after the nickname of Pensacola—"City of Fiv ...

Personal life

Kenseth ended his racing career in 2016 and became an accountant for a real estate firm in

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. ''Italics'' – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Xfinity Series

Camping World Truck Series

Season still in progress
Ineligible for series points

ARCA Racing Series

(

) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. ''Italics'' – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kenseth, Ross Living people 1993 births Sportspeople from Appleton, Wisconsin Racing drivers from Wisconsin ARCA Midwest Tour drivers Clemson University alumni NASCAR drivers Joe Gibbs Racing drivers