Over the last two days, the Bristol Motor Speedway media center hosted two news conferences for NASCAR drivers who just announced they were retiring from full-time competition after this season.
Elliott Sadler was first on Thursday. The 43-year-old Xfinity driver announced his time was up after 22 full-time seasons in Cup and Xfinity since 1997.
Kasey Kahne followed on Friday, as the 38-year-old Cup driver will end his full-time career after he made his Xfinity debut in 2002. His first Cup season was in 2004.
Kahne and Sadler both cited spending time with family as a deciding factor in making their choices.
Their decisions to step away from racing full time in NASCAR are the latest in a slew of drivers who have announced their retirements since 2015, including Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards, Danica Patrick and Greg Biffle.
Is it just a matter of timing, with drivers who entered NASCAR around the same time taking their leave together?
“I don’t know the answer to that,” Sadler said. “I don’t know if it’s one thing. NASCAR is a grueling schedule. It’s a long schedule. I just think quality of life nowadays is something we’re thinking more about, and I’m sure there are more top-name guys to retire in the next two to three years.”
Don’t expect the “Big 3" of Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. to hang it up in the near future.
Busch, 33, is in his 14th full-time Cup season and has a few reasons to keep racing, including dollar signs.
“I’ve asked my accountant that question and he says I’m screwed,” Busch replied when asked if he could retire before reaching his 40s. “I’ve got to keep going. I’ve got way too much debt, so unfortunately, I don’t think I can retire as soon as the rest of those guys are currently at the moment, but we’ll see how things go in the future with what I’ve got going on.
“We’ve gone through a lot of change over the years with packages and cars and things like that in the Cup Series, and I’ve been around for a few of them, maybe not as many as some other guys like Jimmie (Johnson), most notably, and Kurt (Busch). It still feels like there’s some opportunity to excel, and you hope that you can excel. Obviously, the better drivers, the more talented drivers should always shine and come to the top and maybe we can still have that opportunity with whatever new package is coming – if it is coming. We’ll see what happens in that regard.”
Harvick, 42 and in his 18th Cup season, also made clear it clear he’ll be around for the foreseeable future.
Harvick gave his answer in the middle of response to a question about whether he was surprised about Kahne’s retirement announcement.
“It’s a constant evaluation of the things that you do,” Harvick said. “We’re going through the same type of evaluation and how you spend your time and the way that you manage your time. I’ve heard a lot of people say, ‘Are you retiring?’ I’m like, ‘No, I’m not retiring,’ but you’re going to a lot of decisions come out that make you think that I am, but it’s really all about making sure that you have your time managed and do things that make sure that family is first and racing. We’ll worry about the retirement thing in a few years when we have to start thinking about that stuff.”
Truex, 38 and in his 13th season, also said “I don’t plan on retiring anytime soon,” even with questions surrounding his future at Furniture Row Racing.
“Obviously, it’s getting tougher and a lot more challenging each season to bring in the sponsorship and bring in the dollars it takes to be competitive so that requires more work from us,” Truex said. “I think if you’re not running good, it’s just hard to deal with it all. For me, having fun and doing what we’re doing and hopefully we can keep it up like I said earlier and keep things rolling. Definitely busy schedules and look, some of these guys have been racing since they were 6, 7, 8 years old and they have families and they want to do some other things. Wish all those guys the best.”
