The only black driver to win at NASCAR’s highest level never got a proper celebration in Victory Lane. Wendell Scott beat the field in a 200-mile race in 1963, but as the story goes, NASCAR officials were worried about how the predominantly white crowd in Jacksonville might react to seeing a black man hoist the winner’s trophy. Buck Baker was declared the winner, and only after two hours of review – with the crowd long gone – was a “scoring error” detected and Scott named the official winner. Nearly four decades later, NASCAR still hasn’t seen a black driver celebrate in Victory Lane, mostly because blacks remain a rarity in stock-car racing. Through the years, a smattering of black drivers, owners and crewmen – driver Willy T. Ribbs, car owners Thee Dixon, Reggie Jackson and Dennis Green, Busch series crew chief Tim Shutt – have taken turns working in NASCAR garages or trying to own NASCAR teams, all with middling degrees of success, at best. Currently, the only black driver participating in any of NASCAR’s national-level circuits is truck driver Bill Lester. Yearning for a chance to start a team are black men like Herbie Bagwell [www.bagwellmotorsportsinc.com] of Bridgeport, Conn. Bagwell, who says he’s a qualified driver, has been working the phones and soliciting on the Internet trying to find sponsors for a team that could eventually make it to Winston Cup. He says he’s not looking for any handouts from NASCAR, but is surprised at the reluctance he encounters from sponsors. Headline sponsors pay up to $15 million a season to put their logo on cars in Winston Cup, but drivers can get in at the lower levels of racing for about $300,000. “NASCAR is not responsible for putting African Americans behind the wheel,” Bagwell said. “We need to help ourselves. We have resources. I’m a qualified driver and a qualified businessman.”(full story at ThatsRacin.com/AP)(12-25-2002)
