“I’m Just Out of Time” – Kevin Harvick Reflects on his Decision to Retire from NASCAR After 2023

Earlier, NASCAR veteran Kevin Harvick took a page out of Sebastian Vettel’s book. Like the 4-time F1 world champion, Harvick posted a small emotional message on social media. In that little video, the Stewart-Haas Racing driver confirmed that 2023 will be his last season in the Cup Series. Of course, there have been NASCAR drivers who stepped back, but still chipped in for the occasional race or two, like Dale Earnhardt Jr. However, Harvick was insistent that if he wanted to walk away from racing, it had to be done all the way.

In a conversation with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, he said, “The biggest thing I didn’t want to do was retire and then un-retire. I wanted to try and do it the right way, so that it was fair to my team, the sponsors, and everybody. To have sufficient time to run the race teams correctly and have the proper funding, do all the things that took when I was done. We’re just so tied to so many of the sponsors and people, different things that it’s just a snowball effect.”

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What else did Kevin Harvick say about his decision to retire?

The #4 driver knows that his career was very long-lived and that it was time to step away. As mentioned before, though, there are drivers who just could not get away for too long. Needless to say, many motorsports disciplines have such specimens. Unfortunately, Harvick is not that kind of driver, and he even gave his reasons behind it.

Harvick continued, “We have a lot of things happening outside the car. From KHI management standpoint, we have a lot of young athletes, drivers that will really allow me time to really build that. That was really the transition that we started to form over the last year and a half. Trying to put things in place in the business side of things. I think from a personal side, I’m just out of time.”

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For now, the 2014 Cup Series champion will be looking forward to his final season in the campaign. However, there are a few big questions, like the driver who will succeed him in the #4 Ford. Additionally, one has to wonder whether Harvick will bow out on a high note.