A recent Spade Racing investigation has revealed that as part of his plans for leaving Joe Gibbs Racing after this season, driver Matt Kenseth has begun allegedly helping himself to a number of office supplies at the race shop.
“It started right after Coach (Joe Gibbs) announced Matt wasn’t coming back”, an unidentified JGR office worker told us via email. “The next day, we noticed that we were missing a few paperclips—nothing big, but usually we have to replenish our supply once a month, and pretty soon it was once a week.”
Sources have told us that Kenseth has been seen smuggling staplers and rolls of Scotch tape out of the offices at the end of his work days, as well as possibly using an old Smirnoff Ice blanket in the back seat of his car to conceal a cache of printer ink that went missing in early October.
“Matt’s still the same great guy he was before—always checking in with everyone he sees”, said a JGR receptionist who requested anonymity to contribute to this story. “However, he walked out with a whole ream of printer paper last Tuesday—just took it out in a canvas bag when he left the shop that day. Its getting pretty blatant—one of the fab(rication department) guys said he saw Matt eyeballing a bunch of old JJ Yeley pens he used to keep notes.
“Quite frankly, there isn’t much value in what he’s stealing—if he is, of course”, the receptionist continued. “I think its more of a principle thing for Matt—he gave a lot to this organization over the years, and to be replaced by a young kid who had an ironic mullet is definitely a slap in the face. If taking a bunch of scissors for home use is how he deals with that, so be it.”
Kenseth refused comment for this story.