NASCAR Documentary on Wendell Scott

An ESPN-produced documentary highlights part of NASCAR’s rich history
Michelle Boudin,
Courtesy NASCAR Media Group
For the movie, the production team re-created Scott’s number 7 racecar, which he drove when he won the Jacksonville, Florida race in 1963.

NASCAR naturally brings to mind a few names. Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty. But Wendell Scott? Not likely. Scott is the sport’s first and only African American driver to win a race (it was in 1963 in Jacksonville, Florida) and the NASCAR Media Group is telling his story in a documentary produced by Max Siegel and ESPN, RACE: The Wendell Scott Story, that will air in mid-February during Black History Month. Filmmakers shot in and around the Charlotte area this past fall, and they re-created the dirt track where Scott won the race. “His story has gone untold for many years,” says Jay Abraham, the head of NASCAR Media Group. “People never really recognized he was a good driver.”

This article appears in the February 2011 issue of Charlotte magazine.

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