Harry Phil Gant was born on the 10th January, 1940 in Taylorsville, North Carolina. Street racing in the 1950's Harry honed his skills on the country roads of Alexander County, North Carolina before beginning his career on a dirt track in Hickory, driving an old '57 Chevrolet that he and his friends had put together. After becoming a full-time driver he used his driving skills to easily win the Hobby class championship and from there he went on to win over 300 races and including three championships in 1972, 1972 and 1974 in the Sportsman Series.In 1967 the old dirt track at Hickory was paved and Harry found that he excelled on asphalt, winning his first race in the Sportsman Series. From here he found his interest in the Winston Cup Series and started racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. In 1973 where he finished in eleventh position, driving the #90 Truxmore Industries Ford, going on to make six starts and two top ten finishes over the next four years. He the decided to run a full schedule in 1979, he sold half of his construction business to race full time.
His racing career spanned over twenty years and throughout this time he started in 474 races with 18 wins, 208 top ten positions and 17 poles, driving for the most part #33 Skoal Bandits cars. His best season was in 1991 when he earned the nickname "Mr September" after winning four consecutive cup races at Darlington, Richmond, Dover and Martinsville with two Busch races in September of that year. It was a career high, placing him in fourth position in the standings, along with one pole position, fifteen top 5's and seventeen top 10's, leading the most laps totalling 1,684. Harry holds two other records, the first being the oldest to get his first career win at the age of 42 and the second being the oldest driver to win a Cup race at the age of 52.
His racing career spanned over twenty years and throughout this time he started in 474 races with 18 wins, 208 top ten positions and 17 poles, driving for the most part #33 Skoal Bandits cars. His best season was in 1991 when he earned the nickname "Mr September" after winning four consecutive cup races at Darlington, Richmond, Dover and Martinsville with two Busch races in September of that year. It was a career high, placing him in fourth position in the standings, along with one pole position, fifteen top 5's and seventeen top 10's, leading the most laps totalling 1,684. Harry holds two other records, the first being the oldest to get his first career win at the age of 42 and the second being the oldest driver to win a Cup race at the age of 52.
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