Harris DeVane

A peanut farmer and a native of Cuthbert, Georgia,^[1] DeVane attended Randolph Southern School and is a graduate of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College.^[2]

DeVane began racing in 1978 at Albany Motor Speedway.^[2] Moving to touring series competition in the early 1990s, he made 59 starts in the ARCA Racing Series between 1994 and 1998.^[3] In 1995, he won the series' Bill France Four Crown Award, given to the driver with the best finishes on each of the types of tracks (superspeedway, road course, short track, and dirt track) the series competes on,^[4] and was the series' co-Rookie of the Year; after fellow rookie Andy Hillenburg became ineligible for the rookie title due to winning the series championship,^[5] he was tied with Dill Whittymore,^[6] and the series chose to equally award the title to both drivers.^[5] He also won the series' Most Popular Driver award that season.^[2]

DeVane scored one win in the ARCA Racing Series, at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1997.^[3] It was the first race run on the track's current configuration;^[7] he led only the last 100 yards (90 m) of the final lap of the race, moving from third to first to beat Andy Hillenburg and Frank Kimmel by 0.023 seconds.^[1]

DeVane also competed on a limited basis in NASCAR competition; in 1994, he attempted to qualify for a Busch Series Grand National Division event at Talladega Superspeedway, but failed to make the field.^[8] He also attempted to qualify for two Winston Cup Series races, both at Atlanta Motor Speedway: his first attempt at making his debut in the series was at the NAPA 500 in the fall of 1998,^[9] with his second attempt at the Cracker Barrel 500 in the spring of 1999; however, he failed to qualify for either event.^[10] He was hospitalized after crashing during his second-round qualifying attempt for the NAPA 500,^[11] and withdrew before second-round qualifying in 1999 due to a lack of speed.^[12]

DeVane died on March 1, 2018, after a brief illness at age 54.^[13]