Grant's early sports car career was built in California and the Pacific Northwest. In 1964 he scored a class win at the 12 Hours of Sebring sharing a Nickey Corvette with Skip Hudson. Later that year he teamed with Dan Gurney to win the GT class at the Targa Florio in a Carroll Shelby Cobra, establishing the partnership with Gurney and All American Racers that would define much of his career.
At the 1966 12 Hours of Sebring, Grant and Gurney co-drove a Ford GT40 Mk.II and led into the final lap. The engine failed with approximately two minutes of racing remaining. As at Indianapolis, a second-place classified finish was within reach had the car remained where it stopped. Instead, Gurney attempted to push the car across the finish line — a violation of FIA regulations — and the pair were disqualified.
Three months later at Le Mans, Grant and Gurney started their Ford GT40 Mk.II from pole position and led into the 21st hour before a holed radiator ended their challenge for outright victory. Grant also won the USRRC race at Bridgehampton in 1966 driving All American Racers' Lola T70-Ford.
Grant started in USAC Championship Car competition in 1965 and raced in the series through 1977, accumulating 54 career starts. He started the Indianapolis 500 ten times between 1965 and 1976. He finished in the top ten on thirteen occasions across his Championship Car career, with his best season result a third place in 1974 at Ontario.
Grant's most famous race — and his most painful — was the 1972 Indianapolis 500. Running comfortably at the front over Mark Donohue with twelve laps remaining, Grant suffered a punctured tyre and was forced to pit. He had been running a higher line for handling purposes, which may have exposed him to debris on the outside of the racing groove. As Donohue passed into the lead, Grant overshot his own pit stall and inadvertently stopped at his teammate Bobby Unser's pit. Unser's mechanics changed the tyre and refuelled the car from Unser's supply. Grant rejoined and finished what appeared to be second place.
The team of third-place finisher Al Unser filed a protest arguing Grant had taken fuel from another driver's reserves. The stewards upheld the protest, ruled that Grant's final twelve laps did not count, and dropped him from second to twelfth position.
On September 3, 1972, during qualifying at Ontario Motor Speedway, Grant became the first USAC driver to complete a closed-circuit lap at over 200 mph (320 km/h), covering the 2.5-mile (4.0 km) circuit in 44.7 seconds at an average of 201.414 mph in All American Racers' Eagle. The achievement made headlines across American motorsport. On race day, however, the same car failed to complete even a single lap.
Dan Gurney, who raced alongside Grant at Sebring, Le Mans, and the Targa Florio, described him as "a natural; he was brave and playful and always could rise to the challenge." Grant was by all accounts a physically imposing man and a skilled after-dinner speaker whose storytelling abilities served him well in his post-driving career as a racing representative for Champion Spark Plugs. He later worked briefly as a spokesman for Prolong Lubricants.
Grant died on 12 August 2012 from liver failure and diabetes at a hospital in Orange County, California, at the age of 77. A memorial service was held at the Riverside International Raceway Museum, conducted by Ed Justice Jr. Dan Gurney was among those who spoke. Grant was survived by his wife Sandy, daughters Yvon and Tammy, and grandson Grant.
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