Which drivers could be the next to retire from the NASCAR Cup Series?

Randy Lanning

    In the past couple of decades we have seen the average age of retirement for NASCAR drivers slowly decrease to a driver’s early to late 40's, and more recently, late 30's. 

We have seen many of the sports most popular drivers retire in this age bracket. Drivers like:

• Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (age 43, 2017)
• Tony Stewart (age 45, 2016)
• Carl Edwards (age 37, 2017)
• Jeff Gordon (age 45, 2015)
• Kasey Kahne (38, 2018)

These are only a select few of the many drivers who have decided to retire fairly early, though they are some of the most recent drivers to leave the sport. At this moment, we have a couple current drivers in this age bracket. 

Here are the five oldest full-time, NASCAR Cup Drivers to date:

• Kevin Harvick (age 45)
• Ryan Newman (age 43)
• Kurt Busch (age 42)
• Denny Hamlin (age 40)
• B. J. McLeod (37)

Kevin Harvick is right there, in the spotlight, as the current, oldest Cup Series driver to date. He won 9 races last season, and he could have some more wins in the future, but I feel that in the next few years we will see Harvick have a increasingly hard time trying to win that many races again. For this reason, I don't think he'll retire in his prime.

Ryan Newman has not had the best luck in the past few years, especially his horrific crash at Daytona last year, in which he ended up in the hospital with a brain bruise. Many NASCAR drivers have announced retirement following a brain-related injury, that makes me question how much longer we will see Ryan Newman racing full-time. This is speculation though, as we have yet to hear from Newman on thoughts of retiring.

Kurt Busch may have taken a win in 2020, but that doesn't mean that his luck isn’t starting to take a downhill toll. Like Newman, his consistency on the track has not looked the best in the past few seasons.

Denny Hamlin, I think, has a few more years before his performance takes a dip. After a Championship 4 appearance in 2020, he could have another one coming soon, and could eventually become a NASCAR Cup Series champion. He is only 40 years old, which is slightly younger than some of the other drivers on this list, I expect he has at least a few more years as a competitor driver, if not more.

B. J. McLeod is just the 5th driver on this list. He hasn’t  really shown his best as of yet, but could have a breakout year with Live Fast Motorsports.

While my predictions on how much longer each of these drivers have, may be slightly off, I would say that these drivers will likely be the next to retire. Only time will tell.