Wendell Scott
Scott in 1970
Born	Wendell Oliver Scott (1921-08-29)August 29, 1921 Danville, Virginia, U.S.
Died	December 23, 1990(1990-12-23) (aged 69) Danville, Virginia, U.S.
Cause of death	Spinal cancer
Achievements	First African-AmericanNASCAR driver First African-American winner in theNASCAR Grand National Series
Awards	International Motorsports Hall of Fame (1999) NASCAR Hall of Fame (2015)
NASCARCup Series career
495 races run over 13 years
Best finish	6th (1966)
First race	1961 Spartanburg 200 (Spartanburg)
Last race	1973National 500 (Charlotte)
First win	1964 Jacksonville 200 (Jacksonville)
Wins Top tens Poles 1 147 1
NASCARGrand National East Series career
17 races run over 2 years
Best finish	7th (1972)
First race	1972Bold City 200 (Jacksonville)
Last race	1973Buddy Shuman 100 (Hickory)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 5 0

Wendell Oliver Scott Sr. (August 29, 1921 – December 23, 1990) was an Americanstock car racing driver. He was the first African-American driver and team owner to compete and win in all divisions ofNASCAR at its highest level.

Scott began his racing career in local circuits in the late 1940s and obtained his NASCAR license in 1953, making him the first African-American ever to compete in NASCAR.^[1] He debuted in theGrand National Series (NASCAR highest level) on March 4, 1961, inSpartanburg, South Carolina.^[2] On December 1, 1963, he won a Grand National Series race atSpeedway Park inJacksonville, Florida, becoming the first black driver and team owner to win at NASCAR's premier level.^[3] Scott's career was repeatedly affected by racial prejudice including being poisoned (Dover) and death threats (Spartanburg,Darlington,Talladega,Jacksonville, andDaytona).^[4][5] Despite these challenges he continued to compete and was posthumously inducted into theInternational Motorsports Hall of Fame &NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2015.^[6][7]

Scott was born inDanville, Virginia, a town dominated by cotton mills and tobacco-processing plants. Scott vowed as a youth to avoid such labor, and 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 duringWorld War II.^[8] He married Mary Coles in 1943; they had seven children.^[9]

After the war, he ran an auto-repair shop. As a sideline, he took up the dangerous and illegal pursuit ofrunning moonshine whiskey. The police caught Scott once, in 1949. Sentenced to three yearsprobation, he continued making his late-night whiskey runs.^[10]

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 aNASCAR-sanctioned event inWinston-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 inHigh 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 atLynchburg, Virginia, only 12 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 among his fellow drivers. These other drivers would serve as his bodyguards at events with racist fans.^[11]

Scott began the 1953 season on the Northern Virginia circuit after winning a feature race inStaunton, Virginia. He subsequently tied theWaynesboro, Virginia, qualifying record and won the Waynesboro feature race. TheWaynesboro News Virginian reported that Scott had become "recognized as one of the most popular drivers to appear here".^{[citation needed]} TheStaunton News Leader wrote he "has been among the top drivers in every race here".^{[citation needed]}

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'sSouthside Speedway.^[12]

In 1961, he moved up to theGrand National Series. He achieved the most points for a debutant in 1961.^[8] In the 1964 season, he finished 15th in points, and on December 1, 1963,^[13] driving aChevrolet Bel Air that he purchased fromNed Jarrett, he won a race on the half-mile dirt track atSpeedway Park inJacksonville, Florida—the first Grand National event won by anAfrican American. Scott passedRichard 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.^[13] NASCAR awarded Scott the win afterwards, 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][14]

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.^[8] 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 wonUS$47,451.^[15]

Scott was forced to retire due to injuries from a racing accident atTalladega, Alabama, in 1973, although he did make one more start at the1973 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, inDanville, Virginia, having suffered fromspinal cancer.^[16]

Scott's wife, Mary, drove the truck that transported his car, and the pair and their seven children attended races. His daughter, Sybil, went on to become a consultant forNASCAR's Drive for Diversity campaign, which attempts to increase the number of women and minorities in the sport, both on the track and in the stands.^[13][17] His son, Wendell Jr., died in 2022.^[18]

The filmGreased Lightning, starringRichard Pryor as Scott, was based loosely on Scott's biography.^[19]

Mojo Nixon, a fellowDanville native, wrote a tribute song titled "The Ballad of Wendell Scott", which appears on Nixon andSkid Roper's 1986 album,Frenzy.

Scott was inducted as a member of the 2000 class ofThe Virginia Sports Hall of Fame and Museum located inPortsmouth, VA.^[20] He also has a street named after him in his hometown of Danville.

Only seven otherAfrican-American drivers are known to have started at least one race in what is now theCup Series:Elias Bowie,Charlie Scott,George Wiltshire,Randy Bethea,Willy T. Ribbs,Bill Lester, and most recentlyBubba Wallace.^[21]

As reported inThe Washington Post, filmmaker John W. Warner began directing a documentary about Scott, titledThe Wendell Scott Story, which was to be released in 2003 with narration by the filmmaker's father, former U.S. SenatorJohn Warner but instead Warner created a four-setDVD entitledAmerican Stock: The Golden Era of NASCAR: 1936-to-1971 which documents many racers including Scott.^[22] The film included interviews with fellow race-car drivers, includingRichard Petty.

Scott is prominently featured in the 1975 bookThe World's Number One, Flat-Out, All-Time Great Stock Car Racing Book, written byJerry Bledsoe.

A biography about Scott's life, titledHard Driving: The Wendell Scott Story, was written by journalistBrian Donovan. It was released in 2008.

In April 2012, Scott was nominated for inclusion in theNASCAR Hall of Fame,^[23] and was selected for induction in the 2015 class, in May 2014.^[24] In January 2013, Scott was awarded ahistorical 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”.^[25] 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 2017Pixar filmCars 3. He is portrayed byIsiah Whitlock Jr. in the form of ananthropomorphized car, with his name changed to River Scott.

A fictionalized version of Scott early in his career in 1955 was featured heavily onTimeless 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.^[26]

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time.Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

• Wendell Scott Foundation
• Wendell Scott driver statistics at Racing-Reference
• Omission of a Nascar Pioneer Stirs a Debate, New York Times, 8/19/09
• Wendell Scott atFind a Grave

• 1921 births
• 1990 deaths
• Sportspeople from Danville, Virginia
• People from Danville, Virginia
• Racing drivers from Virginia
• African-American racing drivers
• United States Army personnel of World War II
• NASCAR drivers
• American Speed Association drivers
• Deaths from spinal cancer
• African-American United States Army personnel
• Deaths from cancer in Virginia
• Neurological disease deaths in Virginia
• 20th-century African-American sportsmen
• African Americans in World War II
• NASCAR Hall of Fame inductees

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