Where is ... Leo Jackson?

At 74, Leo Jackson is as busy as he wants to be.

For Thanksgiving, Jackson and his wife of 15 years had some 28 people at their home in the Smoky Mountains, including his seven grandchildren. The "semi-retired" Jackson doesn't go into the office every day at Precision Products Performance Center, the racing engine parts business that he and his brother and father started in Arden, N.C., nearly 45 years ago.

"I try to give a little bit of guidance," Jackson said of his business.

Courtesy: harrygant.com

Harry Gant

Mr. September

Winner of 18 Cup races, including four in a row in 1991, "Handsome" Harry Gant can now be found on his farm and catch up with family.

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Jackson and his brother, Richard, fielded Late Model Sportsman cars for legends Bob Pressley (longtime Cup driver Robert Pressley's father) and Tommy Ellis. They broke into the Cup garage with Benny Parsons in 1985, and won their first Cup race with Parsons' brother, Phil, in 1988. Jackson, though, is probably best known as Harry Gant's team owner in the last few years of the popular driver's career. The Jackson brothers fielded two teams in 1989, one for Phil Parsons and the other for Gant, and then formed separate operations the following season.

From 1990 to '92, Gant and Leo Jackson won a total of eight races, including one memorable stretch in September of 1991 in which they captured four consecutive victories.

"I probably didn't truly appreciate it as much as I do now," Jackson said. "It's absolutely wonderful to go to the racetrack and know you've got a chance to win every time you go. I guess I kinda took it for granted. ... I guess I thought you were just supposed to win. Harry Gant was absolutely one of the greatest drivers who ever lived. I appreciated it then, but I appreciate it a lot more now.

"When they start a race today with 43 cars, there's only 10 of 'em that have a chance to win. That's the way it was when I raced with Harry. We had a chance to win. There's a lot of those guys that know they don't have a chance to win. I don't have the energy to run a team anymore, but if I did and I didn't have a chance to win, I wouldn't want to do it."

During that magical 1991 season, Gant won a May event at Talladega on gas mileage and a couple of healthy pushes on the final lap from Rick Mast. Things would go fairly well over the next month and a half, but as the second half began, the team hit a decided rough patch. Gant finished better than 19th only once over the course of a six-race stretch from early July through late August.

Then came a win in the Southern 500 at Darlington.

And then another at Richmond.

And then another at Dover.

And then, finally, one more at Martinsville. Late in that event, Gant got turned around between Turns 3 and 4, sustaining damage to the front of his car. Surely out of contention at the time, Gant nevertheless came roaring back to capture the win.

What's more, were it not for fading brakes within the final 10 laps or so the following week at North Wilkesboro, the streak would've easily extended to five races.

"We kinda stumbled on something for the motor that made it just a little better," Jackson said. "You know how drivers are. They never have enough horsepower. It helped [Gant's] confidence. And then I think his confidence kinda spread through the team. Everybody was just trying to do their thing the best they could. It was just chemistry."

Chemistry? That's it? C'mon. What did they know at the time that nobody else did?

"We didn't know anything," Jackson said with a chuckle, then added, "I think that's when they were first starting to run a little bit of camber in the rear end. We were doing that."

OK ... so team chemistry and some rear-end camber did the trick. We're getting closer now. Anything else?

Oh, yeah. What about this deal with the engine?

"The way I read the rule book, it was against the rules to roll the heads [a milling technique designed to increase an engine's compression ratio]," Jackson continued. "But we knew that Hendrick and other people were doing it, so finally, we just did it.

"We'd take the heads off after the race, and NASCAR said they were fine. Everybody was doing it. Everybody else had been doing it for a year. I finally just said, 'Well, heck, I know it's against the rules, but everybody's doing it.' So we did it."

Gant retired from Cup competition at the end of the 1994 season, and Jackson continued with Robert Pressley for another two seasons before selling the operation to Andy Petree.

"I was approaching 65 years of age," Jackson said. "When you start to get 65 or 70, you just don't have the energy. I was running a business and running a race team, too. It was seven days a week. It takes a lot of energy. ... I knew what it took to win, and I really didn't have the energy to do it anymore at that level. I could've hung on and delegated [responsibilities], but that's not the way I raced. I was an engine builder, chassis builder ... I participated in our team."

These days, Jackson watches races "every Sunday."

"I pull the most for the one that buys the most parts," Jackson admitted.