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Bill Lester
Lester in 2008
Born	William Alexander Lester III (1961-02-06)February 6, 1961 (age 65) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Achievements	First African-American to win aRolex Sports Car Series race (Virginia International Raceway, 2011, GT Class)
NASCARCup Series career
2 races run over 1 year
Best finish	68th (2006)
First race	2006Golden Corral 500 (Atlanta)
Last race	20063M Performance 400 (Michigan)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 0 0
NASCARO'Reilly Auto Parts Series career
1 race run over 1 year
Best finish	111th (1999)
First race	1999Lysol 200 (Watkins Glen)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 0 0
NASCARCraftsman Truck Series career
143 races run over 9 years
2021 position	89th
Best finish	13th (2003)
First race	2000Line-X 225 (Portland)
Last race	2021Fr8Auctions 200 (Atlanta)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 7 3
Rolex Sports Car Series
Years active	1998–2001, 2007–2012
Starts	52
Wins	1
Poles	2
Best finish	3rd in 2011
Statistics up to date as of December 30, 2021.

William Alexander Lester III (born February 6, 1961) is an American semi-retired professional racing driver. He last competed part-time in theNASCAR Camping World Truck Series, driving the No. 17Ford F-150 forDavid Gilliland Racing. Lester previously competed full-time in the Truck Series from2002 to midway through2007. Lester was the NASCAR's only full-timeAfrican-American driver during that time. After that, he moved tosports car racing, competing in theRolex Sports Car Series from 2007 to 2012. Lester had also competed part-time in the same series from 1998 to 2001.

He also made twoNASCAR Cup Series starts in2006 and oneBusch Series (now Xfinity) start in1999.

Since his retirement from driving, Lester has worked as a member of the NASCAR National Motorsports Appeals Panel.^[1]

He began racing in the road course circuits, running in theSCCA andIMSA series. He made his IMSA debut in 1990 atSears Point International Raceway, qualifying ninth and finishing first in aChevrolet Camaro. He also picked up a victory that year in an endurance race atSears Point. In 1990, he began running the SCCA, running an unsponsoredOldsmobile Cutlass forRocketsports atPortland, and one race forTom Gloy atMid-Ohio. He did not race professionally again until 1996, running SCCA events atWatkins Glen,Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, Sears Point, andReno, Nevada. He competed in the24 Hours of Daytona in 1998 and 1999, finishing fifth and tenth, respectively.

In1999, he became the first African-American to run aBusch Series race, when he ran at Watkins Glen in the No. 8Dura LubeChevrolet Monte Carlo owned byBobby Hillin Jr. He started 24th and ran near a top-ten most of the day before an accident relegated him back to 21st. The next season, he made his Craftsman Truck debut at Portland, starting 31st and finishing 24th in the No. 23Red Line Oil truck owned byTeam 23 Racing. He also competed againstBobby Norfleet in that race, marking the first time in NASCAR two African-Americans competed in the same race. He ran five races the next season in the No. 4 forBobby Hamilton Racing, his best finish an eighteenth atPhoenix International Raceway.

In2002, he ran in the Craftsman Truck series full-time for Hamilton. While he did not finish in the top-ten, he had sixteen finishes between eleventh-eighteenth, leading to a seventeenth place points finish and runner-up toBrendan Gaughan forNASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Rookie of the Year. The next season, he grabbed his first career pole atLowe's Motor Speedway and had a tenth-place run atKansas Speedway, garnering a fourteenth place finish in the championship standings.

He switched over toBill Davis Racing in2004. He had a best finish of tenth and finished 22nd in points. In2005, he won two consecutive poles, and had his first top-five finishes. Lester raced in his first Nextel Cup race in theGolden Corral 500 atAtlanta Motor Speedway, driving the No. 23Waste ManagementDodge Charger for Davis in2006. The race was supposed to be run on March 19, but was postponed for a day due to rain. He qualified nineteenth, becoming the first African-American to make a Cup race since1986, and the sixth in series history. He finished 38th, six laps down. He ran another race that season at Michigan, finishing 32nd. He later DNQed atCalifornia after spinning in qualifying.

After failing to finish in the top-ten in2006, Lester departed Davis to drive the No. 15Billy Ballew Motorsports Chevy. His best finish was an eighth at Kentucky, when he stepped out of the truck due to sponsor problems. After he was unable to find another ride in NASCAR, he left in 2008 to return to sports car racing.

On February 26, 2021, Lester announced onNASCAR Race Hub that he would be coming out of retirement to compete in the Truck Series race at his home track of Atlanta, which was also the same track where he made his Cup Series debut at in 2006.^[2] The team was revealed asDavid Gilliland Racing on March 12, with local Ford dealerships andCamping World as his sponsors.^[3] He finished 36th.

In 2008, Lester drove the No. 3 RileyDaytona Prototype forSouthard Motorsports in theGrand-AmRolex Sports Car Series, partnering withShane Lewis. He moved to Orbit Racing for 2009, finishing third at the summer Daytona race. The next year, Lester moved to a new team inStarworks Motorsport driving the No. 7 BMW Riley for the full season, finishing seventeenth in points.

For 2011, Lester moved to the GT category withAutohaus Motorsports and theirChevrolet Camaro team. On May 14, 2011, Lester made sports car history by becoming the first African-American driver to win in any Grand-Am division. Fittingly, Lester won at theVirginia International Raceway, located close to the home of NASCAR's first African-American winner,Wendell Scott.^[4]

Lester's father isWilliam A. Lester.^[5]

In 1984, he earned aBachelor of Science degree inEECS from theUniversity of California, Berkeley.^[6] Fresh out of college, he worked atHewlett-Packard for 15 years before deciding to focus full-time on auto racing.^[7]

Lester lives inWindermere, Florida with his wife Cheryl, and their sons William Alexander IV (Alex) and Austin Richard.^{[citation needed]}

He published an autobiography,Winning in Reverse, in February 2021.^[8]

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

^* Season still in progress
¹ Ineligible for series points

• Official website
• Bill Lester driver statistics at Racing-Reference

• Living people
• 1961 births
• Racing drivers from Washington, D.C.
• 24 Hours of Daytona drivers
• Rolex Sports Car Series drivers
• NASCAR drivers
• Trans-Am Series drivers
• UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni
• African-American racing drivers
• 21st-century African-American sportsmen
• 20th-century African-American sportsmen
• Starworks Motorsport drivers
• 21st-century American sportsmen
• 20th-century American sportsmen

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• BLP articles lacking sources from February 2021
• All BLP articles lacking sources
• Short description is different from Wikidata
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• Articles with unsourced statements from February 2021