As the 2015 nominees for the NASCAR Hall of Fame were announced on February 21, I began putting together my list of hopefuls for induction. Wendell Scott’s name immediately came to mind.
He was selected as a nominee for the 2013 class but even before then, his worthiness has often been a subject of debate. If you look only at his statistics, you may agree that he falls short of Hall of Fame status. In a career that spanned 13 years and 495 races in what is now the Sprint Cup Series, he has one win, 20 top-fives and 147 top-10 finishes.
But if you dig deeper, it’s obvious that the numbers do not tell the whole story.
In some ways, his story is not so different from the grass roots racers who built this sport. Like many others, Scott raced in inferior equipment with little or no financial backing. He raced because from the moment he strapped into a racecar, he was hooked.
But his story diverges from other racers when you add in the discrimination he faced each time he chose to get into a car and compete. Most of the people didn’t want him there and that included the fans, track promoters and other drivers. His tires were slashed and rules were fabricated to discourage him.
One of the most glaring examples of this animosity happened when he won his first race. Buck Baker was initially named as the winner of the race. Officials eventually admitted their “scoring error” and declared Scott as the winner.
But the truth is that it wasn’t a mistake in scoring at all. It was simply a way for the track owner to avoid the backlash from a black driver kissing a white trophy queen during the victory celebration.
Scott never got to accept the winner’s trophy. In fact, it wasn’t until October 2010 that NASCAR presented the trophy to Scott’s family.
It would be easy to speculate on what he could have accomplished…if only. But Hall of Fame honors aren’t handed out for what could have been.
How do you measure a man’s (or woman’s) worth in this sport?
It’s not only about wins and championships. If that was the case we wouldn’t need a voting committee. They also consider the contributions and impact a person has on the sport.
Scott is the only African-American to ever win a Cup race in NASCAR. That alone should guarantee him a place in the Hall of Fame. However, this particular achievement is not only his biggest accomplishment but his detractors would add that it is also his biggest failure.
If his win made such an impact, they ask, why did we have to wait almost 50 years for another African-American driver to win a NASCAR national series race?
Maybe it has less to do with his impact and more to do with the perception of those doing the judging.
Maybe his impact seems diminished only through the eyes of a sport whose roots are firmly entrenched in the antiquated traditions of the good old days. Just ask NASCAR’s appointed king, Richard Petty, who recently questioned the role of women in NASCAR.
NASCAR will tell you they are fully invested in expanding the sport through institutions like their Drive for Diversity program and I have no reason to doubt their sincerity. But is it enough? Despite their efforts, does NASCAR truly reflect the America we live in today?
Perhaps the importance of someone like Wendell Scott is not apparent because of some perceived failure on his part to inspire but simply because change takes time.
I would also suggest that the members of the voting committee are asking the right questions but are looking for the answers in the wrong places. If you want to measure Scott’s influence, speak to the African American community. How many youngsters watched him and said, ‘if he can do it, maybe I can too.’ How many have tried and failed? Is success the yardstick by which we measure his influence?
Shouldn’t we be asking, how many would have never tried if not for someone like Wendell Scott?
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