'Honor of a lifetime': Louisville native set to retire after leading iconic NASCAR track

Kerry Tharp's home is in South Carolina. But his heart is in Kentucky.

The president of Waggener High's class of 1975 — "The baddest class alive," as Tharp described it with a laugh — has lived in South Carolina since 1985. But he was born and raised in Louisville. Tharp's parents and sister are buried in a small churchyard northeast of Louisville, in Sligo. He's a proud Western Kentucky alum; his wife, Debbie, graduated from Eastern Kentucky.

After more than four decades of work, first in college sports communications and now in NASCAR, the 66-year-old Tharp is finally about to retire. Once the 2023 NASCAR season concludes in November, Tharp will wind down his stint as the president at Darlington Raceway, a position he's held since July 2016.

"It's been the honor of a lifetime: to be the track president at Darlington. It's an iconic track," Tharp told The Courier Journal over the phone earlier this month. "There's a reason that it has a nickname: 'Too tough to tame.' Not every sports venue has a brand, right? We have a brand at Darlington."

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Tharp said he considers the track "the Wrigley Field" of NASCAR. Darlington has hosted Cup Series races every year since 1950, making it the second-longest tenured track on the circuit behind Martinsville, which made its debut in 1949.

"Darlington is a track that has stood the test of time. … This track has its own unique — it's almost like a mystique about it," Tharp said. "People come here and they want to check us out because they've heard so much about us."

And the man at the helm of the historic speedway is someone who admittedly knew nothing about NASCAR before he got into the industry in 2005. At that time, he still was working for South Carolina's athletics department, serving as an associate athletics director. Before taking over as Darlington's president, he was a senior official in NASCAR's communications department. Prior to his two decades (1985-2005) at South Carolina, he worked in sports communications at Oklahoma, after getting his start at Tennessee, where he earned his master's degree.

Tharp recalls watching Herschel Walker's legendary college debut at Georgia, against Tennessee in 1980. He worked with iconic coaches, from Barry Switzer and Billy Tubbs at Oklahoma to Lou Holtz and Steve Spurrier at South Carolina. And Tharp's gotten to know some of the biggest names in NASCAR since the turn of the millenium: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart, to name a few.

"The people (are) what makes it," Tharp said. "I've thoroughly enjoyed those folks, the people that I've interacted with. Many of them, I'm good friends with now."

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Of all the memories he's collected over the years, few are fonder than what his team at Darlington accomplished in May 2020: NASCAR became the first American sport to start back after the coronavirus pandemic brought the world to a standstill.

"While we didn't have any fans in the stands, we were able to put on three events in about a four- or five-day period," Tharp said. "I'll never forget that. That was incredible."

While he enjoys reflecting on the past, Tharp isn't ready to look too far ahead just yet. His sole focus right now is his final race as Darlington president: the Southern 500 on Sept. 3.

"That'll be the opening race of the playoffs again," Tharp said, "and I just said (to myself), 'You know what? If you're gonna go out, go out on top.' And I think I'm doing that."

He'll figure out his plans for retirement later.

And they could involve his home state.

"I do love Kentucky," Tharp said. "Who knows? Maybe I'll go to the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby. … And I used to kid people, I'd say, 'Hey, when I retire, I'm going to own one of those horse farms there in Lexington.' But I'd need somebody to bankroll it for me."

Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @RyanABlack.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Darlington Raceway president, Louisville native Kerry Tharp retiring