Scott worthy of a spot in NASCAR hall

Danville’s Wendell Scott won’t be in the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s inaugural class — and it might take a few years before it gets around to honoring him.

But it will be worth the wait.

Scott was to NASCAR what Jackie Robinson was to Major League Baseball. He broke the color barrier in professional stock car racing.

But Scott’s career in the Grand National and Winston Cup Series — now called the Sprint Cup Series — was run on a shoestring budget. By all accounts, Scott was a good driver, but any black man competing in a white-dominated sport based in the South during the civil rights era would have had trouble.

Even the highlight of Scott’s Grand National career — his Dec. 1, 1963, victory at Speedway Park in Jacksonville, Fla. — came with an asterisk. Scott won the race by two laps but wasn’t recognized as the winner until three hours later.

Those kinds of indignities were common during that time. It was an era of great social change, and Scott’s presence was certainly not welcome on many tracks. He persevered for the love of the sport, though.

To this day, Wendell Scott remains the only black to win a top-tier NASCAR race.

“He was one of the courageous racial pioneers, back in a time when it could be dangerous,” said Brian Donovan, author of a new book about Scott called, “Hard Driving.” “… I found, over and over again, that Wendell won a lot of support from white people … (who) soon learned he was not there to make a political statement. He just loved fast cars and driving.”

Scott has already been honored by more than a dozen halls of fame, including the National Sports Hall of Fame, International Motorsport Hall of Fame, Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame and the Danville Register & Bee Hall of Fame.

Eventually, the NASCAR Hall of Fame will come around and Wendell Scott will be inducted.

Buz McKim, the Hall of Fame’s historian, said Saturday in Martinsville that although Scott wasn’t inducted this year, his career will be showcased in the Hall of Fame’s museum. “He was awesome,” McKim said. “As kids, we realized he was special … I have no doubt one day he’ll be in it.”

No doubt, Scott will continue to receive the recognition for his work in stock car racing. He faced down long odds, hostile drivers, angry fans and indifferent sponsors to carve out an impressive, hall-of-fame career. Eventually, the NASCAR Hall of Fame will see it that way, too.