Martin’s feats bring to mind incredible run of Harry Gant

By Steve Waid

Thursday, September 10, 2009

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Heading into the Sept. 12 race at Richmond, the ageless Mark Martin is seeking his fifth victory of the year. After running a limited schedule the past two years, the 50-year-old driver has returned to full-time competition with a bang.

To be successful at Martin’s age is extremely rare in other professional sports, where many 50-year-old athletes have been long retired.

Five wins in a season is good by anyone’s standards. It’s an incredible feat for a driver 50 or older. To put things in perspective, the last 50-year-old to win a Cup race was Morgan Shepherd in 1993 at Atlanta. Entering this year, only 10 races in NASCAR Cup history had been won by a driver 50 or older.

Remarkably, Harry Gant won eight of those 10 races, and he reeled off four consecutive wins in one memorable stretch in 1991.

In 1991, Gant was driving for Leo Jackson. During the previous two seasons Gant won only twice. The feeling was that Gant could be counted on for a win per season until he retired.

That appeared to be the case in ’91. Gant won at Talladega in May and then had just five top-10 finishes in the next 11 races. He had a particularly rough stretch from Daytona in July through Bristol in August, during which he finished 19th or worse in five of six events.

But things changed abruptly at the Southern 500 in Darlington and certainly no one could have anticipated it.

Gant won the Southern 500 by nearly 11 seconds over Ernie Irvan. It was his second win of the year and it earned him a $100,000 bonus since it was his second victory in the four-race Winston Million program. The Winston 500 at Talladega was the first.

The Sept. 7 Miller Genuine Draft 400 at Richmond was one of the most anticipated races of 1991, the first night race in the track’s 38-year history.

A standing-room only crowd of 65,000 was on hand to see Gant pass Allison with 19 laps to go to win his second consecutive race.

On Sept. 15 at Dover, Gant had a ridiculously easy time. He led 326 laps and lapped the field to win his third straight race.

Gant became the hot topic in NASCAR. Rivals wondered just what chicanery Jackson’s team was up to. The media duly noted the achievements of the “old man” and fans sported buttons that said, “Life Begins at 51.”

At Martinsville on Sept. 22, it appeared Gant’s streak had come to an unceremonious end when Rusty Wallace knocked him from behind in an attempt to take the lead.

Gant slid backward and was clipped by Morgan Shepherd and Derrike Cope. Miraculously, Gant managed to stay on the lead lap.

Back in 12th place, Gant charged forward and took the lead away from Brett Bodine on lap 454. Gant was unchallenged the rest of the way and went on to win his fourth consecutive race, his fifth victory of the year.

“Reckon we did as good as we could against a guy who can do no wrong,” Bodine said.

At North Wilkesboro a week later Gant was in full control and on his way to a fifth straight victory.

But with 50 laps to go, brake failure – caused by a broken ‘O’ ring that reportedly cost a dime – spoiled his attempt to become the only driver in NASCAR’s post-1971 modern era to win five races in succession. He finished second to Earnhardt.

Often forgotten about Gant’s streak, which earned him the nickname, “Mr. September,” is the fact he reeled off three consecutive Busch Series victories during that stretch, at Richmond, Dover and Charlotte.

In 1992, Gant won twice more. One of those victories came at Michigan on Aug. 16 when he was 52 years, seven months and six days old. He holds the record as the oldest driver to win a NASCAR Cup race.

Martin has a chance to eclipse Gant’s record. At age 51, he will return to Hendrick Motorsports in 2010. We don’t know – in fact he may not even know – what he will do after that.

But if he decides to press on he just might become the oldest winner of them all. If so, don’t be surprised to see Gant’s name and career feats surface once again.