Harry ‘The Bandit’ Gant Reveals How On-Track Dale Earnhardt Scuffle Got Him Blacklisted by NASCAR

It took 107 Cup Series starts before the stars all aligned for the veteran Harry Gant. Known as “The Bandit” in the NASCAR circle, for years Gant was a local hero to the cult following, idolizing the driver and unanimously considered better than his zero-for-107 Cup record to start his NASCAR Cup career. Though he had to wait till 42 to rack up his first Cup Series win, his indomitable will and mental fortitude to stand up to the then-blazing young gun earned him a lot of respect in the community.

Recently, Gant, aka “Hard Luck Harry,” went down memory lane to revisit his epic rivalry with “The Intimidator,” as the 83-year-old vividly recalled the cheeky trick Earnhardt pulled on him to get him blacklisted by NASCAR.

Harry Gant revisits the time when Dale Earnhardt put him on skates

They say that everything turns a bit sweeter when it becomes a memory. But for racers, old memories die hard. As the 2-time Cup Series champion said, “drivers are like elephants,” and they certainly are, keeping even the slightest of incidents in the back of their minds for the rest of their lives. Long before they even thought about the current Cup Series format, Harry Gant and Dale Earnhardt went to war, with both drivers hell-bent on showing the world who was the better of the two.

Detailing his feud with the 7-time Cup Series champion, Handsome Harry went back in time to narrate the race when Earnhardt pulled a cheeky move on him to get the better of him. Speaking to the YouTuber who goes by the channel name Stapleton42, the veteran said, “(Dale) Earnhardt gets on the radio and starts hollering; I’m leaking all everywhere, so they tell my crew, and my crew tells me to stay low on the track.” 

Harry Gant’s crew immediately relays it to the #33 driver who cleared the air, saying, “I said, “It’s not oil, and I smell it in the car; it’s my tire rubbing, going in the corner when me and him bumped past him; I’m way out there, but they had another guy in charge, so (Rob) Moroso passed Earnhardt well, then he quit hollering on the PA, so then I come back to get the checkered flag, and he waved a black flag first, two laps to go and there’s this the next-lap and next lap.”

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He then went on to detail how NASCAR treated him, as Earnhardt’s sly move earned him a black mark. Gant said, “On the next lap, he didn’t wave anything, and so that boy won the race. Moroso gave him the win and went to the winner’s circle, and it’s hard getting there where they put a paper under the car, no oil on the bumper, no oil on the trunk, no oil dripping down nowhere, but they wouldn’t change it for nothing, and that put me on the backlist for a while with NASCAR.”

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How Earnhardt ended Gant’s stellar streak to take over NASCAR

The year was 1991, and fans were on the edge of their seats, waiting for the epic conclusion, awaiting Gant to come across the line first. But fate had other plans, as Gant fans’ hopes were crushed by Earnhardt, who saw the #33 car’s vulnerability and pounced on it like a predator. Earnhardt and Grant went to war that day at the iconic North Wilkesboro track in Tyson Holly Farms 400.

The storylines were unlike anything that day. Gant was on his way to making history, on a 4-race win streak, when Earnhardt ruined his plans and seized the moment, capitalizing on Skoal Bandit #33’s weakness. Entering the race at the start, sitting in the pole was Gant, who was looking to create history by winning his consecutive race, etching a modern-era NASCAR record for most wins in a row.

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Everything went Gant’s way except for the final few laps. Despite leading over 350 laps, Gant lost to Earnhardt, who took advantage of the #33’s brake failure in the late laps to snatch a victory and end his dominant streak. Seeing the weakened #33, Earnhardt in his RCR Chevy pranced, racing Gant hard till he got a massive lead on the veteran to comfortably cruise into the victory lane, thus ending Gant’s reign as he finished the season fourth despite having five wins under his name.