Hardwick grew up in East Tennessee near Douglas Lake and the Great Smoky Mountains, racing dirt bikes from age four and entering his first motorcycle race at six. As a teenager he competed in jet ski racing, winning several amateur titles and a professional world championship. He did not enter car racing until 2015. In 2000, while still in college at the University of Tennessee, he co-founded Mountain Motorsports with childhood friend Justin Price. The business began with a single Honda franchise and by the mid-2020s had grown to 12 dealerships across three states — Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama — representing thirteen brands and employing over 300 people.
Hardwick's early car racing included a stint in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo series, where he won his class in 2018 with Dream Racing Motorsport. He then graduated to the IMSA SportsCar Championship's GTD class with Wright Motorsports, racing Porsche 911 GT3 R machinery under the 1st Phorm sponsorship.
At the 2022 Rolex 24 at Daytona, Hardwick and his Wright Motorsports teammates won the GTD class — a result made more meaningful after he had been sidelined by injury during the 2021 edition of the race. The Rolex 24 win formed the first element of what would become a North American Triple Crown baseline alongside his 12 Hours of Sebring victory.
In 2025, racing for Manthey Racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship LMGT3 category, Hardwick and his teammates dominated the 24 Hours of Le Mans, leading for most of the second half of the race — a feat Hardwick himself described as uncommon. The Le Mans victory completed motorsport's Triple Crown, a feat achieved by only approximately twelve drivers in the history of the sport. He became the first Atlantan to win Le Mans.
The 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship title was secured at the 8 Hours of Bahrain in November 2025, where Hardwick's team began the race from 18th on the grid — last in class — after a poor qualifying session. Hardwick performed a triple stint at the start of the race that moved the team from 18th to eighth in three hours, earning him the Goodyear Wingfoot Award as most valuable LMGT3 driver for the round. The team climbed 14 positions to finish fourth, claiming the championship with 123 points to Ferrari's 109. "Starting from the very back, we faced one of our toughest challenges all season," Hardwick said after clinching the title. As of the 2026 season, Hardwick continued in IMSA competition with Manthey Racing's Proton Competition entry.
Hardwick has spoken consistently about the parallels between endurance racing and business: both require consistency, persistence, and team coordination over an extended campaign in which individual errors are amplified. As an FIA Bronze-rated driver — the classification used for amateur and gentleman competitors — his results at the sport's highest level are considered exceptional. He has credited the financial success of Mountain Motorsports with enabling his transition into professional-level competition, as well as his ability to attract sponsorship from 1st Phorm and other partners.