Denny Hamlin on Kevin Harvick’s retirement: ‘It’s hard to not get emotional’

Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway marked the final drive in the career of Kevin Harvick, who has retired from the sport after 23 seasons in NASCAR’s top circuit.

As emotional a day it was for Harvick and his family, who were in attendance, the same applied to Denny Hamlin, one of NASCAR’s longest active tenured drivers. Speaking on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast Tuesday, Hamlin called Harvick’s retirement “bittersweet,” before paying tribute to one of the sport’s greatest of all-time.

“Bittersweet because — it’s hard for me to not get emotional about this as well because I see how much it means to Harvick when he has his family around, they do the tribute videos. I mean, you just can’t help but like know how much this means to this particular person,” Hamlin said. “Kevin — to be as competitive as he was when his team was having somewhat of an off year, Stewart-Haas [Racing] did not win any races this year, to still be competitive as he was in his final year at age 47 is absolutely amazing.

“He is a unicorn driver to sustain the level of performance — it’s just unbelievable. You can’t list all of his accomplishments. It’s just, you know he was a team owner, he was a guy that if he raced on Saturday in the Xfinity Series, he was gonna win. He had a truck team. He gave so much back to the sport on and off the racetrack. Gave a lot to the drivers and was a great leader for the drivers. I think it will be a substantial loss for the series.”

Kevin Harvick ties a bow on Hall of Fame career

Harvick wrapped his career up 10th on the all-time wins list, with 60 Cup Series victories to his name. Harvick won his first and only Cup Series championship in 2014 — his first season with Stewart-Haas Racing. With his racing career behind him, Harvick will transition to the announce booth, where he’s set to join Fox Sports for the 2024 season.

Following his seventh place finish at Phoenix, Harvick reflected on his Hall of Fame career.

“It’s been an emotional roller coaster for sure,” Harvick said. “This really means a lot to me because I love driving a racecar, I love being around the people more. This sport’s done so much for me. I opened this chapter unexpectedly in 2001 and closed it how we wanted in 2023, being competitive. … There’s been so many great so tires and things that have happened this year, but especially this week.”

As far as how he wants to be remembered?

“We gave it all we had. Every lap, every week,” Harvick said. “We touched every facet of this car. There’s just not any piece of it that I feel we’re not a part of in some way, shape or form.”