NASCAR, Front Row Motorsports, Kyle Busch Motorsports and Martinsville Speedway announced today they will honor 2015 NASCAR Hall of Fame Inductee Wendell Scott, the first African-American driver to win a NASCAR premier series event, with a series of tributes during the Martinsville race weekend from Oct. 24-26. Kyle Busch Motorsports will change the number of Darrell Wallace Jr.’s truck from 54 to 34 in honor of Scott. A NASCAR Drive for Diversity graduate, Wallace became the first African-American to win a NASCAR national series race since Scott’s historic 1963 triumph when he captured the checkered flag in last season’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Kroger 200 at Martinsville.(NASCAR)(See an image of the truck on the #54 Team Paint Schemes page).(9-16-2014)
UPDATE: Darrell Wallace, Jr. enters this weekend’s Kroger 200 at Martinsville Speedway as the defending race winner after etching his name in history last October when he won his first National Series race and became the first African American to win a NASCAR premier series race since Wendell Scott in 1963. Wallace has recorded three starts at the half-mile paperclip track, earning one win and never finishing outside the top five. This weekend Kyle Busch Motorsports, NASCAR and Front Row Motorsports will honor 2015 Hall of Fame Inductee Wendell Scott with various tributes throughout the race weekend at Martinsville Speedway. Scott became the first African American to run in NASCAR’s premier series, and the first to win a race in a NASCAR premier series when he visited Victory Lane at Jacksonville Speedway on December 1, 1963. To honor Scott and his induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Darrell Wallace, Jr.’s #54 Toyota Tundra will temporarily change to the #34 Toyota Tundra, the number run by Scott throughout his career, and the paint scheme will be reminiscent of the blue and white scheme Scott drove. In addition to the number and paint scheme change, Wallace will sport a throwback firesuit for the Kroger 200.(Kyle Busch Motorsports)
