Matt Tifft's rookie season in the NASCAR Cup Series came to an abrupt end in 2019 when the former Front Row Motorsports driver suffered a seizure while he was standing in front of his team's transporter.
After a break, it appears that Matt Tifft, originally from Fairfax, Virginia, is returning to competitive racing. Following a clean bill of health from his doctors, four years after being diagnosed with epilepsy, he decided to reassess his passion for racing.
Having participated in local dirt track events around the Wisconsin area, Tifft elaborated on how the bug to go compete on track was back in an interview with theathletic.com.
"The next morning after that first race, I told my wife, ‘Yeah, the bug is back,' and I’ve been sucked in ever since," he said.
Matt Tifft will incidentally be seen racing dirt Late-Model cars as well as competing in the Trans-Am Sports Car Series as a part of his reintroduction to racing in 2024.
The medical instance in 2019 was not Tifft's first instance where health got in the way of his desire to compete on the track. Matt Tifft's first full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series season with Joe Gibbs Racing back in 2016 also saw the now 27-year-old battle with medical issues in the form of a brain tumor, which was later removed.
It remains to be seen if Tifft can mount a NASCAR Cup Series comeback in the future, as he is yet to be cleared by medical professionals to go racing around one of the sport's Superspeedways at 200 miles an hour.
Matt Tifft elaborates on his desire to compete in NASCAR Cup Series once again
Matt Tifft, a former Cup Series driver turned Sports Car competitor, touched on what the future could hold for his racing career.
Having had his stock car stint cut short due to persistent medical issues, Tifft elaborated on a desire to return to the sport sometime down the line.
He spoke to The Athletic and said:
"Years down the road, I would love to be able to come back to NASCAR at some point, and if that day comes, I want to be as well-rounded a driver as I can be, the best driver that I could be. I truly see this as an opportunity to go and learn and to win and then go from there."
Meanwhile, NASCAR prepares to go live from Bristol Motor Speedway this Sunday for the 2024 Food City 500.
