Aric Almirola represents the changing face of retirement in NASCAR
Almirola talks about why the Nascar driver retired younger and his own motivation to step away after 2022
Compared to other athletes, who often stop as soon as their bodies no longer do the old way,
racing car drivers have many choices available in the face of father's time.
And for years, the option taken by many drivers in Nascar is to survive until the bitter end.
For a racer, retirement age has long been considered as a final driver of 40s or early to the mid -50s:
Richard Petty ran far through his heyday, experiencing a prolonged
decline before finally deciding to retire at the age of 55 years.
Harry Gant ran until he was 54 years old, retiring despite eight of the 18 wins of his career cup series beyond his 50th birthday.
Others will follow the pattern recently in the early 2010s: the last season Darrell Waltrip came on 53.
Rusty Wallace stepped out of the car for the last time at 49. Mark Martin in 54.
But over the past decade, the retirement habit of the Nascar driver has begun to change,
and the cup series stars have begun to move away from the demands of full time racing at a younger age.
Jeff Gordon retired at the age of 44, one year before Tony Stewart walked away at 45.
Dale Earnhardt JR retired at the age of 43, and Clint Bowyer retired at 41 to take work on television.
Carl Edwards is very retired during the 2017 offseason at the age of 36,
although the case is more representing outliers given the suddenly decisions.
All of that takes us to the ARIC Almirola case. Early this year, a few months before his 38th birthday,
Almirola announced that the 2022 season would be the final as a time driver of the Nascar Cup series,
his seats were visited in the late 30s, and still at the age where he had won the race and became Playoff competitors.
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