Stock car driving legend Harry Gant will appear in the Neon Garage during NASCAR Weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Gant and Carter will meet NASCAR fans for one hour each day, March 4-6, in the Neon Garage and also will participate in a question-and-answer session on the speedway’s midway on March 5.
Gant’s driving career began in 1963 when he and his friends built a car for the Hobby division at Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway. Before he became a household name with NASCAR Sprint Cup Series fans, Gant was a terror on the short tracks of the Southeast, winning 300 races and capturing the NASCAR national Sportsman title three times (1972-74). The native of Taylorsville, N.C. joined the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series ranks in 1973 and competed in 444 events. His first Cup win came in 1982 at Martinsville, Va. and built much of his fame behind the wheel of Skoal-sponsored cars (1981-1994), earning him the nickname “The Skoal Bandit.”
He went on to win a total of 18 Cup races. Gant came close to winning the Sprint Cup Series championship on a number of occasions, finishing in the top five in points six times. He also earned 21 NASCAR Nationwide Series victories from 1982-1994.
Gant retired from racing in 1994 and was feted in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta in November of that year. He came out of retirement briefly in 1995 to compete on a limited basis in the then-new NASCAR Camping World Truck Series before hanging up his helmet for good.“I’m really excited to get to Vegas,” Gant said. “The track is a first-class facility and I love to talk to the fans. I retired not too long ago and many of them remember watching me race. It should be a lot of fun.
LVMS’s NASCAR Weekend begins March 2 with two nights of World of Outlaws Sprint Car racing on the half-mile Dirt Track before moving to the 1.5-mile superspeedway for Stratosphere Pole Day on Friday, March 4, the Sam’s Town 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race on Saturday, March 5 and the Kobalt Tools 400 for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series on Sunday, March 4.
As part of its youth initiative, LVMS is offering young race fans a 50-percent discount on tickets and free admission to the fabulous Neon Garage fan experience (when accompanied by an adult with a race ticket).
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