NASCAR Cup Series: Kevin Harvick reveals when he plans to retire
By Asher Fair
In an interview with FanSided’s Mark Carman, Kevin Harvick spoke about his future in NASCAR and whether or not he considers his retirement to be imminent.
After a slow start to the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season sparked questions about whether or not his career was coming to an end, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick bounced back with three victories in the final seven races of the 26-race regular season, including two in the last four.
He closed out the regular season with a victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the Brickyard 400, his second Brickyard 400 victory and first since 2003.
Despite the fact that the 43-year-old Bakersfield, California native took until the season’s 20th race to finish a race in the top three, it’s clear that he still has what it takes to compete at high level in the Cup Series, even to the point where he can be considered one of the favorites to advance to the Championship 4 for the fifth time in its six years of existence in mid-November.
So when does Harvick plan to retire?
Better question: Does Harvick have any plans to hang up his helmet?
Earlier this year, the driver of the #4 Ford started that he would be driving through at least the 2021 season, and if he keeps driving the way he’s been driving, there’s no reason to believe he won’t accomplish that and more.
But he recently addressed his future during an interview with FanSided’s Mark Carman in Carman’s On the Mark podcast and made clear that retirement is nowhere near at the forefront of his mind.
“I’ll race until I get tired of it. Is that too broad?” Harvick asked.
Simple enough answer.
“You work your whole life to get to this particular point, and you’re still successful on the race track and have a good balance with life in general, with the family and the way that things work,” he continued.
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“There’s no reason to quit just to quit. I think as you look at our sport, it’s not like other sports where you have to be able to run fast and throw far, so for me it’s really going to be about the grind more than it is about being competitive…I spent my whole life trying to get to this point. Might as well make it last as long as [I] can.”
Harvick has now won 48 races throughout his 19-year Cup Series career, and one more win will allow him to tie Stewart-Haas Racing co-owner Tony Stewart for 14th place on the all-time wins list. But while he has no plans to retire anytime soon, he isn’t focused on the record books.
“Honestly, I don’t really pay attention to all that stuff,” he stated. “I think as you look at Tony, he actually mentioned it last week and he hoped that we got there this week. He’s been pretty supportive in actually getting to that 49th win and tying him on that list, so it’s been a little bit of fun for me to kind of jab at him, but as far as the all-time rank, I hadn’t looked at that.”
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Kevin Harvick is set to make a run at his second career NASCAR Cup Series championship over the course of the next 10 weekends. The 2014 champion is one of 16 drivers set to compete in the 2019 four-round, 10-race playoffs, which are slated to begin this evening at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada with the South Point 400. This race is set to be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network beginning at 7:00 p.m. ET.