Diversity Issue Continues To Nag At Nascar Stock Car Racing Remains A Sport For White Drivers And Crews

NASCAR, one of the fastest growing spectator sports in the country, remains one of the least diverse.

From the Saturday night tracks in small towns to the superspeedways of Winston Cup, in nearly every case the drivers are white, the pit crews are white, the officials are white and the overwhelming majority of fans are white.

“Here we are, moving into a new millennium, and auto racing still looks like 1939 baseball,” said Willy T. Ribbs, a black driver from California who raced in the big time once, and is trying to get there again.

The question of race is not one that concerns the leader of NASCAR, The Charlotte Observer reported Sunday.

“We don’t view that as an issue,” said Bill France Jr., the longtime president of NASCAR. “America is what America is today. Anybody can be anything regardless of your race or your national origin … You can’t cast a wand and make everything happen that somebody wants to happen.”

In the 50 years of NASCAR history, six black drivers made it to Winston Cup, stock car racing’s top category. Only one ever won a race.

One handicap to attracting a black driver is that many drivers are born into the sport.

Of today’s top drivers, 12 are brothers, and at least 14 others have a family legacy in motorsports: Steve Grissom’s father owned race cars; Bobby Hamilton’s father and grandfather built cars; Ted Musgrave, Ken Schrader, Sterling Marlin, Dale Jarrett - their fathers all raced. Kyle Petty’s father and grandfather raced.

By that criteria, the Wendell Scott family should have made it. It’s been 25 years since Scott came close to changing the sport, running with secondhand equipment, two of his sons as pit crew and barely enough money to get home.

Scott was talented and fearless.

“Had the sport offered some more help to the Scotts, others would have been inspired by us in another generation,” Scott’s son, Wendell Jr., said. “They nipped it in the bud.”

The Scotts, like other big drivers, got their start running street stock and modifieds. In 1959, Scott won the Virginia championship. Two years later, he made it to Grand National (today’s Winston Cup). In his first race, he qualified ninth.

It was 1961. When black people came to the track to see Scott, they had to sit in a separate section. For a while at Darlington, S.C., speedway officials wouldn’t let a black driver enter the race. Other speedways let Scott race, but made it difficult. Once, at Bristol, Tenn., officials tried to disqualify him because his pit crew - his sons - had beards.

Scott finished fifth in a field of 33 at Bristol.

In 1963, Scott won the race at Jacksonville, Fla., but the officials gave another driver the trophy because they worried the crowd wouldn’t stand for a black man in the winner’s circle. After the fans left, officials gave Scott the win, so when he was awarded the only Grand National victory of his career, the grandstand was empty.

A serious injury at Talladega in 1973 ended Scott’s career.

NASCAR drivers can testify how hard it is to get a sponsor. Ribbs believes that corporations are even less willing to risk their marketing millions on black drivers.

Even the team owned by Joe Washington and Julius Erving, former NFL and NBA players who recently started the first wholly minority-owned team in 25 years, said it can’t promise to put a black driver behind the wheel just to have a black driver on the track.

“To get in a Winston Cup car is dangerous,” Kathy Thompson, a partner with the Washington-Erving team, said. “I wouldn’t want to drive against Dale Earnhardt or Jeff Gordon without experience. That’s suicide. I wouldn’t want that on my conscience, somebody getting out there that wasn’t ready.”