NASCAR legend Harry Gant reflects on career with Kyle Petty | Coffee with Kyle | Motorsports on NBC

[Music] thanks for doing this appreciate you anytime hands give you a piece of this here take her like this yeah you can eat all you want to man that's it it's mostly coffee we're in Taylorsville where the tea bill scoops you've always been from tethers oh this where you grow up yeah yeah what when would your family do here when you were growing up my dad was in the Navy you know like your forties they and we we lived in my grandma all down to other entertainer and you could walk to the movie theater for a dime everybody here entitled if you don't have a race car and they line them up on the street from the cab stand after you come out of the movie theater and what they do we get a cab to take us homeless only full fine mountain country there and for a quarter but I'd step on and go up down the street and look at all that mud on them race cars from Hickory Speedway and now ordered around one so bad did I say gender wife would live real close and they had a grease rack I turn each if you drive up I'm a neighbor down there and had a car runs Hickory and believe it is known it was orange 77 no wait no 36 37 Ford coupe anyway it go down but my house on the highway and hit a dirt road goodbye tear sounds try that thing out and I can hear coming you know I couldn't go by there so I ended up painting around got 77 have a yellow 77 red racecar no way man said that's what the orange 77 come from yeah early that was so you didn't start driving until early 60 62 and by 65 you'd won a championship and a hobby car no this is all on dirt yeah harder races villain dirt so far right yeah so what class did you move up to the lake mom's forced on which eventually ended up in the Busch Series yeah who is there then because a lot of great drivers came out of here a lot of good drivers every two years but like who you racing against like 6465 was racing really you know when you moved out to late night yeah they kind of govern in mid-century that's it yeah he was he was super good he was demand abate in a Morgan Shepherd he raced the same time I did and at that time Tommy Houston yeah and how Houston's brother came they all raced you know the kids always race they were good racecar drivers I don't know what year this happened okay good but my dad tells this story well years they come up there while you're what do you who came up there well they it's said that he's got the Richard Petty and Bobby Isaac and jr. Johnson in me yourself yeah done for gonna drive a car are can be picked the full route which was struck champion ya know and stuff so he sure babes yeah so Richard pick knocking we race first yeah and I wanted to race so yeah actually he got my car and we're all pumped up you know he's gonna win this race you know so anyway they all lined a line - but - laughter you know and they take conflate agreement and they ran about eight or ten laps and they'll make it's going on twenty and so then they come off the corner three wide was Philly at this - but there's gonna make it three and they all spent down the straightaway it's a gallon blind back up bet my friend are a little bit and so I well out on the racetrack me and my crew got out there and Richard setting in the car and I'm a jerk and he said don't tire the car up was jerking trying to be cool he's gonna you know he's still leading the race ya have to spot em so we figured you know he's gonna be in the race that first time I'd really build a rally me out Boston you worked your way up there and and you ran a cup race for Junie what 73 73 and that was your first cover here in Charlotte how did you get hooked up with Junie well major net yeah we had we had our meeting you know the banquet and accurate we had our banquet and usually somebody I'll run a really big books porcelain race or another about to fall a year you know 500 and so I'm leaving and we win a whole bunch of trophies sending I'm carrying all these tokens amid come here said you won't run a Winston Cup car Sean I said yeah I probably could he said will you go down there Wednesday junior Dunlevy will have a car trucks more yeah yeah Trina in the practice and so I go down there I'm used to seeing 8000 rpm was our number you know damn it so I think had a 429 GB case motor and met Jerry and it's all ready to go when I got there and I hit my uniform on and got in he said take it out on the track feel it out give it some gas run a little out and get a plug check ok so I go out and I'm part around you at about 7,000 rpm you know I'm going around about four or five lamps and they don't turn but 72 if they have much more you know and so I make that lap and get it cleaned I come coasting in and this ever set guy come after him he said Junior's upset I'm gonna blow this deal you're like yeah wow you know he said here comes una he just quit talking yeah Jenny Karan got down his lead please long's up irony look back back in there any please chew that chew gum he said well I can say one thing though yeah you shake it down you shake it down I said judy um I thought it was gonna turn 8000 and I didn't think I was going real fast yeah you know alright so how did you get you'd run a cup race in 73 you dabbled in it a few more times for slaloms girl yeah Jo force on man Joe force on was a piece of work yeah yeah but we finished all oh yeah and you finished all them that's that that's what I was gonna say I look back and I looked at it and was like every car you got in you finished racism to me that 79 rookie class you ernhardt Joe Milliken and Terry the bunny is the greatest rookie class ever when I look at the whole sport when I go back and look at the sport you guys came in and made a difference right off the bat right off the bat you run second you run third you won races you contended for championships from the get-go how many years did you drive for racing forms well it's about 80 you want anyone so you drove 79 to 81 no basically no you drove James's car you drove hammies you drove a lot ever you put together a lot of times you just put together a hill you don't mean everybody knows you okay okay you got a million nicknames handsome hey mr. September Scholl bandit but that's how everybody knows you as a school band how tell us the story on how you ended up with Burt Reynolds and with Hal Needham and with that team because I remember that team coming about and it was a big deal when they showed up no there's a big deal when how need him and Burt realm showed up with Stan Barrett because Barrett had run 980 million miles an hour in that rocket car remember you know what I mean whatever that world record was which was phenomenal yeah it was Hollywood come to NASCAR yeah I mean if this was Hollywood you know this is something that had never happened before so how did you end up well that's in there we was going to test everybody --steal farm yeah well before we get there Travis is gonna be down stand back so ask me can I come down a couple days early you know yeah so I go down and so my job was to take the car out first Travis Carter's house Carter's the crew chief on me right yeah okay number 22 skull punch and I take it out you know and warm it up and then Stan he would take it out in it's sort of deceiving when you go out to early morning have things under shade and it's like it's ice you know but you you know right off to start when you start you know you go in there enough that you can control it you know so and said the next lap around you know this may let you know they got one about a hundred and ninety two so I can't so I come in and Fannie got there it looked wet you know then come over to me he says how can you just give it up and drink cup of coffee and jump in the car around two to three mile on that says what we do yeah like they had telemetry on this car unreal Gila Packer Foresti but on the car on the cart they told her that year they didn't tell everything had you ever seen a car with clothing well yeah I've never seen a computer before this the biggest is look like a frigerator indiscreet yes yes huge and this guy was sitting there to this thing done everything you know he could pop up an engine in slow motion eight cylinders yeah and if you show you the gas how that they're all the sensors are in all the cylinders say everyone at centrist g-force everything it's super deal Wow wait 50 pounds setting the floorboard here yeah and I was really in reality there was something yeah you go through the corner you could see them wheels you know the right front here's this scale here's four wheels yeah you know here's this Motor Show and all this stuff he's flipping it back and forth man this is something else you mentioned you're gonna use this at Talladega can this machinery or this sophisticated equipment give you immediate feedback during the race oh yeah it gives you feedback second a second while you're on the track and see and also see were recorded on a hard disk then we can bring it back and put it on tape so a month from now or a year from now we can take that rate that race and just slide it into a recorder and look at it on television again what was how like what kind of guy was how need him he'll he loved racing it was a challenge for him and he would love to have race Giselle yeah he called me up he said come out here we're gonna go to Russell Driving School Riverside yeah a little formal Irv ease and he said you know we just need to get together talk a little bit to racetrack you know houndred of time now like it and have a little fun so he got that driving skill hooey in class and these race I am here a the ANS and all these questions you know Haley and finally they give us 3000 rpm then it gives us 4000 rpm for running pretty good let little hold up here it's the tail tank you know so they give us forward Ohio's got the little helmet on behind me the heads bobbing they're not open wheel open cockpit you come around like get off of they heading down the backstretch you know if they could through that sharp and I'm riding up again - good well down through there now place them then I'll back it down there like and then I return reaching theory that when I get ready to come in next time really said it you like well he did that day and how he's already close to me so how can he passed me if we're turning the same rpm that guy said look he's just making time up in the turns now said they'd hand in the Turner's down the backstretch so you can't see that much okay you know it's funny because they changed the sport I feel like the Howard Howard and amber changed this for a little bit because we had jr. Johnson bud Moore Richard Petty you know you had those names and those companies that head off and this was a new team yeah but everywhere I went it was a show well you know we only had one show called that Winston yeah that was first get the show called out I mean even with a real race car show car yeah that's what he done they fixed him a whole car and we had a car all the time and he had hardened bandits yeah it was it he made it an event yeah and that was what was cool because it was like it brought something to this to the sport that that hadn't been there before well here's one thing he brought to a sport I tell you you know I don't like to really do interviews and the racetrack you know how you know I'd always hide my trailer yeah and so anyway a whole bunch of camera people dogs on them having Camacho uses weird again they ever say he's up on the trailer again get out here you know I go out there you like talk about that and there's doing the deal element cameras said I go back inside he said how come you're what now turn you know I said well I didn't go he said I will tell you something you need to do right now said if the camera don't come to you you go to Ed you go to that camera every time you get a chance that's where he was he said we got sponsors out here that's uh you know got in the wheels on this car that's what they I promised them yeah that's what I've done you know how involved is a Burt and everything that went on Burt he'd come to Atlanta last week he didn't come to me right yes he's a seemeth the movies all time he but he'd like to talk about it yeah he liked to talk about it he liked him he liked to go fast - yeah you know he look like life done at me you know things sometimes you can't do what you really want yeah you know but yeah we went to all the movies that they made and that's just set there for a couple days you know like $250 that was the base you were the stars stroker ace what are you talking about now what stroker ace everything was funny everything was good I tell you it the funniest thing that was Cannonball Run oh yeah that's right yeah right yeah I'll turn to desert golly Martin it was about 100 totally hundred and they had no town out there were these film movies Atman and they they had it rigged up first no Spanish thing you know got a while and I'm gonna tell you something that's the hardest job in the whole world would be an actor because they want you there in that desert that that trailer or a hotel will ever stand out there they want you there before and want you ready to talk speak before the Sun comes when that Sun cracks right through the thing you may be rolling the cameras blowing then they holler at you all day who you are Bert I love me Howard jumping all over you one day these I'm just talking to her you hear me now I'm time to get my shot and so anyway it was really really funny but I got to go to everyone ahead yeah they had a whole bunch of body slam Megaforce this whole bunch of them so you want that when they were doing movies and stuff you'd go back and forth and hang out with him there did he ever talk about some of the stunts he had done and stuff like that this was some of the crazy stuff that he the stuff that really really crazy when one of them everybody seen it whenever Bert's driving that car and whiskey you know white light yeah he jumps on that barge yeah well hey that thing figured out deals right well here comes Hale he's in the car you know that he doesn't say Miss 70-mile in there because of that dirt bank he got built out of it well that barge is a little bit quick it don't hit on the hey yeah like you're on yeah yeah but it is a good shot it broke his back see the real film if you see the real film make camp cameras on him he's way down the floor go that car yeah they can't move they gotta get him out of there and he go to the doctor and he's was bike was broke you know he come back I don't a cent he didn't any more stunts be it's coming back to finish his job you know no wait those guys are crazy yeah yeah I mean you think we're people think you're crazy when you drive a race car does that that's crazy what made him want to have a race car have a cup car in the first place we were okay humpy is down a diksha Speedway in Atlanta yeah okay he's just down a he'd like to go you know maybe we will resume racing I don't really know but how comes in East filming was risky movies down okay yeah yeah in any way he comes in in a limousine with two girls you know then it goes of sweeten and meets humpy will hump he invites him leave the Grand Marshall that's a short Motor Speedway and so he said I want to do something more fantastic you know the same stark change and or something like it so he gets a helicopter he's gonna hang from his helicopter with American flight yes not even strong Spangled Banner my foot yeah well anybody's a back come live that big old flaggers dragons the heart and but they come across in it well then he gets by cutting the sweet and he wants that race and he said man I that's what I want right there and and humpy told me there's hope he said I told it first you got to have as responsive yeah you have a sponsor then you got to have a driver in ya our garage and so he goes back to California he's he's trying to put something together he's watching TV and he sees a Walt Garrison do a scope commercial on TV yeah so he immediately contacted Burt and Burt to finally finally had people find out what the number who the captain so they just after he got somebody mr. ban on our chairman board Burt stomps - yeah and tell him what he has in mind about starting a race team and come to California so they fly to California in hell he picked him up to be a couple vice-president and up with two flight limos out there they go to Burt's house and he makes an interest down the stairway you know they come down and start waiting and there's a done deal not there no way so how come humpy meets hell how has the idea for the team how gets birth to sell the deal - Skol and that's how it all come anymore for you was a great years like a career you I mean what was that September like because you want Darlington Richmond Dover Martinsville and was kicking their rear end it looks for it and the brakes run out on that yeah and and that's what I'm saying but I mean for us because we were racing against you it was like what they got cuz you know how it is when somebody's beating you that bad as bad as you were beaten everybody and it wasn't just you weren't just winning races by a fender well if they call Reggie Jackson mr. October and Harry Gant has to be mr. September I think a little people might be working harder and we would you know we had what we had yeah and we didn't change it all in the same car to ever try but you know as I look at your career and go back and look at it there were there were multiple times in your career where you were right there at the championship right there in good could see it and and did you ever look at it and say you know we'll get him again next year would this is I know I'm going to get this he thought it was just around the corner what was that 92 season like going well and we were really pumped up and we had a debt party you know at the end of the season that that day at night we had that party I know who is gonna win the championship next year and we're gonna win long races yeah so it's just getting really rolling the last part that everything is set and everything great and we had Terry satchel like stay on the side and Andy and then though and Leo cost me about Christmas for a few weeks actually had a bank for next year that Andy had left going to children so you know and well that just was like a boom to totally you and me to than that rest of team I you know you just couldn't come back we'd want to races you know yeah and won your last race last race in you won Michigan you were 52 years old two hundred and nineteen days according to what is set and still Otis Otis winter and this sport was there ever a time when you looked at it and you thought man here's a boy from Taylorsville when in races at Darlington when in races at Daytona hanging out with how neat I'm a Burt Reynolds Sammy Davis jr. Dean Martin do you ever look at it and say man that racing has been good to me everybody yeah yeah thank you for coming and doing this man thank you very much hey motor sports fans thanks for watching make sure you hit subscribe before you go for all the latest news and highlights across motorsports

Channel: Motorsports on NBC

Views: 128,547

Rating: 4.9300828 out of 5

Keywords: NBC, Sports, NBCSN, NASCAR, Sprint Cup, XFINITY, Racing, Professional, Athlete, nascar 2019, nascar highlights, nascar highlights 2019, coffee with kyle, coffee with kyle series, kyle petty, kyle petty interview, kyle petty series, kyle petty highlights, harry gant, harry gant mr september, harry gant interview, harry gant highlights

Id: dFnMTaD2jYo

Length: 21min 13sec (1273 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 09 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/cpgoat]

Still handsome as ever.

[u/dubya86]

Harry seriously hasnt aged in 30 years

[u/ncpokey049]

2 Legend's

[u/Revrabon]

I’m from Iredell County. One town up the road from Harry. I grew up a devoted fan of the Skoal Bandit. I got to watch him run twice a year every year until they closed Wilkesboro. I still miss this guy being on the track. I even met Kyle once when I was in college when he brought his family to a concert we had on campus. This was a real treat to watch. Thanks for posting it.

[u/[deleted]]

My first year as a fan was his last year as a driver. My dad and I got his autograph and we talked to him a bit. He was really approachable and patient. I knew he was a big deal but to this day I'm still amazed I got so lucky. I always think of him in the green Oldsmobile.

[u/nofearspeed82]

Some are just blessed and others like me are just trying to hold onto my hair in my late 20s

[u/jws926]

Wow, he is looking good for his age, impressive .

[u/ChessieJackson]

Everybody is wild about Harry

[u/Angela4508]

I love this web series. Should be a weekly TV series.