Baseball gives NASCAR a lesson in cherishing a pioneer

OK, NASCAR, it’s your turn: When’s Wendell Scott day?

And if your first thought is “Wendell who?” that’s a pretty good indication the racing community needs to do a better job recognizing the pioneering efforts of the first – and only – black man to win a race in NASCAR’s top series.

Sunday, major league baseball honored the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s debut.

Now it’s time for NASCAR to honor Scott, who faced his own difficult journey in breaking down a racial barrier.

“Time has passed to pay tribute to him,” said Lowe’s Motor Speedway president H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler.

“Obviously, Wendell Scott has been a guy who’s one of NASCAR’s pioneers,” spokesman Ramsey Poston said.

Bill Lester, who last year became the first black driver to compete in NASCAR’s top series in 20 years, grew up watching Indy-style racing and admits he didn’t know much about Scott when he came to NASCAR.

Since then, Lester has gotten to know Scott’s widow, Mary, and his children.

“I have gotten to gain a late appreciation of (Scott),” Lester said. “I can only imagine what it would have been like to be in his shoes.”

Scott, a taxi driver and auto mechanic from rural Virginia, started racing in 1947, the same year Robinson broke into baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Some estimates say he won more than 200 races in the minor leagues. Wheeler said when Scott competed at Bowman-Gray Stadium during segregation, the black grandstands were full.

Scott finally broke into NASCAR’s top series, then the Grand National, in 1961.

The true depth of his struggle for respect in an overwhelmingly white sport – another black driver, Charlie Scott, raced on the sands of Daytona Beach in 1956 – aren’t widely known; NASCAR wasn’t in the same media spotlight as baseball at the time and Scott wasn’t one to complain.

“He was a very gentle person,” said Wheeler. “He was very tenacious, but he didn’t show it. You could not get the man down.”

Racial issues aside, Wheeler was most impressed by the fact Scott never got frustrated trying to take on well-funded stars on a shoestring budget. Wheeler said Scott “had to be a master of the junkyard” just to make it to the track.

Scott only won once, but even his victory didn’t come without controversy.

Scott clearly won Dec. 1, 1963, at Speedway Park in Jacksonville, Fla., perhaps as many as three laps ahead of second. But officials declared another driver the winner, only later recognizing Scott as the winner and attributing the mix-up to a “scoring error.”

But Scott endured, starting 495 career races and finishing in the top 10 in points three times. His career came to an end after a crash at Talladega Superspeedway in 1973.