“You Gotta Die Out of It”: 68-Year-Old NASCAR Legend Takes Rather Sarcastic Stance on Retirement

Earlier at the Stafford Speedway, NASCAR champion Tony Stewart sat down with Marco Andretti and Ken Schrader for a chat. This was ahead of the Superstar Racing Experience race at the speedway. Together, the trio fielded a variety of questions and even opened up on various topics.

Among them was a subject that all three of them know all too well – retirement. At some stage in their careers, they all had to answer questions about their respective futures.

The NASCAR legend has a dark take on his retirement from racing

In what seems like a very unofficial press conference, the 68-year-old veteran was asked about his comings and goings in the world of racing.

Answering the question, he said, “We’ve stayed pretty busy. This year, we didn’t get to California yet, but we’ve been out to Arizona, Florida, Texas. Raced in half a dozen races up in Canada, went to Alaska a couple of weeks ago.”

“We got 36 races in so far. And the last two years, we’ve been in a car just little over 100 days in a year. I don’t have a full-time job no more, it looks like I’m going to be able to put off having to get one.”

When further asked if he was “having a blast” doing what he does, Shrader said, “That’s the problem, I’m having as much fun as I ever had. In this sport, basically, you gotta die out of it.”

“That’s not going to be a problem for me much longer, that’s the only way I want to quit.”

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Even at the age of 68, Schrader is beating racers like Tony Stewart and Marco Andretti. In practice, he finished 3rd on the sheets, while Stewart and Andretti were down in 10th and 11th. He is far from the only one though, as fellow NASCAR old-timer, Bobby Labonte has also joined the grid. They will be competing against several current NASCAR stars and NASCAR alumni. Of course, Tony Stewart has to be there and he will be eager to defend his title.

Last year Schrader made his debut in the series with the I-55 Raceway, where he finished in a fine third place. This year, he is making his full-time debut at SRX.

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Ken Schrader has been a very busy man even at 68

As he mentioned, even after retiring from NASCAR at the end of the 2013 season, Schrader kept himself active. Interestingly, he competed in the ARCA Menards Series all the way up till 2022. So if he said that he had been racing for just over 100 days, there is an element of truth to it.

Of course, the veteran driver has been only making one-off appearances every year. But that is enough to satisfy the adrenaline rush of racing and competing with others. Now, whether he will win another race, this time in the SRX Series is anybody’s guess.

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