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[Johnny D]

Nico Rosberg and Carl Edwards have retired from full time racing rather young. And the decision is kind of baffling to other drivers who need to race.

 

 

The want and the need. It's racing's motivational diving rod.

 

Those who want to race do, and when they've gotten their fill, they stop.

 

It's Nico Rosberg, hanging up his helmet at 31 after achieving his life-long dream of becoming a Formula 1 world champion. It's Carl Edwards, having come so incredibly close to earning his first NASCAR Sprint Cup title in November, announcing his retirement this week at 37.

 

Take nothing away from Rosberg or Edwards; the two men, impossibly rich and self-possessed, dictated the terms of their racing careers and bade farewell after reaching whatever internal criteria were met.

 

Rosberg's stated choice—to concentrate on being a husband and father without interruption—after years of nomadic life on the road seemed to resonate with those who shared his sense of absentee guilt. Whole in every way except for his personal life, Rosberg unplugged the one thing that stood in his way—a fanatical devotion to becoming an F1 world champ—after reaching a self-imposed finish line.

 

Edwards, a notoriously private type away from the race track, was less specific in his reasoning, but hit similar notes while announcing his immediate departure from NASCAR. Spending more time with family, and leaving with his health intact were mentioned. All perfectly rational points. It's also a rather strange and unfamiliar phenomenon among top-tier race car drivers.

 

Like Rosberg, Edwards' degree of want had been reduced to a level where continuing in the sport was no longer acceptable. It breaks from the familiar narrative dominated by drivers who need to race.

 

Those steeped with that need are a better fit for the romantic notion of what many expect from the daredevils who thrill us in F1, IndyCar, NASCAR, or Le Mans. It's A.J. Foyt, the legendary four-time Indy 500 winner, racing for five decades and making 35 consecutive Indy starts and before time and age dulled his dominance. It's Mario Andretti, a champion or winner in everything he drove, standing atop his final IndyCar podium at the age of 53. It's NASCAR legend Richard Petty racing stock cars from 1958 to 1992—an unrivalled 34-year span.

 

And today, it's 42-year-old Tony Kanaan, preparing for the "TK20" tour—his 20th IndyCar season. An IndyCar Series champion in 2004, popular winner of the 2013 Indy 500, Kanaan has nothing left to prove. A married father with three young sons, the Brazilian is older than Rosberg and Edwards and, seemingly, has been given every reason to join them in the slow lane.

Fortunately, for his legions of fans, TK needs to race.

 

"Do I understand their decisions? No. Especially Rosberg," Kanaan told RoadandTrack.com. "He's driving for the best team. He has his own motives to retire, but for me, I'm that aggressive dog. You come near my bone and I'm going to bite you. People keep asking me when I'm going to retire. The day I'll make that decision is when I look ahead and see that nobody will give me a drive. I don't think I can make that decision myself. I love this sport way too much to say I'm leaving. It will have to be taken away from me. The time will come when opportunities will be fewer, and if/when that happens, I will look to drive something other than IndyCar, but I won't stop until there's nothing for me."

 

Of the many reasons Kanaan ranks among the most beloved drivers of his generation, it's his unyielding passion to race and compete that will be remembered long after he steps away from the cockpit. It makes processing the willful retirement by two racers in their prime a serious challenge.

 

"Those are two very weird and very debatable decisions," he said. "In a way, one guy knew he was never going to win another Formula 1 world championship; his teammate was clearly better than him. It's not a secret. The only way he wins again is if Hamilton has another bad season, which he isn't going to let happen. Rosberg decided he didn't want to be the number two driver again so he's leaving.

 

"And the other is strange with Edwards; it didn't seem like he wanted to retire, but the team needed to promote Daniel Suarez who did a great job in Xfinity. I don't know if that was the reason, but it wouldn't have stopped him from getting a good drive somewhere else. Like I said, both are strange to me and don't make a lot of sense for how I approach racing."

 

I'm with TK, and it leaves the Rosbergs and Edwards in an awkward, unreconciled place. Their heady, mature decisions can't be argued; stepping away while in their prime makes sense, for them. That burning need to win again and again—aided by a convenient amnesia that washes away any notion of contentment—is no longer a defining character trait. Simply put, it never dawned on me that transitioning from need to want was possible at such a young age.

 

To go from needing to mash the throttle pedal to no longer wanting to strap in and compete is ill-fitting when pitted against the standards set by the Foyts, Andrettis and even the Kanaans.

 

Granted, I don't want to see my legends and heroes looking inept and weak—robbed of their mercurial talent—from refusing to retire before their skills are thoroughly diminished. But I also find something to be missing—less compelling—with those who can say farewell with so much left to give.

Most racers come into the sport fueled by a passion that sustains for a lifetime. At 76, Mario Andretti is still talking about wanting one more shot to score an overall win at the 24 Hour of Le Mans—the one crown jewel missing from his peerless career. And I have no doubt he would be competitive. Not as fierce as the young guns, of course, but able to contribute to a winning effort.

 

As we've seen in the last month or two, the reasons for leaving are starting to change. Thankfully, the passion-filled reasons for staying remain the same.

 

"On those two, I wish them luck in whatever they do, but if you love what you do, why would you stop?" Kanaan said. "For me, you only stop when you are tired of your work. I don't want to stop working. I don't know what else to do. I've never wanted to do anything else, so I won't."

 

http://www.roadandtr...erg-retirement/