NASCAR Hall of Fame nominations ignore history again

NASCAR announced the latest five names for consideration for the 2012 class of the Hall of Fame Tuesday night. They joined the 20 names not chosen in last year’s class.

Driver Bobby Isaac, driver/owner Cotton Owens, crew chief/co-owner Leonard Wood, NASCAR executive Les Richter and Martinsville Speedway founder H. Clay Earles were announced as the five who will round out the list of 25 nominees. The five were chosen by a 21 member panel of NASCAR and Hall of Fame executives and track promoters. They will be joined by 34 others from across NASCAR on June 14th and this 55 member committee will chose the final five.

The five names announced Tuesday were pioneers in the respective areas of NASCAR; on the track, in the pits and around the track. No doubt all deserve the fame and recognition that comes with induction into NASCAR’s Hall of Fame.

Wendell Scott was a pioneer as well. As NASCAR’s first and to date, only full time black driver, Scott raced at a time when NASCAR was still firmly entrenched in the South, with everything bad and good that southern tradition had to offer.

Scott endured a great deal more than other drivers of his era; funding was just the tip of the iceberg. He was ostracized because of his color by many in the NASCAR garage and even banned from some tracks, including the famed Darlington Raceway.

Yet he soldiered on and in a career spanning 13 years Scott, with very little money, managed 147 top-10 finishes and one victory in NASCAR’s top tier series, what is now known as the Sprint Cup Series. Scott finished sixth in the championship points standings in 1966. He retired from NASCAR in 1973 after a near fatal crash at Talladega Superspeedway and lived out his days racing on the short tracks around the south he cut his teeth on.

NASCAR has tried to shed parts of its southern roots over the last decade. They now have drivers from all over the country and the world; race on tracks from the east coast of America to the west, yet no black driver has raced full time in the top touring series of NASCAR since Scott.

In 2004 NASCAR began its Drive for Diversity program. The goal of the program was to recruit young minority and female drivers who would be developed and eventually move up in the ranks, giving NASCAR the diversity in the top tier series it currently lacks. In the seven years of its existence however no Drive for Diversity driver has raced fulltime in NASCAR.

And since 2009 when the Hall of Fame classes were started, Wendell Scott’s name has been absent from the lists.

If the Drive for Diversity program ever succeeds, or a black driver can work their way into NASCAR fulltime, they can look back in NASCAR’s history and know they weren’t the first. The groundwork was laid in the 13 years a black man and former taxi driver from Danville Virginia raced and won against all odds.

And until NASCAR and its Hall of Fame acknowledges that achievement, history may show that the world’s largest stock car racing sanctioning body hasn’t come very far from its southern roots after all.

2012 NASCAR Hall of Fame Nominees

• Buck Baker, first driver to win consecutive Cup championships

• Red Byron, first Cup champion, in 1949

• Richard Childress, 11-time car owner champion in NASCAR's three national series

• Jerry Cook, six-time Modified champion

• H. Clay Earles, founder of Martinsville Speedway

• Richie Evans, nine-time Modified champion

• Tim Flock, two-time Cup champion

• Rick Hendrick, 12-time car owner champion in NASCAR's three national series

• Jack Ingram, two-time Busch champion

• Dale Inman, eight-time Cup championship crew chief

• Bobby Isaac, 1970 Cup champion