Oscar winner brings his talents to Nascar

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When NASCAR ended its 2020 season, the sport evolved into a very different sport than it did at the start of the season.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the sanctions agency to turn around and try things that were once thought unimaginable. Despite the race without fans, they completed a whole season; staged double titles and events during the week. The pandemic has changed the way the sport works and will no doubt have lasting effects in the future.

But something else has also changed. In dealing with all of the troubles the pandemic brought with it, there was one fundamental shift that swept across the country that had to do with a virus.

America faced the systematic racism that has plagued the nation for generations, and NASCAR has not been immune. Led by the only black driver in the Cup series, Bubba Wallace, NASCAR faced its own racist past. Wallace brought Consciousness to the top of the field after George Floyd’s death, and NASCAR followed suit. The sanctions agency banned the display of the Confederate flag, which many consider to be a symbol of hatred and America’s racist past. And an incident in Talladega shocked those inside and outside the sport, but ended with a demonstration of unity that became a shining symbol of how far NASCAR had come in such a short amount of time.

One of the remnants of NASCAR’s racist past is a story from the early 1960s involving a black man named Wendell Scott. Scott was born in Virginia in 1921, when systematic racism was legal in most of the southern states. After serving as a mechanic during World War II, Scott wanted to race. However, because of his skin color, he was denied entry to NASCAR. Undeterred, Scott competed for almost a decade on the Dixie Circuit, a regional competitor to the still-growing NASCAR.

NASCAR licensed Scott to race in 1953 and he became the color’s first athletic driver. Scott was still faced with racism in sports, but most of the time he worked on his cars himself with very little outside help. Wendell Scott made another first when he won a NASCAR-approved race in Jacksonville in 1963. A “clerical mistake”, however, denied him any kind of celebration. This mistake was later reversed, but Scott was never awarded the trophy. Scott competed in 496 NASCAR events, scored 147 top 10 finishes, and raced until a fall that nearly killed him ended his career in 1973.

Wendell Scott would live until 1990 when cancer killed him. He was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2015, again marking a first for NASCAR as the first African American to be anchored in the hall.

David Steward II knows Scott’s story well. The St. Louis native is a producer who co-founded Lion Forge Animation, one of the few black-owned animation studios in America, and one that won an Oscar for the animated short film in 2020 Hair love.

Steward also has a history with NASCAR. His father David Steward is a successful entrepreneur and founder of World Wide Technology. The company sponsored Bubba Wallace in 2018 when he drove for Richard Petty Motorsports and in 2019 acquired the naming rights to Gateway Motorsports Park, now known as the World Wide Technology Raceway outside of St. Louis.

“Since we support Bubba,” said the younger steward. “It’s kind of like this, who was the first and what did he have to go through in order for Bubba to be there at all?”

Steward II researched and learned about Wendell Scott and his accomplishments. He found that no one had really told Scott’s story yet.

“I remember watching this Richard Pryor movie, Greased Lightning, which was released a few years ago,” he said. “And I was like, okay, that’s cool. (But) what is current was not really current.

In addition to being the subject of the 1977 film Greased Lightning, starring Richard Pryor, Scott inspired the character of River Scott in Disney / Pixars Cars 3, which came out in 2017.

“You know,” said Steward. “I think now is the time for people to know more about it … during that time, Jackie Robinson’s movie came out and all these things came out, about the first African American and other sports and arenas.” And stuff. “

“And I think you know what, that’s a great story too,” he said. “I kind of kept it in the back of my mind, I think I need to get in touch with the Scott family.”

At a trade fair, of all places, the plans for the Wendell-Scott project took shape shortly afterwards.

“We happened to have a booth there with one of our companies,” said Steward. “And I was sitting there and a man and his wife were talking to one of our employees and I was hearing this story about ‘My grandfather was a racing driver’ and all that stuff. And I thought to myself: ‘What, that sounds familiar to me!’

It turned out that the lord was Wendell Scott’s grandson. Soon the Scott and David Steward II family had a working relationship. And as Stewards’ firm grew from publishing to animation and other media, he told the family:

“You know, maybe there is some way you and your family can help get Wendell’s name out there; a bit more into the cultural lexicon kind of like Jackie Robinson about baseball and others. “

Soon Wendell Scott Ventures was born with plans for a documentary series and a fictionalized TV / streaming limited series that will cover topics such as family, racism, American culture and racing through the lens of his life. Steward works with the family and NASCAR.

“Wendell, he was a racing driver, but he was also an innovator and engineer as well as a racing driver,” said Steward. “Some of the stories I got from his son who was on his crew were absolutely amazing. He was also one of the first black team owners. So towards the end of his career he let other people run for him.

“What a great person,” added Steward. “I wanted to make sure everyone knew that African Americans have long had a place in NASCAR and were successful in NASCAR too.”

Steward II also has a longstanding relationship with NASCAR, and after the 2020 events began holding talks with the sanctions agency about what they could do together. An idea emerged from these conversations.

“The trophy wasn’t awarded when Wendell won his race,” said Steward. “How much that would in a way help to really make a contribution to changing the tide for NASCAR and the perceptions and things. So we all got together somehow and they agreed to do this wonderful event that we had in Daytona a few weeks ago.

At this event in late August at Daytona International Speedway on the Coke Zero 400 race weekend, the Scott family presented the trophy that Wendell never had. It came down to what Scott’s 100 would have beenNS Date of birth.

Scott’s story isn’t the first steward story about an African American driver. While Wendell Scott is known in the NASCAR Hall of Fame and the NASCAR community, another black driver made a name for himself long before Wendell Scott.

Charlie “Speed ​​King” Wiggins was born in Indiana in 1897. Wiggins raced while grappling with the racism that was prevalent at the time, including threats against him and his family from the Ku Klux Klan. White-only racing events banned, including the Indianapolis 500, Wiggins, and several other African American Colored Speedway Association drivers in 1924. The largest race in the series was the Gold and Glory Sweepstakes held on the Indiana state 1 mile field course held a carnival and one race Wiggins won four times between 1926 and 1935. Wiggins was a star long before Jackie Robinson raised the national consciousness.

Wiggins never realized his dream of racing in the Indy 500, but was hired as a mechanic for driver Bill Cummings in the Indy 500 in 1934. According to reports, due to Jim Crow Laws, Wiggins had to pose as caretaker just to get on the line. Cummings won the Indianapolis 500 in 1934. Charlie Wiggins died a little over a decade in 1973 before Will T. Ribbs became the first African American to compete in the Indianapolis 500.

Wiggins was inducted into the Detroit Automotive Hall of Fame last July. A biopic about Wiggins’ life “Extinguished“Is already in the planning phase under the direction of Ed Welburn, former General Motors

GM
Vice President of Global Design who was the senior African American in the automotive industry until he retired in 2016. Also involved are Senior Corporate Counsel of Penske Entertainment and Chief Diversity Officer Jimmie McMillian. Penske owns Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS), IndyCar, and IMS Productions. Penske will work with Firestone Tires to help with production, marketing and advertising.

David Steward II’s media company Polarity is executive producer on the film, which is expected to begin production in the spring of next year.

With the Wiggins story, David Steward II now hopes to bring the Wendell Scott to the masses. As NASCAR tries to break away from its past, recent inclusion efforts show they are all involved in telling these important stories, with Wendell staring at Scott.

“Hopefully we can get this out,” said Steward. “Hopefully we can build a bigger fan base, but hopefully get more African Americans to see racing as a potential; a goal and a career because we need more Bubba Wallaces.

“If anything, if we can do and achieve that through the work we do, I think we won.”

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