Kevin Harvick reflects on retirement advice from Mark Martin and MLB legend Joe Girardi
Kevin Harvick is retired. His final race over, another top-10 finish at Phoenix. So, what does he think about ending his career? Clearly, Harvick put a lot of thought into this season. He’s closer to 50 than he is 40, and it’s been on his mind for the last few NASCAR seasons.
Lucky for Kevin Harvick, he has a lot of friends, old and young. That includes a lot of NASCAR icons and those outside of the sport.
On the Dale Jr. Download, Harvick talked about advice he received from former NASCAR driver Mark Martin and MLB’s Joe Girardi.
“The other thing is, too, um there’s very few that get out of the car that got out by choice,” Kevin Harvick explained. “So it’s just you’re building to this whole process to the end and you know it’s the end. A lot of guys get to the end and they don’t know where they’re going what they’re doing. Some retire because – most of them retire because of the fact that they don’t have a ride. Then all of a sudden they unretire because they have a ride again, right? It seems like the right thing to do.
“I think that’s one thing that Mark Martin was very clear on. And you know he had the retirement tour and unretired and raced several more years. ‘Kevin just make sure you race until you know 100% that you’re done.’ And you know I think it’s – Joe Girardi [former MLB manager] said the same thing, he said, ‘Kevin make sure you take that jersey off for yourself, don’t let them take it off for you.’ And I think for me that really hit home. … I think for me, I’m very satisfied with being able to close that chapter myself.”
The Closer closed it out.
Kevin Harvick got some great advice
Those two sports figures, Mark Martin and Joe Girardi, are great people to get advice from. Particularly on retirement. Both are athletes that had long, expansive careers in their respective sports. Martin never did get a championship. However, Girardi has three as a player and one as a manager.
After 14 years as a player, Girardi went on to have an incredible career as a manager. However, he was out of the game from 2017-2019. Returning in 2020 with the Phillies, it was clear he didn’t feel his career ended how he wanted.
Kevin Harvick was able to close things out his way. He had the sponsorship, the talent, the determination to race for 21 years at the Cup Series level. 30 years of racing in total. Now, he’s got his own sports management company and other ventures including a custom golf cart shop.
No matter what Kevin Harvick does moving forward, he’ll be great at it. Would he ever consider NASCAR ownership?