Sun, 08.28.1921
This date marks the birth of Wendell Scott in 1921. He was a Black race car driver. Wendell Oliver Scott was from Danville, Virginia's "Crooktown" section. His first driving job was as a taxi driver. Later he hauled illegal whiskey, an occupation that called for skills as both a high-performance mechanic and a fearless driver. Early on, Blacks were barred from many major races because of Jim Crow Laws. In the 1920s, Black drivers tried to arrange racing circuits, But the prize money was meager at best. Nevertheless, Scott set his sights on breaking into organized racing. "There were just a few blacks attending races then," Scott was quoted as saying. "Most of the time me and a friend were the only two blacks in the stands. He'd often ask me if I'd have the nerve to get out there and run. I'd tell him, 'shucks, yes,' I could do it." Scott started racing at the Danville Fairgrounds Speedway. He won 120 races in lower divisions and in 1959, won state championships in his classes. In 1961, he was able to pull together enough money to field a car on NASCAR's top-level Grand National circuit, later renamed the Winston Cup series. Enduring persistent, sometimes brutal, discrimination, Scott raced in nearly 500 races in NASCAR's top division from 1961 through the early 1970s. Racing on a shoestring, he finished in the top ten 147 times. On December 1, 1963, he won his only major race, a 100-mile event on a half-mile track in Jacksonville, Florida and Scott was denied the opportunity to celebrate in Victory Circle. NASCAR officials said a scoring error was responsible for allowing another driver to accept the winner's trophy. Scott doubted that explanation. "Everybody in the place knew I had won the race," he said years later, "but the promoters and NASCAR officials didn't want me out there kissing any beauty queens or accepting any awards." In 1973, he suffered severe injuries in a race at Talladega, Alabama. Scott blended driving talent and determination into a long career on the otherwise all-white NASCAR Grand National tour. He is the only Black person to win a major-league NASCAR race. He raced only a few times afterward. Wendell Scott died in 1990. TALLADEGA, Ala. — Bubba Wallace became just the second Black driver to win at NASCAR's top Cup Series level when rain stopped Monday's playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway. Wallace had driven through a crash and to the front of the field five laps before the second rain stoppage of the race. NASCAR tried to dry the track for nearly 45 minutes, but called things off as sunset approached and the rain showing no sign of ceasing. Wallace had been waiting atop his pit stand celebrated wildly with his crew when the race was called. Wallace is in his first season driving for 23X1 Racing, a team owned by both Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan. Wallace broke down in tears after he returned to his parked No. 23 Toyota. The car number was picked for co-owner Jordan, who wore 23 in the NBA. “This is for all the kids out there that want to have an opportunity and whatever they want to achieve, and be the best at what they want to do,” Wallace said as he choked back tears. “You’re going to go through a lot of (BS). But you always got to stick true to your path and not let the nonsense get to you. “Stay strong. Stay humble. Stay hungry. Been plenty of times when I wanted to give up.” Wallace is the first Black driver to win at NASCAR's elite Cup level since Wendell Scott in 1963 — a race where he wasn't declared the victor for several months. NASCAR at last presented Scott's family with his trophy from that race two months ago. Bill Lester, a Black driver who raced intermittently in NASCAR from 1999 through one Xfinity Series start this season, tweeted his congratulations to Wallace. We apologize, this video has expired. “Finally, it’s official, you’ve done it!” he posted. “So proud of you and what you’ve accomplished. Your win moves the @NASCAR needle forward on so many fronts. Glad I was a witness.” In June 2020 at Talladega, NASCAR discovered a noose in the garage stall assigned to Wallace. The finding came just a week after NASCAR had banned the Confederate flag at its events at Wallace's urging. The FBI investigated and found that the noose was tied at the end of the garage door pull and had been there for months, meaning Wallace was not a victim of a hate crime. The entire industry rallied around him, though, and stood in solidarity with Wallace at his car at the front of the grid before the race. The flag ban has been an issue at Talladega, where a convoy of vehicles has paraded up and down Speedway Bouldevard outside the main entrance of the speedway in all four races since NASCAR said it would not permit the symbol inside its tracks. The convoy was back this weekend and included one car pulling a trailer that contained a Civil War-era cannon. Wallace has called the noose incident a low point in his life. He's been subjected to nonstop online harassment that last year even included a tweet from then-President Donald Trump that falsely accused Wallace of making up the noose. Wallace never saw the noose and was only told about it by NASCAR President Steve Phelps after the FBI had already been summoned to investigate. He said he never thought about the significance of earning his first career Cup race at the same track in his native Alabama; he was born in Mobile. “When you say it like that, it obviously brings a lot of emotion, a lot of joy to my family, fans, my friends. It’s pretty cool,” he said. Wallace went to a makeshift victory lane inside an empty garage stall to celebrate with his 23XI Racing team. The organization was formed a year ago and Wallace was the centerpiece based on all the corporations that entered NASCAR in support of Wallace and his social justice efforts. 23XI will expand to two cars next season with former series champion Kurt Busch joining the team. Wallace's win was his first in 142 career Cup starts, though he had six victories in the Truck Series from 2013 through 2015. No playoff drivers won a race at Talladega this weekend and only Denny Hamlin is already locked into the third round of the playoffs headed into next week's elimination race at Charlotte, North Carolina. Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner, celebrated with Wallace following his seventh-place finish. “It’s just way more emotional because I know how difficult it is. These guys have worked so hard over the last 10 months to put this team together," Hamlin said. "We’re still in the beginning stages of our team. We’re still growing. We’ve got some great things on the horizon. It’s just a great morale booster for everyone.” Brad Keselowski finished second and was followed by Team Penske teammate Joey Logano in a pair of Fords. Busch was fourth in a Chevrolet. Kevin Harvick, Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman and William Byron head to Charlotte in danger of elimination. This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia.(July 2013) Wendell Oliver Scott (August 29, 1921 – December 23, 1990) was an American stock car racing driver. He was one of the first African-American drivers in NASCAR and the first African-American to win a race in the Grand National Series, NASCAR's highest level.
Scott began his racing career in local circuits and obtained his NASCAR license in around 1953, making him the first African-American ever to compete in NASCAR.[1] He debuted in the Grand National Series on March 4, 1961, in Spartanburg, South Carolina.[2] On December 1, 1963, he won a Grand National Series race at Speedway Park in Jacksonville, Florida, becoming the first black driver to win a race at NASCAR's premier level.[3] Scott's career was repeatedly affected by racial prejudice and problems with top-level NASCAR officials. He was posthumously inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2015.[4][5] Scott was born in Danville, Virginia, a town dominated by cotton mills and tobacco-processing plants. Scott vowed as a youth to avoid such labor. As a youth he began learning auto mechanics from his father, who worked as a driver and mechanic for two well-to-do white families. Scott also raced bicycles against white children in the neighborhood. As a teen he dropped out of high school, became a taxi driver, and served as a mechanic in the segregated Army in Europe during World War II.[6] He married Mary Coles in 1943; they had seven children.[7] After the war, he ran an auto-repair shop. As a sideline, he took up the dangerous and illegal pursuit of running moonshine whiskey. The police caught Scott only once, in 1949. Sentenced to three years probation, he continued making his late-night whiskey runs.[8] In 1951, the officials at the Dixie Circuit, a regional racing organization, decided to recruit a Black driver as a marketing gimmick. Scott was recruited for this purpose and participated in his first race at the Danville Speedway.
In search of more opportunities, Scott repaired his car with the help of a black mechanic, Hiram Kincaid, and towed it to a NASCAR-sanctioned event in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Upon arrival, NASCAR officials refused to let him compete due to his race. A few days later he went to another NASCAR event in High Point, North Carolina and received the same result. Scott decided to avoid NASCAR for the time being and race with the Dixie Circuit and at other non-NASCAR speedways. He won his first race at Lynchburg, Virginia, only twelve days into his racing career. Scott ran as many as five events a week, mostly at Virginia tracks. Some prejudiced drivers would wreck him deliberately though his expertise also won him white fans, even amongst his fellow drivers. These other drivers would serve as his bodyguards at events with racist fans.[9] Scott began the 1953 season on the Northern Virginia circuit after winning a feature race in Staunton. He subsequently tied the Waynesboro qualifying record and won the Waynesboro feature race. The Waynesboro News Virginian reported that Scott had become "recognized as one of the most popular drivers to appear here." The Staunton News Leader said he "has been among the top drivers in every race here." In 1954, Scott towed his racecar to a local NASCAR event at the Richmond Speedway and asked the steward, Mike Poston, to grant him a NASCAR license. Poston, a part-timer, was not a powerful figure in NASCAR's hierarchy, but he did have the authority to issue licenses. Scott's license was approved and he became the first Black driver in NASCAR. Scott won dozens of races during his nine years in regional-level competition. In 1959 he won two championships. NASCAR awarded him the championship title for drivers of sportsman-class stock cars in the state of Virginia, and he also won the track championship in the sportsman class at Richmond's Southside Speedway.[10] In 1961, he moved up to the Grand National Series. He achieved the most points for a debutant in 1961.[6] In the 1964 season, he finished 15th in points, and on December 1 of that year, driving a Chevrolet Bel Air that he purchased from Ned Jarrett, he won a race on the half-mile dirt track at Speedway Park in Jacksonville, Florida—the first Grand National event won by an African-American. Scott passed Richard Petty, who was driving an ailing car, with 25 laps remaining for the win. Scott was not announced as the winner of the race at the time. Buck Baker, the second-place driver, was initially declared the winner, but race officials discovered two hours later that Scott had not only won, but was two laps in front of the rest of the field.[11] NASCAR awarded Scott the win two years later, but his family never received the trophy he had earned until 2021 – nearly 58 years after the race, and 31 years after Scott had died.[3][12] He continued to be a competitive driver despite his low-budget operation through the rest of the 1960s. Despite his successes, he never received commercial sponsorship.[6] In 1964, Scott finished 12th in points despite missing several races. Over the next five years, Scott consistently finished in the top ten in the point standings. He finished 11th in points in 1965, was a career-high 6th in 1966, 10th in 1967, and finished 9th in both 1968 and 1969. His top year in winnings was 1969 when he won $47,451.[13] Scott was forced to retire due to injuries from a racing accident at Talladega, Alabama in 1973, although he did make one more start at the 1973 National 500 in which he finished 12th place. He achieved one win and 147 top ten finishes in 495 career Grand National starts. Scott died on December 23, 1990 in Danville, Virginia, having suffered from spinal cancer.[14] A 1962 Chevrolet built by Scott for the movie Greased Lightning on display at the NASCAR Hall of Fame The film Greased Lightning, starring Richard Pryor as Scott, was loosely based on Scott's biography.[15] Mojo Nixon, a fellow Danville native, wrote a tribute song titled "The Ballad of Wendell Scott", which appears on Nixon and Skid Roper's 1986 album, Frenzy. Scott was inducted as a member of the 2000 class of The Virginia Sports Hall of Fame and Museum located in Portsmouth, VA.[16] He also has a street named after him in his hometown of Danville. Only seven other African-American drivers are known to have started at least one race in what is now the Cup Series: Elias Bowie, Charlie Scott, George Wiltshire, Randy Bethea, Willy T. Ribbs, Bill Lester, and most recently Bubba Wallace.[17] As reported in the Washington Post, filmmaker John W. Warner began directing a documentary about Scott, titled The Wendell Scott Story, which was to be released in 2003 with narration by the filmmaker's father, former U.S. Senator John Warner but instead Warner created a four-set DVD entitled American Stock: The Golden Era of NASCAR: 1936-to-1971 which documents many racers including Scott.[18] The film included interviews with fellow race-car drivers, including Richard Petty. Scott is prominently featured in the 1975 book The World's Number One, Flat-Out, All-Time Great Stock Car Racing Book, written by Jerry Bledsoe. In April 2012, Scott was nominated for inclusion in the NASCAR Hall of Fame,[19] and was selected for induction in the 2015 class, in May 2014.[20] In January 2013, Scott was awarded his own historical marker in Danville, Virginia. The marker's statement is, “Persevering over prejudice and discrimination, Scott broke racial barriers in NASCAR, with a 13-year career that included 20 top five and 147 top ten finishes.”[21] Scott was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame on January 30, 2015. Loosely based on him, a fictionalized version of Scott was given a minor role in the 2017 Pixar film Cars 3. He is portrayed by Isiah Whitlock Jr. in the form of an anthropomorphized car, with his name changed to River Scott. A fictionalized version of Scott early in his career in 1955 was featured heavily on Timeless episode 2, season 2. Portrayed by Joseph Lee Anderson, Scott's history as a smuggler, mechanical and driving ability, perseverance, and past and future injustices due to racial discrimination were major themes of the episode.[22] (key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.) Grand National Series
Winston Cup Series
Daytona 500
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