Harry Gant Story

Item #6604

(October, 1994) Race car drivers learn to live with danger on the track. When I met veteran driver Harry Gant, he was in another precarious position — high up on the roof of the building next door to his restaurant in Taylorsville, North Carolina, nailing down shingles. Harry Gant is as comfortable with a hammer, a tractor and a bulldozer as he is with a 3,500 pound stock car. So he sees his upcoming retirement from motor racing as merely “quitting my weekend job.” 1994 is the year of Harry Gant’s farewell tour — he retires after the last NASCAR Winston Cup event of the 1994 season, held at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “Handsome Harry” made his Winston Cup debut in 1973 at age 33 on his neighborhood track, Charlotte Motor Speedway. Twenty-one years later he has 18 career victories, 16 pole positions, 105 top-five finishes, 183 top-ten finishes and a reputation for being a friendly, down-to-earth individual and a “clean” driver. I got him to relax for my camera by asking him about the time Elvis Presley wanted to buy one of his cars (Gant’s favorite hobby is car collecting). And, no, he did not sell a car to the King! My statue captures Harry Gant in his racing uniform forever, and like his many fans, says thanks, and farewell.

Dr. Thomas F. Clark