Kevin Harvick "was" supposed to retire from the Cup Series after 2021, but what happened?

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    NASCAR Cup Series veteran, Kevin Harvick has been around the sport for quite a while now. Due to the length of his career, many questions surrounding his retirement from full-time competition in NASCAR's top series have been posed, and few have been answered. According to Kevin Harvick in a recent episode of Dirty Mo Media's "Dale Jr. Download", it turns out that 2021 was supposed to be Kevin Harvick's last full-time season in the NASCAR Cup Series. So, why didn't Kevin Harvick end up retiring?!

To understand why Kevin Harvick didn't retire at the end of the 2021 season, we must first understand the circumstances of Harvick's racing career.

The 2014 Cup Series Champion, Kevin Harvick, began his NASCAR Cup Series career back in 2001, replacing the late Dale Earnhardt after his tragic death on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. At the time, a young Kevin Harvick was running his second season with Richard Childress Racing in the NASCAR Busch Series, when he got the called up to Winston Cup competition. The famous black No. 3 GM Goodwrench Monte Carlo was swapped for an inverted white No. 29 scheme. Harvick would come out victorious in his only his third start in the series, which came at Atlanta Motor Speedway. 

Due to the fact that in 2001 drivers were allowed to run for championships in multiple series at the same time, Harvick would also win the Busch Series championship in that season, and once more in 2006. Despite not winning a Cup Series championship for RCR, he would rake in 23 wins for the team during his time in the Childress' equipment.

Unfortunately, Kevin Harvick's relationship with RCR was beginning to fade a few years prior to his departure from the organization. During a 2013 Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway, Kevin Harvick was involved in an incident including Ty Dillon. Ty Dillon, Childress' grandson, was competing for the Truck Series championship in RCR equipment. Meanwhile Harvick was just making his second start of the season. In a manner that has yet to be forgotten Kevin Harvick called the Dillon brothers (Austin and Ty), "Silver-Spoon kids" and even cited that the "Rich kids" were the reason for him leaving the team. Richard Childress, the grandfather of both Austin and Ty Dillon was quite understandably not pleased with Harvick after his statement. Although he would resign upon his own terms, Harvick would not return to the organization in 2014. His new ride: Stewart-Haas Racing.

When Kevin Harvick moved to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014, he quickly adapted to the team. The now middle-aged driver would take the No. 4 car to victory lane in his second start with the organization and would also win the NASCAR Cup Series Championship that season. Since then, Harvick has brought his win column status up to 58 victories (to date), with a record season in 2020, where the driver took nine victories. While unfortunately missing the "Championship 4" due to dwindling performance during the playoffs, Harvick took home the regular season championship. Things were looking promising for Harvick in 2021.

At the very end of the 2020 season, Kevin Harvick's teammate and longtime friend Clint Bowyer announced his retirement from full-time NASCAR competition. With that decision leaving the No. 14 car open, team owner Tony Stewart had a driver in mind for the ride, Kyle Larson. Although Stewart wanted to see Larson pilot the No. 14, Ford Motor Company would not allow Stewart to place the driver in one of their cars after the use of a racial slur.  After taking part in necessary sensitivity training and other charitable organizations, Larson would be re-instated for NASCAR competition. Unfortunately for Stewart-Haas Racing, Kyle Larson would join Hendrick Motorsports, a team who was actually allowed to sign him.

Kyle Larson would be picked up by Hendrick Motorsports, and went on to score a astounding 10 victories and the NASCAR Cup Series Championship. With Ford denying Kyle Larson, Stewart would have few choices but to move up the freshly re-signed SHR NASCAR Xfinity Series driver, Chase Briscoe. According to sources, Briscoe was expected to replace after retirement at the end of 2021, but Bowyer's retirement and Ford's disapproval, Chase Briscoe's move to the NASCAR Cup Series was prioritized. This left nobody in the Stewart-Haas Racing pipeline who could take over for Harvick.

Whether or not Harvick would have been replaced by Briscoe in 2022 is still unknown, but that timeline is now irrelevant as a different path was chosen. What is clear is that Larson signing with Hendrick Motorsports and not Stewart-Haas Racing only shook-up things at the already off kilter team.  The organization had made it to victory lane once, between the Cup and Xfinity Series. Going from a 10-win season in the NASCAR Cup Series and a nine-win season NASCAR Xfinity Series win, to a a season where the team only saw a single Cup Series, is almost obviously a good thing. 

We can't blame the horrible performance from Stewart-Haas racing in 2021 on their new driver lineup, and the reality that never came to be with Kyle Larson. Their performance was likely hindered by new aerodynamic rules put in place, which eliminated the advantage the team had utilized in 2020. After the monstrosity that was 2021, what Stewart-Haas Racing needed was stability, meaning they would not be attempting to replace any of their drivers.

For that reason alone, Stewart-Haas Racing would not seek out a new driver for the No. 4, and instead Kevin Harvick would stay at the team for at least one more season.

That brings us to where we are today, Kevin Harvick seeing the future beyond his now defunct retirement plans. Fortunately, Harvick may see his career end on a good note, if he is lucky. That may be a hard task to pull off though with an ever-ageing driver, and a (hopefully) newly recovering race team. There are so many factors that brought us here, but had any one of them gone differently the driver of the No. 4 in 2022 very well could have been somebody else. Instead, Kevin Harvick will continue his NASCAR Cup Series career for one more season, and he'll take a rain check on that retirement.

The @DaleJr Download – @KevinHarvick: Burying the Hatchet

😡@ChaseElliott Drama
🤔I “Was” Retiring
🗣️Hurtful Comments
❌JRM Departure
🏁2001 Blur
❤️1st Date in Dale’s Basement

LISTEN:
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— Dirty Mo Media (@DirtyMoMedia) December 1, 2021