Usually, when an athlete is nearing the end of a long and illustrious career, it’s pretty hard for them to face and accept their goodbye to what they’ve known for the majority of their life, it’s only natural. This sometimes also leads to some reconsidering their decision and taking a step back, announcing they’ll continue on for a year or two. But Kevin Harvick isn’t going to be one of those people.
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Harvick, who announced he’d be retiring from NASCAR at the end of the current season, recently emphasized that he is in fact, had enough of the sport, certainly as a driver. The Stewart Haas Racing driver, who was recently inducted into the West Coast Hall of Fame, has had one of the most impressive and long-standing careers in the sport’s modern era.
And now it’s coming to an end, and Harvick is okay with it.
#4EVER a racer.
Congratulations to @KevinHarvick on being inducted into the West Coast Stock Car Motorsports Hall of Fame. pic.twitter.com/mLkTKf3Z0C
— Stewart-Haas Racing (@StewartHaasRcng) June 9, 2023
Kevin Harvick has zero regrets over his decision to retire from NASCAR
In a recent interview with Forbes, Harvick emphasized that he has “no regrets” about his decision to exit NASCAR at the end of 2023. He revealed how, lately, every race week, be it the Daytona 500 or the Coke 600, has come with a pinch of ‘this is it’ reality check.
Yet despite that, he claims his decision has been unfazed. And there’s a good reason for that.
“I haven’t gotten out of the car once and said, ‘I don’t know if this is the right thing to do,'” Harvick described. “Part of that is because I know I’ll be sitting in the TV booth next year. We have all of our business in line, the structure for everything we have and our people. It’s a great time to transition and be part of what my kids have going on, and I’ll help DeLana with them. I’m enjoying every week, but I’m not disappointed it’s the last one.”
Harvick added how as they went to race after race last year, they began putting the pieces in place and reached the conclusion that there won’t be any maybes, that there are “no more extensions.”
“This is it,” he said.
Harvick is thrilled to run his final race at Sonoma this weekend
Ahead of his last outing as a racecar driver in NASCAR’s top tier at Sonoma, a racetrack that was instrumental in his foundational years, Kevin Harvick opened up on what racing there means to him this weekend, his final time.
“California has always been special to me, being that I grew up there and raced up and down the west coast,” Harvick said as per BakersfieldNow. “Sonoma is a special place to me, I have a lot of great memories.”
The veteran driver added how going back to Sonoma and running for the last time, enjoying the fans, the racetrack, all of it is something he’s “pretty proud” of.
