decades older than him. Jason grew up at the track and, when he was old enough, began working at Piedmont Dragway with his father. He got behind the wheel when he was 15 and hasn’t looked back.

“I grew up with Pro Mod, watching Scotty Cannon, Shannon Jenkins, Pat Stoken and those guys, and I always thought that I wanted to do that. I got the opportunity about five years ago to get my feet wet in the Big Dog series and I think that was a real stepping stone to get to where I am now. I had a lot of success as a sportsman racer and I think that makes me the driver I am today. I’ve been down the track as much as some of the older guys who’ve been in this thing a long time. Growing up in the sport and working at the race track provided me those opportunities. Race track life isn’t easy but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I want to raise my family in it the way I was raised in it.”

That family is growing. Harris and his wife Crystal are expecting their second child, which they just found out is a boy. “My wife and I have been married 10 years this year. She came into this never having been around any kind of racing. She has come to love racing as much as I do. I respect her and she respects me. She’s my best friend. I couldn’t do what I do without my wife. She really supports me. She’s behind me all the time. We spent our tenth wedding anniversary at Valdosta. It takes a special girl to do that. Like she said, the second date we went on was to a drag strip so why not. We planned our wedding around drag racing. We planned the birth of both of our children around drag racing.”

It’s a true family affair for the Harrises and always has been. Jason credits his dad, Bob, with much of the success he’s found in professional racing.

“My dad kind of set the stepping stones for me in the sportsman stuff. He was real successful in the ‘80s, and then we were real successful when we raced together. As he got older he wanted to see me race more, plus it was getting to be a lot of work to keep up three or four cars, so now we just focus all our efforts on one car.”

Jason admits that his dad doesn’t get to enjoy his victories as much this year since the eldest Harris is concentrating his efforts on the day to day operations of PDRA. Still, the family bond remains strong and Harris hopes to keep up the legacy his father began. “Hopefully I can share everything that my dad gave me with my son on the way and with my little girl. Hopefully we can keep the legacy of drag racing and the Harris name going.”

While his father and wife are clearly the biggest supporters of Jason’s success, the manpower and horsepower can be credited to Robert Hayes Motorsports, Hoosier Racing Tires and Pat Musi Racing Engines.

“Our success is a combination of a lot of things,” Harris elaborated. “Robert Hayes came to us about four years ago wanting to build race cars. We had a big shop so we let him use that. We all became good friends. He built an awesome race car for me about two years ago. It’s been a really good combination. He loves the sport as much as anybody and he’s got the ability on the one side to build race cars, set them up and tune them. I had the ability on the other side to drive them. So it was a perfect combination. You couldn’t ask for two guys to get along better.

“I really want to thank Hoosier Racing Tires,” he continued. “Hoosier’s been with me since I was 18 years old. I kind of took my dad’s spot with them. They’ve always been a good sponsor, and we have a good relationship. I really respect the people behind Hoosier. They are downhome people. They take care of the sportsman as well as the pro guys.

“I got on board with Pat about two years ago when we bought one of Ricky Smith’s old motors. We’ve had a lot of success. It’s been stepping stones. We’ve learned. Pat’s learned. They have a lot of good horsepower right now. They’ve really stepped their game up.

“Without Robert, Hoosier, and Musi I wouldn’t have what I have today. Just the little sponsorship I have helps out tremendously.”

Very few racers can claim to have won three consecutive National Events titles. Fewer still can claim going undefeated in an organization for any length of time. For Harris, the hard work he and his team have put in is paying off. Still, the humble man raised in the North Carolina countryside never expected three in a row and says, “I’m just glad I got the opportunity to do it.”

“I had a couple of wrecks and I thought that was going to be the end of my career,” Harris added. “Every winter I think maybe it’s time to slow down a little bit. But unfortunately I can’t get it out of my blood. It’s the only thing I really know. Every time I think that, I end up racing harder the next year. I just keep plugging along. Maybe one day I’ll have my name up there with the greats in drag racing like Ricky Smith, Scotty Cannon, John Force. We’re going to keep going on with the Pro Mod series because I feel like that’s the grassroots of drag racing. The PDRA Is a great organization. It’s backed by a lot of good people. It’s going to keep growing and growing and growing and I want to be a part of it.”

Photo Credits: Gary Rowe / RaceWorks.com / PDRA66.com