NASCAR History: Car Number 33 and Harry Gant

by JamesJ, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2012 NASCAR schedule, video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

Sundays of my youth consisted of NASCAR racing and cold bottles of Mountain Dew. Thirty years later not much has changed for me. However, nearly everything has changed in NASCAR.

January 16, 2010 6:18 pm UTC 1 Comment

Over the next several weeks we’ll be featuring car numbers in NASCAR history. We started with #50 and are working our way down the line. With each car number we’ll take a brief look at a couple stats NASCAR Driver Harry Gant car number 33 related to the featured car number, but we’ll primarily spotlight either a driver, sponsor, car owner, manufacturer or other significant subject closely tied to the car number of the day.

There are some sponsors and car numbers that really stick out in my mind when I think about NASCAR. Valvoline and the #6, STP and the #43, Goodwrench and the #3, and one of my all time favorites, Miller Genuine Draft and the #2. Another one for me is the #33 Skoal Bandit car.

Stats for all cars running the #33:

Number of Races: 915
Number of Wins: 20
Number of Top 5s: 136
Number of Top 10s: 270
Number of Poles: 23

Check out current NASCAR race statistics here at On Pit Row!

Spotlight Subject: Driver Harry Gant

It was the Pepsi 400 at Daytona in 1994. I had just left the souvenir trailer for Rusty Wallace and my bag was full with Miller Genuine Draft shirts, decals and of course a beer koozie to keep the can cool from the blistering summer heat. As my co-workers and I made our way back towards the stands I made a maneuver to avoid a line of customers at one trailer. Thinking it was probably one of the Earnhardt trailers I looked up and was surprised to see that the line was there because Harry Gant was in the souvenir trailer signing autographs. I stopped for a moment and shot a pic with my camera. I’m glad I did because it would be the last time I would see Harry Gant since he retired at the end of the 1994 season. The thing that really stuck out to me was that Harry had a huge smile on his face and seemed to be soaking in the fans as they chatted during the autograph signing. Unfortunately Harry didn’t get to leave Daytona with a decent finish that day or the smile would likely have been even bigger. He finished 31st that day, but looking at his overall record at Daytona he never really was consistently in the top runners at Daytona.

NASCAR Driver Harry Gant Harry did excel though with multiple wins at three of my all time favorites on the Cup circuit, Darlington, Dover, and Martinsville. These are tracks that I really look forward to during race season. For me, they rank right up there with Bristol and Richmond. If you can’t tell, I love the shorter tracks. I dream of reaching an early retirement, buying an RV and going to these races each year. After researching Harry Gant’s stats a little for this spotlight write-up, I would have loved to have been a fan of his in 1991 and traveling the circuit. Harry earned himself the nickname “Mr. September” in 1991 when he took consecutive victories at Darlington, Richmond, Dover, and Martinsville! During this time he also recorded two Busch series wins at Richmond and Dover (note, the next race was in October at Charlotte, but he won that one too resulting in a total of 3 consecutive Busch Series wins). Talk about riding a wave of momentum! Harry would have a total of 5 wins that Cup season marking 1991 as the year he scored his most wins in a single season. Dale Earnhardt would win the championship that year while “Mr. September” would finish 4th in the standings with 15 top fives and 17 top tens.

Filed under: James Jones, NASCAR, NASCAR History

Tagged with: Handsome Harry, Harry Gant

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Harry Gant vs Jim Paschal: NASCAR’s 64 Greatest Drivers Match Up

by Charlie Turner

Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. The best NASCAR and IndyCar news and opinion, exclusive pictures and video. I'm Charlie Turner. Follow me on Twitter @onpitrow

March 26, 2009 5:48 pm UTC 5 Comments

Handsome Harry gets matched up against a 25 race winner and fellow member of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in a Fast region, first round game of the NASCAR 64 Greatest Drivers Tournament at Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie.

Harry Gant was known as Handsome Harry up until the ’91 season. After that, Mr September was his common nickname. Gant won four straight races that September, tying a modern ers (’72 to the present) record. “91 was Gant’s best season. He finished fourth, won five times, had 15 top fives and led the most laps. He finished with 18 wins and 208 top tens in 474 starts.

Jim Paschal competed in 421 Cup series races over a 21 year career. He won 25 times and had 230 top tens driving for, at one point, Petty Enterprises as Richard Petty’s teammate on the no. 42, and as the King’s replacement due to injury. Paschal also had success in the red, white and blue AMC Javelins, winning a Cup race in ’69. Jim was a short track master, winning only two World 600s on big super speedways.