Getty Daniel Suarez honors Wendell Scott with a special decal in Las Vegas.
On Dec. 1, 1963, NASCAR driver Wendell Scott captured the first win of his career at the top level of stock car racing. He won the 1964 Jacksonville 200 but did not receive his trophy. Nearly 60 years later, NASCAR is fixing this mistake.
The Wendell Scott Foundation made a Facebook post on Thursday, Aug. 5, revealing that NASCAR held a special event to honor the late Hall of Famer. The sanctioning body announced during the event that the Scott family will officially receive the trophy for the 1963 Grand National Series win. NASCAR will do so during the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on Aug. 28.
Had the pleasure tonite of attending an event in Danville, VA where @NASCAR announced that on 8/28 at @DAYTONA they will properly recognize @WendellScott_34, the 1st African American to win a nascar race. He will finally get his trophy! Shoutout to Warrick and the Scott family!
Following Scott’s win in 1963, NASCAR originally awarded the race trophy to runner-up Buck Baker. Scott, on the other hand, had to drive two extra laps. Officials initially dubbed Scott as the third-place finisher but later gave him the win, saying that there was a “clerical error.”
Scott Broke Barriers During His NASCAR Career
While he only won one race at NASCAR’s top level, Scott broke barriers throughout his career. He started 495 races over 13 years, posting 20 top-five finishes. This list includes the 1964 season where he cracked the top five eight separate times.
Prior to cracking the top series and becoming the first Black driver to earn a NASCAR license, Scott began racing in the regional circuits in the 1950s. He racked up dozens of wins before making his debut in the Cup Series in 1961 at Piedmont Interstate Fairgrounds in Spartanburg, SC.
The late driver continued racing into his 50s, competing in both what is now the Cup Series and the Grand National East Series. In 2015, NASCAR media members recognized Scott’s impact on motorsports, inducting him into the Hall of Fame.
Multiple NASCAR Drivers Have Made Tributes to Scott
GettyBubba Wallace honors Wendell Scott with a throwback paint scheme.
Scott passed away in 1990 due to spinal cancer, but his legacy lives on in NASCAR. Several drivers have taken steps to honor his memory over the years in a variety of ways, including using decals and full paint schemes.
For example, multiple drivers put special decals honoring Scott on their respective stock cars during a March 2021 trip to Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Truck Series driver John Hunter Nemechek, Kyle Larson, and Daniel Suarez were all among this group. Similarly, former Cup Series driver David Ragan used a 2014 race at Martinsville as an opportunity to put Scott’s powder blue paint scheme on his No. 34 Ford Fusion.
23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace has used two separate races to honor Scott. He drove the No. 34 2015 NASCAR Hall of Fame Inductee Wendell Scott Toyota during the 2014 Kroger 200 at Martinsville, taking the checkered flag in the process. Wallace then used Throwback Weekend at Darlington Raceway to showcase another Scott tribute scheme.
The driver of the No. 23 Toyota Camry suited up for the May 9 race and lined up in the 23rd position. He faced off with several of his peers and raced his way to a 21st-place finish while Martin Truex Jr. swept all three stages.
Wallace’s day at Darlington was not without incident. He made contact with the rear of Kurt Busch’s No. 1 Monster Energy Chevrolet Camaro and sent it spinning into the inside wall. The collision destroyed Busch’s ride and sent him to the garage while Wallace’s No. 23 suffered front-end damage.
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NASCAR Makes Major Decision About Wendell Scott’s 1963 Trophy