Hard Driving: The Wendell Scott Story »

Brian Donovan, a former Newsday investigative reporter, has won more than forty journalism awards, including the Pulitzer Prize and Columbia University’s Paul Tobenkin Award for reporting on racial and ethnic intolerance. Driving on the EMRA Vanderbilt Cup circuit, he has won a season championship, as well as a track championship at Pennsylvania’s Pocono Raceway and dozens of races from Canada to West Virginia. He gained exclusive access to Wendell Scott over the last fourteen months of his life and interviewed more than two hundred individuals to capture this epic, previously untold American story. He lives on Long Island.

Hard Driving is the dramatic story of one man’s dogged determination to live the life he loved, and to compete, despite daunting obstacles, at the highest level of his sport.
Wendell Scott figured he was signing up for trouble when he became nascar’s version of Jackie Robinson in the segregated 1950s. Some speedways refused to let him race. “Go home, nigger,” spectators yelled. And after a bigoted promoter refused to pay him, Scott appealed directly to the sport’s founder, nascar czar Bill France Sr.
France made a promise Scott would never forget – that nascar would never treat him with prejudice.
For the next two decades, Scott chased a dream whose fulfillment depended on France backing up that promise. Persevering through crashes, health problems, and money troubles, Scott remained convinced he had the talent to become one of nascar’s best. Hard Driving documents a previously untold chapter in the history of integration, politics, and sports in America. It reveals how France, founder of the multibillion-dollar nascar empire, reneged on his pledge and allowed repeated discrimination against Scott by racing officials and other powerful figures. It details France’s alliances with leading segregationist politicians such as George Wallace, the reluctance of auto executives such as Lee Iacocca to sponsor a black driver; and the inspiring support Scott received from white drivers such as nascar champions Ned Jarrett and Richard Petty, who admired his skill and tenacity.

Publishers Weekly

In this excellent biography, Donovan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper reporter and seasoned race car driver, recounts the overlooked life of Wendell Scott, the one-time Danville, Va., moonshine runner who broke the color barrier in stock-car racing in 1952 and competed for more than 20 years in a sport dominated by Southern whites. Scott, despite never having the backing of big automakers to put him in a top-notch car, finished many NASCAR races and season standings in the top 10. He won a Grand National event in Jacksonville, Fla., in 1963, a race in which officials initially tried to deny Scott the trophy because it meant he would be entitled to kiss the white race queen. Scott survived with soft-spoken manners, avoiding confrontation with those who resented him by driving conservatively to avoid collisions that would have raised the ire of white drivers and fans. He was an excellent mechanic who cobbled together subpar engines as best he could and often lived on the edge of bankruptcy. Donovan's writing is well-paced and measured, clearly depicting the complex atmosphere of race relations in the segregated South. His extensive reporting, including interviews with Scott before he died in 1990, combined with his descriptive and enjoyable prose about racing, make this book a deeply compelling story. (Aug.)

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Prologue 1

1 Didn't no black kids have no bicycles 7

2 I don't never want to punch no clock 14

3 A hard, nasty business 21

4 Judge, it couldn't have been me 28

5 Let me see how you doin' them turns 35

6 He had to be tough-skinned 41

7 I said, 'Well, I won the steaks 48

8 You're going to be knocked around 55

9 The more you do it, the more you like to do it 64

10 He knew just how to hit me 71

11 If he had the power, he'd come on at you 81

12 We're movin' up 89

13 They didn't want to use the word Wendell 93

14 A standoffish position 99

15 He hid the pain so well 105

16 Man, I come a long way 117

17 They took all the kick out of it 127

18 I just knew Ford was going to do something for me 136

19 How come way out here? 144

20 We used to be the cleanup boys 152

21 I'll get it done, Bill 161

22 You're not gonna miss that li'l ol' wheel 168

23 I'm going to show them 176

24 The funds was just not there 185

25 I know my place now 192

26 We will not forget 197

27 It was about wore out 202

28 I'm gonna wreck him 210

29 A chance to win one 214

30 Just dreaming 223

31 And the crowd laughed 233

32 He put all his chips on the table 239

33 What's the purpose? 245

34 Business is business 250

35 I couldn't drive like he drove 261

36 I saw a different Wendell 270

37 Hope for the best 277

Epilogue 284

Acknowledgments 289

Notes 292

Index 301