HARRISBURG, N.C. — During an earlier era of NASCAR, it was not unusual for the stars of the sport to race well past their 50th birthday.
Seven-time Cup Series champion Richard Petty ran his final series race at age 55. Darrell Waltrip was 53 years old when he moved from the race track to the broadcast booth, and David Pearson was 51 when he ran his final Cup Series race. Bobby Allison had already celebrated his 50th birthday when a devastating crash at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway in 1988 ended his driving career.
Harry Gant was a bit unique in that he didn’t make his first NASCAR Cup Series start until he was 33 years old and he retired at age 54.
More recently, the retirement age in NASCAR’s premier series has been creeping lower and lower.
Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart were 45 years old when they turned their attention to other segments of the sport, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. was 43 when he traded his helmet for a microphone.
Clint Bowyer was 41 when he ran his final Cup Series race, while Kasey Kahne (38) and Carl Edwards (37) had yet to reach 40.
Aric Almirola is continuing the trend. The native of Tampa, Fla., has announced this will be his last full season of racing at NASCAR’s highest level. He’ll be 38 years old when the final checkered flag waves at Phoenix in the fall.
His focus will then turn to his wife, Janice, and their two children.
“… It’s hard to make that decision to walk away from something you love. I love to compete. I love to drive race cars. It’s financially very rewarding. All of those things,” Almirola said. “That’s hard to walk away from, but I’ve got a family too, and I had to really consider that, and as I watched my kids grow up and get older, they want to get involved in their own activities.
“My son is really into team sports and my daughter’s into horseback riding, theater and dance and those things happen on the weekends,” Almirola continued. “They might have practice during the week, but their performances and their games are on the weekends. I couldn’t keep going week in and week out chasing my dreams and watching them do their things through text message videos and Facetime. I just felt super guilty about it and my wife and I have talked a lot about it. We’ve prayed about it and we just feel like now is the right time.
“Like I said in my video that I put out, next year I’m gonna have a 10-year-old and a 9-year-old. I’ve got a short window to spend as much time as I possibly can with them before they have car keys and they’re asking me what time their curfew is, and it’s gonna feel like I’m punishing them to ask them to be home and just hang out and spend time with mom and dad,” Almirola added. “That weighed into my decision more than anything else is just that small window of opportunity that I have to be with my family while my kids are still young, and they still want to be home and hang out because dad is still kind of cool right now.”
Will Almirola continue to be involved in the sport?
“I really don’t have an answer on what’s next. I know that’s crazy and a little bit scary, but I’m not gonna sit at home in my pajamas and I’m not gonna play golf every day,” he said. “I am stepping away from full-time racing, but I’m only 38 years old. I still feel like I have a lot left to do in life and I feel like I’m still plenty young to reinvent myself.”
So while the government’s age for full retirement now stands at 67, the retirement age for a NASCAR Cup Series driver continues to trend lower. In fact, we expect to see several more drivers call it a career before turning 40.