At 10:30 Tuesday morning, Jack Roush assembled his troops to announce Matt Kenseth would no longer be driving the No. 17 Ford after the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup season.

The news shocked and saddened many at the Roush Fenway Racing campus. After all, Kenseth was a fixture at Roush for the last 14 years - long before there was a Fenway. He was the first driver to bring home the Sprint Cup championship. He was the first Roush driver to win not one but two Daytona 500s. And not surprisingly, at 40, Kenseth is leading the Sprint Cup points once again.

But when news of Kenseth's departure was delivered to the employees that supported him throughout his entire Cup career, one person was missing: Kenseth.

"No, I wanted to be a part of that and I didn't know they were telling the shop - when they told them - in time for me to get there," Kenseth said. "So I will try to be there for the team meeting next week and be able to talk to the guys.

"But l got there as soon as I could after their announcement to talk to my guys a little bit. Obviously, I'll be spending the weekend with them and hopefully I can talk to the whole shop next week. I don't understand all the inner workings of everything. I know they had a timeline and a plan for doing things, but yeah, that was very important for me to be standing there next to Jack and (general manager) Robbie (Reiser) and probably (team president) Steve (Newmark) to tell them guys what was going on, what was the future.

"At the end of the day, it didn't happen. I'll make sure to get there next week and talk to the guys."

Word trickled out shortly after the meeting that Kenseth indeed was leaving and likely headed to Joe Gibbs Racing.