Wendell Scott Biography

1921-1990

American race car driver

Wendell Scott had a lot working against him in his career as a Grand National NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) driver. He was an independent driver racing against factory-backed drivers. This meant he never drove a new car, often buying last

Wendell Scott

year's cars from competitors. He drove without sponsorship, sometimes making the trip to a race hoping to win back the expense of traveling to that particular race. His biggest obstacle though was being a black man in a white man's sport. He was blocked from some races, denied the promised compensation at others, and was sometimes run off the track because of his skin color. Scott never let this stop him, and despite the odds stacked against him he was an excellent driver who often made a showing. He won 128 races in the lower Sportsmen division. In Grand National races, he finished in the top five twenty times and won once. Shav Glick reported in the Los Angeles Times the following quote from Scott, "Once I found out what it was like, racing was all I wanted to do as long as I could make a decent living out of it.… I'm no different from most other people who're doing what they like to do."