Jamie McMurray may have had an enviable NASCAR career, winning seven Cup Series races, including the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400, but that isn’t to say the FOX NASCAR analyst isn’t left with regrets.

The 49-year-old, who took to the track on 584 occasions in the Cup Series between 2002 and 2021, reflected upon his career with FOX colleague and former rival, Kevin Harvick, who recently became the latest NASCAR star to criticize the Next Gen cars, admitting that he regretted not enjoying his time behind the wheel more.

“My biggest regret in racing is not enjoying it,” McMurray said on Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast following Shane van Gisbergen‘s latest win at Watkins Glen. “When you’re go-karting, even when your dad’s yelling at you, it’s still fun, you’re hanging out with your buddies…

“Even in racing, you weren’t trying to put food on the table your last year, but you want to win, and you get mad because someone else made a mistake that may have cost [you the win], and it’s your name on the door. And that’s the one thing about being the driver, or the crew chief, I would say is fair as well, your name is there, and if there’s an issue, that’s who they blame initially.”

McMurray went on to add that he believes there are few professional athletes who actually “have fun” in their chosen careers.

Intriguingly, the former longtime Chip Ganassi driver also claimed that if he had the opportunity to start over, he would “have done TV first because if I could have, when I went back to my career, I would have handled things completely differently. Whether it was interviews or what I found value in, or seeing the other side of it.”

That being said, McMurray also noted that initially, when planning the next step in his career, once he decided to hang up his race suit for good, he had no intention of transitioning into such a public career.

Recalling a conversation he had late in his racing career with singer Dierks Bentley during a trip to Canada, McMurray recalled saying, “Dierks, I have every intention when I’m done driving to disappear and people never see me again. Cause, you know, you’re in the thick of it and it’s just, you’re exhausted.”

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Once it came time to decide whether or not to retire, McMurray said he “I wasn’t ready to quit driving.” However, when he did just that, it proved to be a weight off his shoulders.

“There was this huge sigh of relief when it was over of like, oh thank God, you don’t realize how stressful it is and how taxing it is on you and your family.”

Since stepping aside from racing full-time after the 2018 season, McMurray has called FOX home, first appearing on Raceday and Race Hub before quickly becoming an analyst for the network’s pre- and in-race coverage for both the Cup and Xfinity Series.