After making 346 starts and winning 47 times, last week’s Xfinity race at Darlington will be Kevin Harvick’s last in the series, the driver announced Tuesday on “Happy Hours,” his SiriusXM NASCAR Radio show.
“For me (Darlington) will be the last scheduled Xfinity race that we put on the schedule,” Harvick said.
The decision was made in order to allow him to concentrate on his Cup car.
Harvick has pulled double duty five times this year, including February’s race at Atlanta where he scored his last win.
Harvick also ran at Texas, Michigan, Chicagoland and last week at Darlington.
“With the two-day schedules, my family and all of the things that came up this year just because of the way the schedules worked out … I just need to focus on my Cup car and the things that are happening there,” Harvick said.
“Just like this weekend. The practices were back-to-back. I needed to be in the Cup hauler with Rodney (Childers) and those guys making sure that my car was 100 percent dialed in between practices.”
While Harvick will not commit to a regular schedule, he left open the possibility that he might run a select number of races in the future.
“It’s not to say that I won’t run here or there if we have a sponsor, or someone who needs something, or there’s a new racetrack that’s intriguing. But for me, there’s no more planned Xfinity races,” Harvick said.
With 47 victories, Harvick is third on the all-time wins list behind Kyle Busch at 92 and Mark Martin with 49. Harvick’s first win came in his first full season in 2000 at Gateway International Speedway.
Harvick’s first start came near the end of the 1999 season at North Carolina Motor Speedway. He completed 34 laps and retired with an engine failure.
Last weekend at Darlington, Harvick was involved in an incident with Ross Chastain on Lap 111 at Darlington as the two battled for the lead. The damage to Harvick’s car was sufficient to cause him to retire in 29th.