NASCAR Honoring Wendell Scott’s First NASCAR Sprint Cup Start

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (March 3, 2010) – In honor of the anniversary of African-American racing trailblazer Wendell Scott making his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start, vehicles competing this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway will have a commemorative decal baring the image of Scott.

Scott made his first start in NASCAR’s premier series on March 4, 1961 at Spartanburg, S.C. On Dec. 1, 1963 in Jacksonville, Fla., Scott became the first African-American to win a NASCAR Sprint Cup event, a distinction he still holds.

To further recognize the occasion this weekend at AMS, Sybil Scott, daughter of the late Scott, will be in attendance as will NASCAR Drive for Diversity competitor Jason Romero.

Romero was last season’s winner of the Wendell Scott Trailblazer Award, given annually to a female or minority driver in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series who personifies excellence on and off the race track.

Biography:
Wendell Oliver Scott, Sr.

Born August 29, 1921, in Danville, VA; died of spinal cancer, December 24, 1990; married Mary; children: Willie Ann, Wendell Jr., Franklin, Deborah, Cheryl, Sybil, and Michael.
Religion: New Hope Baptist Church.
Memberships: honorary lifetime member, Black American Racers Association; Hollywood Screen Actors Guild, 1977-90.

Career

Taxi cab driver, 1939-43; U.S. Army, 1943-45; city service, 1945-49; driver, 1949-52; NASCAR driver, 1952-73; owner of Scott's Garage, 1949-90.

Life's Work

Wendell Scott raced stock cars in 506 Winston Cup Grand Nationals from 1961 to 1973 as the first black man to do so at that level and only one of three to race before 1990. His National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) win occurred in 1963 on the Jacksonville Speedway in Florida. Because of the points he earned during races, he started in the top ten racing positions 147 times.

Scott earned a reputation for speed as a taxi driver and then as a bootlegger in Danville, Virginia, where he lived his entire life. He claimed that all the old race car drivers once were bootleggers like he had been. Bootleggers would race on Sundays after forming a half- mile oval track in the dirt by driving around a cow pasture.

During World War II, before his speeding tickets and moonshine- hauling caught the attention of the Danville police, Scott was trained by the Army to be a mechanic and a paratrooper. His skills as a mechanic would serve him well during his lifetime. In an interview for Dirt Tracks to Glory, Scott boasted that his "liquor car would do 95 in second gear, and 118 in high." According to Scott, there were no police cars at the time in Danville that could go over 95 miles per hour. Scott kept his liquor car in topnotch condition.

On one unfortunate liquor run in 1948, Scott skidded on a gravel road to avoid a group of drunks and crashed into a house. After being cited by the police, Scott received three years of probation. When promoter Martin Rogers asked the local police to give him the name of a black man who might be able to drive for him in order to increase the interest at Danville's dirt track, Wendell Scott's name came up. Since stock cars are standard-make automobiles that have been modified for racing, Scott was a natural candidate for Rogers as a skilled mechanic and an accomplished driver.

In 1949, when Scott began his racing career, motor sports were in their early stages of development. Scott, a NASCAR pioneer, loved racing from day one despite the many problems he encountered. Some tracks would not let him compete. At others, people booed and threw things at him. Drivers slashed his tires or tried to wreck his car during races.

Not all discrimination was so blatant. Judges often did not give Scott the scoring points that he deserved. When he went to get paid for his finishing position, no matter where Scott finished, the scorers would have him listed as last. Inspectors would single him out and make him do such things as take a tiny paintbrush and cover chips in his car's paint before allowing him to race. He would win "free dinners" but not be allowed to go into the restaurants to eat them. Despite this racially motivated onslaught, Scott loved to race too much to quit.

Scott knew many drivers like himself who illegally hauled alcohol in half-gallon Mason jars to keep racing. Racing was an expensive sport even for drivers with sponsors and Scott never had a sponsor. He had to use his mechanics skills to build fast cars and was proud that he and his sons had that ability. Because of financial straits, he never got to race in a new car.

Scott got his start in racing on the "Dixie Circuit," the shorter tracks, where he won 127 races. In 1958, Scott competed in a major racing event, the Virginia State Championship and won. In 1961, he moved to the elite form of stock car racing, the Grand Nationals, now known as the Winston Cup. Points were given for each lap completed and for finishing position. The finishing points determined the award money Scott would receive--money needed to feed his large family each week. He finished the races even with broken seats, broken pedals, crushed radiator fins, and crumpled car bodies just to get his points. The competitions consisted of a 100-mile race on a half-mile dirt track. Scott drove his 1962 Chevrolet for many years on those tracks. The superstitious Scott never wore green or allowed green on his cars when he raced, nor did he allow peanuts to be eaten in his pits or his repair garage.

Scott's bittersweet day of glory was December 1, 1963, when his 1962 Chevrolet crossed the finish line first after 202 laps at the Jacksonville Speedway in Florida. Officials flagged Buck Baker as the winner, however. Later, when Scott protested, the officials claimed there had been a scoring error. A recheck showed that Scott's Chevrolet had been two laps ahead of the 22-car field. Scott knew that he had actually been three laps ahead of Baker. By the time the error was pointed out, Baker had taken home the $1,000 purse, the trophy, and the acclaim of racing fans. Scott eventually received his winnings, but never the correct trophy.

Scott kept driving, eventually earning the accolades he deserved. In 1971, he received the first Curtis Turner Achievement Award for his efforts to promote NASCAR racing. Unfortunately, a disaster struck in 1973 and effectively ended his career. During a race at Talladega, Alabama, Scott sustained severe injuries in a 19-car wreck, including broken pelvis bones, three broken ribs, a leg broken in seven places, and a lacerated arm that required seventy stitches. Despite his injuries, Scott tried to race several more years before retiring from Grand National racing.

Scott received many awards, especially for his contributions to the Danville community. In 1977, he was inducted into the National Black Athletic Hall of Fame. That same year a movie loosely based on Scott's life titled Greased Lightning and starring Richard Pryor, was released. Though Scott was a technical consultant and did many of the stunts in Greased Lightning, he received little financial compensation. He was also disappointed with the Hollywood stunt drivers. He declared, "They had about three different stunt men who couldn't even drive a car--worst thing I ever seen in my life."

After his official retirement from racing in 1973, Scott ran an automobile garage until disease prevented him from working. His reputation as a driver and mechanic brought people with car problems from all over the east coast. He told Dirt Tracks to Glory, "It's no fun working on anybody else's cars, especially race cars." Without bitterness, he admitted that racing had not been good to him and regretted that due to lack of funds and equipment, he never got to do his best. In 1986, Les Montgomery of Atlanta, Georgia, with Scott's help, established a Wendell Scott Racing Foundation to begin a scholarship program for young people interested in auto mechanics.

Many acknowledged that Scott had worked harder than any driver they had ever known. In NASCAR Online, the president of the Charlotte Motor Speedway, H. A. Wheeler, a man who knew Scott and had watched him race for years, remarked, "He was obviously a much better race driver than the record shows." Though it had been difficult for Scott, he always hoped that his efforts would open doors for other black drivers. Scott, whose children were often his pit crew, managed to put all seven of them through school--quite an accomplishment for a man who earned a total of $188,000 in the 506 NASCAR starts of his career.

In 1983, Scott told Dirt Tracks to Glory that he never quit racing. "I just haven't had the time." When Willie T. Ribbs, another black driver, started NASCAR racing in 1986, Scott wished he was 25 years old and just starting out. Scott died of spinal cancer and other problems in 1990, just seven years before his hometown renamed the street he lived on in Danville as "Wendell Scott Drive." He did not get to experience the recognition bestowed upon him December 23, 1997, when an emblem with Scott's number 34 race car and the words, "NASCAR Racing Legend," were put up at intersections near his street.

A month after Scott's death, the Virginia Senate passed a resolution to mourn his death and honor his accomplishments as a "trailblazing sportsman and a man of skill, dedication, and perseverance." Wendell Scott, often called the Jackie Robinson of stock car racing, picked one of the most difficult sports at which a black man might succeed. His efforts in the face of adversity define success.

Awards

keys to numerous cities; Virginia State Championship and Southside Speedway Championship, 1959; 127 race wins; Jacksonville Speedway Championship, 1963; State of Florida Citation for Outstanding Achievements, 1965; honorary Lieutenant-Colonel-Aide-de-Camp, Alabama State Militia, 1970; Curtis Turner Memorial Achievement Award, 1971; Special Olympics Service Award, 1974; Schasfer Brewing Company Achievement Award, 1975; subject of the movie and novel, Greased Lightning, 1977; Bont Cultural Council Achievement Award, Greenville, SC, 1977; National Black Athletic Hall of Fame, 1977; Tobaccoland 200 Award for the Finest NASCAR Driver, 1978; Fort Belvair, VA Award for Outstanding Services Rendered, 1979; Black Rose Community Services Award, 1980; Muscular Dystrophy Association Award for Achievements, 1981; Virginia Skyline Girl Scout Council, Inc. Award for outstanding contributions, 1985; Proclamation of Atlanta, GA and Danville, VA, 1986; Wendell Scott Foundation and Scholarship Fund, 1986; Early Dirt Racers Driver of the Year Award, 1990; Wendell Scott Day, Danville, VA, 1990; mourned and honored by the General Assembly of Virginia, January 16, 1991.

 
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