Among all the trophies Wendell Scott won in his racing career, there is one that will forever be his legacy to the sport he loved.
It isn't much to look at, just some off-color wood with no plaque or varnish or glitzy, gimmicky metalwork. It pales in comparison to the gleaming, brightly polished trophies is sits among.
But that piece of wood, battered and beaten and sorry compared to the others, is the symbol of Scott's greatest day as a racing driver. It was Dec. 1, 1963, the day he won a NASCAR Grand National event in Jacksonville, Fla. Scott remains to this day the only black driver to have won a Grand National (now Nextel Cup) Series event in NASCAR's 58-year history.
During the 42 years since Scott earned his victory -- which, given the times and the area in which it occurred was not celebrated as victories always have been, in Victory Lane with a trophy queen and photographers -- no black driver has even been close to accomplishing the same feat.
Randy Bethea shocked the NASCAR world in 1973 by knocking Darrell Waltrip off the pole at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, but that was in a Late Model Sportsman event, not Grand National. Willy T. Ribbs, one of the finest road racers in the world, tried out a stock car at Daytona but never qualified for the 500.
That's pretty much been it, in terms of black names in Cup racing on the driving side since Scott won at Jacksonville in 1963. Bill Lester has driven in Craftsman Truck races since 2000.
Scott, who died in 1990, was from Danville, Va., just inside the state line from North Carolina. It was an area rich in history for stock car racers, and also an area where it was not unheard of to run illegal whiskey from town to town in souped-up cars.
Scott was a taxi driver who graduated to running moonshine and eventually to racing stock cars. For any of those jobs, one had to be a master mechanic and a pretty nifty driver. In 1959, at the age of 38, Scott won the Virginia State Sportsman championship. Two years later, Scott was able to field a car for the Grand National Series. In nearly 500 Grand National races, he was in the top 10 an amazing 147 times.
Considering what Scott had to go through to compete in those Grand National races, it is even more amazing. The South in the early 1960s was still in the grips of Jim Crow, Bull Conner and the sort of segregation that we today know only through history books. Even on the day he won in Jacksonville, the pervasive attitude of Southern society at the time prevented him from receiving his due. "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."
Despite racing on a budget that made shoestrings seem expensive, Scott made it work. In 1966, he was a career-best sixth in the points. Through it all, he held his own and competed nose-to-nose with many of the legends whose achievements the present-day NASCAR is built upon.
His driving career ended for all intents and purposes in 1973, when he sustained three cracked ribs, a lacerated arm and a cracked pelvis in a massive 21-car pileup at Talladega Superspeedway. Ramo Stott's blown engine nine laps into the race that day caused the crash, and Scott's Mercury was credited with 55th place (out of 60 starters).
He died Dec. 22, 1990, after a long battle with spinal cancer, some 27 years and 21 days after the biggest victory of his career. He was later elected to the International Motor Sports Hall of Fame, located, ironically, in Talladega, Ala.
"I'm so glad we never gave up," said Scott's widow Mary. "When Ned Jarrett and all of those old drivers came to Scott's funeral, they told us he had the respect of all the drivers. I'd say all of those older guys learned to like him and respect him. They knew he was a genuine person and he stood for what he believed. He didn't give up."
Scott's son, Franklin, said that his father had earned his respect by competing with the best in the business and never giving an inch despite the fact that he was at a huge disadvantage in both finances and resources. As his father's crew chief, Franklin didn't get to see his dad win at Jacksonville, having stayed behind to play in a high school football game that weekend.
"I'll never forget it," Franklin Scott said. "I was playing football that weekend and I was home and got on the bus and a guy on the bus, a friend of mine who was a real joker, said, 'Your dad won a race today.' I said, 'Yeah, sure.' And he said, 'No, your old man won today.' I still didn't believe him."
Wendell had won the race, by two laps over Buck Baker, but NASCAR waved the checkered flag over Baker and awarded him the trophy. Hours later, NASCAR officials told him he really did win the race. "My dad went off then," Franklin Scott said. "He said, 'Give me my damn money.' Buck got the real trophy. The thing we got was junk. They gave us a trophy about a month later at Savannah. But it wasn't the real thing."
While it didn't make much sense to Franklin at the time, it did later. It was racism, pure and simple. "I guess it all was just a sign of the times." he said. "The opportunity for a black man to race just wasn't there. He overcame many hurdles and he never let it faze him to the point where it made him hostile. I don't know how he was able to do that. It was difficult for me when I would see a lot of the things I wouldn't understand why my daddy didn't put them in the wall. I thought he was afraid. He wasn't afraid ... he was thinking about the next race."
While there were many similar incidents over the years, one stands out to Franklin. In 1962, Jack Smith watched Wendell shatter his track record at Savannah, Ga., in a car Scott bought from Jarrett. Smith marched over to Scott's pit and told him that he would drive right through Scott's car that night in the race. Scott finished second to Jarrett that night, and though Smith didn't apologize to Scott, Joe Weatherly did. "Joe Weatherly came to our pits after the race," Franklin remembered. "He said, 'Wendell, I just came to apologize for the rest of the stupid SOBs.' "
According to Franklin Scott, Smith kept at it until one day Wendell had enough. "He [Smith] had wrecked us up at Winston-Salem and my daddy had had it with him," Franklin recalled. "On the pace lap he pulled up beside Daddy and started pointing his finger at him. We didn't know it but Daddy had his gun with him and he pulled it out and pointed the gun back. We never had trouble with Jack again."
It is hard to imagine something like that happening today. Because of men like Wendell Scott and Randy Bethea, black drivers are getting a chance to prove themselves in the arena of competition. NASCAR and corporate America have awakened to the fact that there are more Wendell Scotts out there, and they are bound and determined to find them.
NASCAR's interest in black drivers growing
Just this year, four black drivers are involved in development programs at some of NASCAR's top teams:
• Chris Bristol, Joe Gibbs Racing• Joe Henderson III, Dodge Weekly Racing Series in Tennessee• Tommy Lane, Evernham Motorsports• 15-year-old Chase Austin, Hendrick Motorsports
Bethea's story is similar to Scott's, although he was still racing as late as 2003.
The now-56-year-old Bethea attended a race with an older brother and was hooked, and soon began to work toward racing as a career. In 1967, he bought his first stock car. Three years later, he was the Tennessee State Champion.
''I was fortunate to grow up exposed to the sport,'' Bethea, who used to watch drivers like Ralph Earnhardt race at Asheville, told Nashville columnist Larry Woody in 2003. ''But a lot of minority kids don't have that same opportunity. They don't have connections to racing. I'm glad to see NASCAR taking an interest in them, and I'd be willing to assist anyone working with a minority team.''
Henderson, who as a youngster was taken to the Fairgrounds track by his father, hopes to race professionally some day. Can he make it?
''He won't know unless he tries,'' Bethea said. ''You've got to get out there and try to do it. That's the only way to find out.''
That's how Bethea did it, and how Scott first crossed the race barrier in NASCAR racing. All of the gains made in recent years can be traced to a single date: Dec. 1, 1963 -- when Wendell Scott won the biggest race of his life.
