NASCAR Cup Series: Kevin Harvick plans to stay through at least 2021

Kevin Harvick has no plans of leaving the NASCAR Cup Series anytime soon, as he plans to continue driving through at least the 2021 season.

Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick has competed in the NASCAR Cup Series as a full-time driver since taking over for the late Dale Earnhardt following his fatal crash in the 2001 season opener, the Daytona 500, at Daytona International Speedway.

The 2019 season is Harvick’s 19th season as a full-time driver, and it is his sixth season driving for Stewart-Haas Racing, as he spent the first 13 seasons of his career driving for Richard Childress Racing before making the switch to his current team ahead of the 2014 season.

While there have been rumors about the 43-year-old Bakersfield, California native potentially retiring from the Cup Series in the near future, especially since Stewart-Haas Racing have replaced one of their four drivers ahead of each of the last three seasons and Harvick is the only one who has not yet been affected by this trend, he has no plans to leave the sport anytime soon.

In an exclusive interview that we did with the 2014 Cup Series champion back before the 2019 season began in early February, he stated that he was not yet putting much thought into retiring in the near future when we asked about what he saw himself doing following his NASCAR career. Here is what he had to say about the matter.

"“That’s a good question. I enjoy the TV side of it and the radio things that we do now. I don’t think I’m a person that can be totally out of work, so I think that would be fun, but I also would enjoy not having to have anything to do tomorrow and being able to consistently pick my kids up from school and take them to practice and have fun with them in the yard and all those types of things as well.“So it’s going to be interesting as I decide whenever it is time, and I don’t feel like that time is anywhere near, but as it is time, I would think that it would be interesting to see how much you do and don’t actually want to do just because I enjoy doing all those types of things with my kids. I think that that sign will present itself when it’s time, but right now I enjoy driving a car.”"

Harvick recently backed those claims by stating that he plans to keep driving in the Cup Series through at least the 2021 season. Here is what he had to say about the matter, according to NBC Sports.

"“I’m not getting out of the race car. I feel really comfortable with where I’m at…in the race car, where my home life is. I feel fairly confident that being a part of TV side of things is something I want to do in the future but it’s not going to happen in the next couple of years, I can tell you that. We have a lot of things that are going really well, the race car is one of them. There’s no way that happens. I have contacts and things that are already in place that are through 2021.“The more you talk to people who retired and did things it’s always like, ‘Man, I wish I would have just stayed in the competitive situation I was in and not tried to do something different or quit too soon.’“You hear a lot of talk about the schedule getting shorter. As you look at things, that makes life easier to manipulate. If things get shorter, I feel good in a race car and I just don’t understand why a lot of people think you should get out. There’s so much to do with being competitive in this sport, there’s so much to do with experience. If it’s going good, why wouldn’t you want to keep going? There’s too many things that I still enjoy about it.”"

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With all things considered, Harvick has no reason to stop competing in the Cup Series. He is a perennial championship contender who has what it takes to win at basically every track on the schedule, and there have been no signs of either of these things changing anytime soon.

Over the course of his Cup Series career, Harvick has competed in 652 races and earned 341 top 10 finishes, including 194 top five finishes and 45 victories. He has also taken 26 pole positions and led 13,214 of the 187,186 laps that he has completed. His average career starting position is 15.4 and his average career finishing position is 13.1. In his first 18 seasons as a full-time driver, Harvick has recorded 14 top 10 finishes in the championship standings, including 11 top five finishes, eight top three finishes, and most notably, his 2014 championship.

Through the first six races of the 2019 season, Harvick has earned five top 10 finishes, including three top five finishes, all of which are fourth place finishes. He has taken one pole position and led 133 of the 1,798 laps that he has completed. His average starting position is 6.0 and his average finishing position is 8.8. He sits in third in the championship standings.

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For how much longer will Kevin Harvick compete as a full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver? Will he drive for Stewart-Haas Racing throughout the rest of his career in the sport? Only time will tell, but if what Harvick says is true, time won’t tell for quite a while.

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