{"id":228423,"date":"2025-10-21T03:38:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T03:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/228423\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T03:38:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T03:38:07","slug":"yes-nascar-star-harry-gant-has-aged-but-he-sure-doesnt-look-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/228423\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes, NASCAR Star Harry Gant Has Aged \u2013 But He Sure Doesn\u2019t Look It"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now, I don\u2019t mind saying that if I make it to age 85, I will heartily approve if I look as youthful as former NASCAR competitor Harry Gant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve known Gant since his Late Model Sportsman days over 45 years ago. Gant was one of the most successful, and popular, drivers on the tour.<\/p>\n

Pictures of him then weren\u2019t much different than pictures of him now, if I may use a couple of examples taken just a couple of weeks ago.<\/p>\n

\"2025<\/p>\n

The Big 6: Questions Answered After Chase Briscoe Conquers Talladega<\/p>\n

His hair is still dark- maybe he uses some type of coloring, but hey, it\u2019s working nicely \u2013 he\u2019s still slim and his eyes and smile are just as bright as they always were.<\/p>\n

Oh, sure, there are more facial lines, but that\u2019s expected. And his outgoing personality hasn\u2019t changed at all.<\/p>\n

He earned the nickname \u201cHandsome Harry\u201d many years ago, and it applies today.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gant got along well with the media, and they didn\u2019t hesitate to target him in their coverage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I once wrote a column poking fun at Gant\u2019s canny ability to remain ageless in which I said the Taylorsville, N.C., native gained his youthful appearance through witchcraft.<\/p>\n

He went into the mountains of North Carolina where he met up with an old hag named \u201cGranny Weezie\u201d who, according to those who knew her, was able to cast spells \u2013 good and bad.<\/p>\n

Gant asked her to use her powers to make him eternally youthful in appearance. She made up a potion, he drank it and then she intoned as she waved her arms, \u201cYoung you shall be.\u201d And, sure enough, that he remained.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t say it was a good column.<\/p>\n

As good as he was in the Late Model Sportsman division, only a few thought he would advance to NASCAR Cup Series competition. After all, he was approaching 40 years old, and that was surely too old to attract owners\u2019 attention.<\/p>\n

But he did. In 1979, Gant, then 39, began driving for Race Hill Farms team owner Jack Beebe. The association lasted until early 1981 when Gant joined a new team, which would ultimately lead to his notoriety and success in Cup competition.<\/p>\n

At Darlington Raceway in the spring of 1981, Gant made his debut with a new, much-anticipated organization that originated in Hollywood, of all places.<\/p>\n

It was owned by the late stuntman and director Hal Needham, an extremely colorful character the likes of which NASCAR hadn\u2019t seen.<\/p>\n

And in addition to that, a co-owner was the late movie star Burt Reynolds, who added a significant amount of appeal and glamour.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, Reynolds wasn\u2019t an absentee owner. He attended several races and NASCAR functions.<\/p>\n

The team was sponsored by U.S. Tobacco\u2019s Skoal brand of smokeless tobacco and was marketed \u2013 brilliantly, by the way \u2013 as \u201cThe Skoal Bandit,\u201d which became Gant\u2019s moniker as soon as he joined the team.<\/p>\n

After Needham\u2019s opening stint in 1981 with driver Stanton Barrett<\/a>, Gant took over at Darlington. His union showed great promise as it produced a second-place finish in its first outing.<\/p>\n

But for a lengthy period of time, it seemed second place as going to be the best Gant could achieve. Throughout 1981 and into 1982, he and the team put together a string of 10 runner-up finishes without a single victory.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t go unnoticed. Gant received even more nicknames, \u2018Runner-up Harry.\u201d \u201cSecond Place Gant\u201d and \u201cThe Almost There Man,\u201d among others.<\/p>\n

He got to be the brunt of comic stories. One of them was the tale of Gant and The Barber.<\/p>\n

\u201cHarry walked into a small-town barber shop,\u201d the story went. \u201cIt had only one chair. The chair was empty. The barber looked at Harry, smiled, pointed and said, \u2018Have a seat over there. You\u2019re second.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The streak ended at Martinsville Speedway on April 25, 1982. Gant won the race easily by a lap over Butch Lindley<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Without a doubt, it was a vastly popular victory. The crowd of 36,500 (a sellout in the days before speedway expansion) was on its feet and cheered Gant louder on every closing lap.<\/p>\n

Gant\u2019s crew chief, the late Travis Carter, one of the most personable and popular figures in the garage area, was mobbed by members of his team, and of others, as soon as the checkered flag fell.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was happy to see this happen for everyone on the team,\u201d said the unflappable Carter. \u201cFor once, the car ran well all day, the pit crew did a usual good job, and the race went our way at last.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Todd Gilliland Shows Shades of Father David With Runner-Up at Talladega<\/p>\n

The victory was the beginning of several successful years for Gant, who became one of NASCAR\u2019s most popular figures, both with fans and media.<\/p>\n

If Gant\u2019s youthful appearance didn\u2019t fade during the years, neither did his personality. He was quiet, for sure, but he was also cheerful and pleasant. He smiled far more often than he frowned.<\/p>\n

The type of man he was, and is, became obvious to me at Martinsville in the spring of 1985. I was helping speedway PR Director Dick Thompson by doing pit notes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After a practice, I noticed Gant standing by himself on pit road. Contrary to the norm, he was frowning.<\/p>\n

I asked him what was wrong. He answered with a lengthy explanation of what had gone wrong during the session. And then he said:<\/p>\n

\u201cDurn short tracks. They ought to plow them all up!\u201d<\/p>\n

And, of course, I promptly put his words into the pit notes of the day. I overlooked good journalism to provide the words I knew would stir controversy.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, they did. Gant\u2019s comments were prominent in nearly every media report of the day.<\/p>\n

And, needless to say, they were not pleasantly received by Martinsville\u2019s headstrong president, H. Clay Earles, who did not take any criticism of his speedway lightly.<\/p>\n

I admit I felt a sense of guilt. I blamed myself for the uproar and any harm it would surely bring Gant. I knew an angry Earles would accost him.<\/p>\n

I felt the need to apologize. The next day, I went into the pits looking for Gant. I fully realized that he would not be happy with me, and if that resulted in a punch to the nose, well, I was just going to have to take it. That\u2019s all there was to it.<\/p>\n

As I walked down pit road, I passed Ricky Rudd<\/a>. He stopped and asked me, \u201cWhy did you do that to Harry? He trusted you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now I really felt low. After just a few more steps, I approached Gant. He was alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, toad,\u201d I said to myself, \u201chere it comes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of throwing a punch, Gant extended his right hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cDurn,\u201d he said with a smile and we shook hands, \u201cClay Earles almost pulled a gun on me!\u201d<\/p>\n

I was relieved. I did apologize, but that didn\u2019t seem important to Gant.<\/p>\n

I realized that what I had encountered were Gant\u2019s personality and pleasant disposition.<\/p>\n

And, as if in a fairy tale, Gant won at Martinsville on that Sunday. He and Earles posed with smiles and a handshake in victory lane.<\/p>\n

Gant\u2018s tenure with Needham ended in 1988 after nine victories. He drove for six more seasons with owner Leo Jackson and Skoal sponsorship, during which he won nine more times. He was 54 years old when his Cup career ended\u00a0<\/p>\n

And, after 31 years, I am convinced he doesn\u2019t look much different. Not at all.<\/p>\n

\"Donate<\/a>
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Steve Waid has been in\u00a0 journalism since 1972, when he began his newspaper career at the Martinsville (Va.) Bulletin. He has spent over 40 years in motorsports journalism, first with the Roanoke Times-World News and later as publisher and vice president for NASCAR Scene and NASCAR Illustrated.<\/p>\n

Steve has won numerous state sports writing awards and several more from the National Motorsports Press Association for his motorsports coverage, feature and column writing.\u00a0 For several years, Steve was a regular on \u201cNASCAR This Morning\u201d on FOX Sports Net and he is the co-author, with Tom Higgins, of the biography \u201cJunior Johnson: Brave In Life.\u201d<\/p>\n

In January 2014, Steve was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame. And in 2019 he was presented the Squier-Hall Award by the NASCAR Hall of Fame for lifetime excellence in motorsports journalism. In addition to writing for Frontstretch, Steve is also the co-host of The Scene Vault Podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now, I don\u2019t mind saying that if I make it to age 85, I will heartily approve if…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-228423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}