Wendell Oliver Scott (August 29, 1921 – December 23, 1990) was an American stock car racing driver. He was one of the first African-American drivers in NASCAR, and the first African-American to win a race in the Grand National Series, NASCAR's highest level. Here, Scott is on the set of a movie about his life and career - "Greased Lightning" starring Richard Pryor as Wendell Scott.
Scott was around thirty years old when he was sitting in the bleachers of local speedways, watching white men race. Up to then, he had lived his whole life under rules of segregation. The Danville races were run by the Dixie Circuit, one of several regional racing organizations that competed with NASCAR during that era. Danville's events always made less money than the Dixie Circuit's races at other tracks. "We were a tobacco and textile town – people didn't have the money to spend," said Aubrey Ferrell, one of the organizers. The officials decided they would try an unusual, and unprecedented, promotional gimmick: They would recruit a Negro driver. The next day, however, brought the first of many episodes of discrimination that would plague his racing career. Scott repaired his car with the help of a black mechanic, Hiram Kincaid, who previously worked with Ned Jarrett, and lived in North Carolina and towed it to a NASCAR-sanctioned race in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. But the NASCAR officials refused to let him compete. Black drivers were not allowed, they said. As he drove home, Scott recalled, "I had tears in my eyes." A few days later he went to another NASCAR event in High Point, North Carolina. Again, Scott said, the officials "just flat told me I couldn't race. They told me I could let a white boy drive my car. I told 'em weren't no damn white boy going to drive my car." 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 at Lynchburg, Virginia, only twelve days into his racing career. It was just a short heat race in the amateur class, but for Scott, the victory was like a barb on a hook. He knew that he had found his calling. He ran as many as five events a week, mostly at Virginia tracks. Some spectators would shout racial slurs, but many others began rooting for him. Some prejudiced drivers would wreck him deliberately.
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Photo credit: © Ken Hawkins / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
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Keywords: 34, 1977, african, american, black, car, colored, cup, drive, driver, driving, grand, greased, lightning, minority, movie, nascar, national, negro, plymouth, race, racetrack, raceway, racist, scott, stock, wendell, win, winner, winning, winston
