CHARLOTTE (WSLS) Danville's Wendell Scott was inducted in the NASCAR'S Hall of Fame Friday night as part of the five driver class of 2015.
He joins Joe Weatherly, Bill Elliott, Fred Lorenzen, Rex White to enter the Hall in Charlotte.
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Scott was one of the true 'trailblazers' in Nascar history. The late Nascar regular raced a car smack in the middle of an era of discrimination, and overcame it all to become a Hall of Famer. Wendell Scott remains the only African-American to win a race in NASCAR's premier division. The Danville, Virginia native was the first of his race to compete full time in the series, and the first to win at NASCAR's highest level.
Scott won more than 100 races at local area tracks in Southwest Virginia and North Carolina before winning the NASCAR Virginia Sportsman championship in 1959. He made his first start in NASCAR's top series in 1961, and in 1963 captured a win in Jacksonville-winning a 100 mile feature after starting 15th.
Over 13 years, Scott would make 495 starts, which ranks 37th on the all-time list. In his career, Scott accumulated 20 top-five finishes including eight of them in the same season he won his first career race, 1964. Scott also posted 147 top-10 finishes, more than 25 percent of the races he entered.
Scott accomplished much--with little. He worked on a shoe-string budget and faced discrimination at nearly every turn. He often served as his own mechanic and pit crew at races--getting out of his car to change his own tires, or to fix his own car. 4-Time Champion Jeff Gordon introduced Scott's induction in Charlotte Friday night.